Colour, curves and contrast: the latest in concrete

Richard Naish: I think from an architect's point of view, I can't overstate how complex getting a concrete finish is. It's easy to draw things and it's easy to have a vision in your mind or a rendering of what it's going to look like, but to actually achieve that... It's one of the few trades where we absolutely have to work with craftsmen – specialists like Ross and colourologists like Paul, because if you just think you can pour any old concrete into some moulds and you'll end up with something that looks like Tadao Ando in Japan, you'll be absolutely wasting clients' money. So it's an area that requires an enormous amount of careful research and conversation and collaboration really, with the experts.

Ross Bannan: New Zealand's getting really good at it, and there's a hell of a lot of really good competent builders and contractors out there now who are able to achieve it. Designers can design anything, but it's a matter of putting it into a 3d world, right? The last thing you want to do is have a bad house with bad finishes, and one out of 100 like that puts off 100 builders doing it. With the amount of knowledge in the industry, there are many people out there who can bring it all together now in New Zealand. I really think we're leading edge in the world at the moment. However, working with architects and designers at an early stage in the design is crucial; you need to understand the budget, the finish, and the environment – where will it be built, and which contractors will be involved.

Richard Naish: We're using it across the commercial, residential and education world. We're doing a house in Christchurch where the clients are really attracted to that very smooth off-the-formwork concrete. And we've achieved an amazing finish with it. To contrast that, for a project we finished in Parnell recently, the client wanted an incredibly rough, almost ridiculously rough, formed finish so that the concrete was leaking out between the roughsawn boards and we got an amazing lighting effect as the sun shines across at certain times of the day. And so it's really different strokes for different folks.

Paul Dwight: The environment will increasingly be a focus when it comes to concrete. From a colour perspective, in support, PeterFell oxides are made out of scrap material, so they're already fantastic for the environment. We've also recently just had all our oxides Declare labeled, too. When it comes to colour in concrete, people are getting more creative. As we advance with concrete, formworks, and in situ – all creating a wide variety of options; I don't see concrete ever going away.

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