By CUSTANCE
Greenwood Roche is a medium sized legal practice with 3 offices across the main centres of New Zealand. Their new Wellington office moved from Level 9 to 13 within the building that housed their establishing offices 12 years ago. The new space was to reflect their vibrant, tight-knit office culture, while opening up the work environment and maximising waterfront views. With the addition of staff, meeting rooms and function space as well as a transition to open plan working , the illusion of space was the primary challenge.
Despite a high density floor plate and low ceilings, a sense of height and volume is achieved by a holistic, 3-dimensional ‘carving’ of space. Sculptural forms frame the reception pod, opening up towards the view. Overhead, a white plane rakes upward, lifting into the black acoustic ceiling that connects all communal spaces. Solid walls and workstations are set back from the perimeter, increasing space and bringing exterior views in across the office.
NZIA 2020 - Wellington Architecture Awards Winner, Interior Architecture
Over 30 years Custance has become a respected and multi-award winning practice. Using our collective knowledge, experience and empathy, we have created spaces that transform people’s lives and better equip them to accommodate change.
The tools we traditionally use are strategic planning, architecture, interior design and industrial design, however we have learned to wield them in different ways. We have developed these tools to allow people and organisations to experience space that is fully human and fully alive; space to live well, to create, to innovate and to grow – to enable face to face contact in a way that digital space does not.
Clients return to us in both New Zealand and for 14 years now, Australia, where we’ve built a multi-disciplinary, trans-Tasman practice that focuses on people and their well being, not just the places we build for them. We believe in human touch and those two words hold the secret of our longevity.
Before we begin any commission, whether a home , a corporate interior, a new building, an urban master plan or a strategic vision, we begin by discovering answers to fundamental human questions. Who? What? Why? For us these come before the traditional ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ of the brief and build specifications. They help us see beyond immediate needs. They help us understand people and design spaces that have enduring value.