Following on from our fitout for Trade Me in Wellington, the Auckland office presented an exciting opportunity to extend our design philosophy and reinterpret it to suit the site and the sensibilities of a different context. Overall the environment was again to be simple, flexible, informal, and fun, but in a slightly more restrained manner.

Trade Me Auckland had relocated their offices into a building which had previously been converted by HMA in 2001 for other clients. For both the historic and contemporary fitouts we drew strongly on the original warehouse use of the building and used the central atrium to connect the various spaces in the building together.

A connecting theme between the fitout of both Trade Me offices is that of bringing the outdoors, indoors and evoking a sense of ‘New Zealandness’ through a collection of objects, materials, textures, and finishes combined in a legible, cohesive whole. We evoked this in Wellington through a caravan breakout space and astro turf meeting room floors; in Auckland green walls composed of living plants add dynamic colour and large format abstract decal images enliven the open areas which lack an external outlook. Timber wall and ceiling panels provide warmth and texture, and a variety of acoustic wall treatments in open plan areas and meeting rooms provide texture and splashes of colour.

The central atrium is treated as an outdoor space with the three dimensional volume above inhabited with playful coloured lights hung at regular intervals. The abundant natural light from this central volume lends a sense of lightness and openness to the office environment adding to the feel of a lush tropical glasshouse.