282 Wakefield
Wellington
This space is located on the first floor of an existing building in Wellington. The heritage of the building is evident in its materials and design, and is comprised of 2 neighbouring buildings although to look at it from the street it appears as one. The brief was to turn an existing dark and poorly laid out series of spaces into two tenancies, one commercial, and one which could be residential.
The building is near the waterfront, erected on land that was drained in the very early 1900s, and completed in 1906 for Luke and Co, shipbuilders and engineers. The building was a warehouse, and has windows of generous proportion. Once the existing aggregated partition walls from numerous alterations were removed the beauty of the light to the interior was revealed.
The brief was to celebrate the space inside and the materials wherever possible. The building has been earthquake strengthened and has a lightweight structure on top providing contemporary residential units. The approach was to provide as few internal walls as possible, making the most of the large spaces and the light.
This project was tricky from a regulatory perspective where fire, accessibility and heritage needed to be navigated in order to allow for the change of use in a coherent way that did not overcomplicate the project. The project needed to be built in a working building, on a busy footpath on an even busier road, with minimal disruption.
The two spaces are both currently let as commercial tenancies providing calm, light-filled interiors with flexible furniture options. They are a tribute to the tenacity of a determined and wonderful client, and a collaborative project team.
Photography by André Vroon
















