Amongst the barefoot holiday goers and laid-back shops of Mount Maunganui, is an industrial quarter. An area that caters for the marine industry, prominent by way of the surrounding beaches and coastline. This project houses one such marine company, and their expanding team required the reinvention of their workplace. 

Located in an industrial style building (double height roller door and all), the workplace is part office, part boat store, and part workshop. The space provides a land-based vessel for processing their work; the mapping of underwater terrain, its depth and shape, and the tides and currents that flow over it. Taking cues from the oceanic work and the company’s statement that ‘everything becomes clear’, the alteration seeks to unravel the existing array of small spaces and to strip back the layers of visual noise. 

Through removing everything that was, a clean slate is provided, thoughtfully built up again with only that which is necessary. Spatially, the layout is simple. The ground level is equipped for boat and equipment storage, as well as social spaces, whilst the lofty mezzanine provides the much-needed space for work and collaboration.   

The palette is refined, yet hardwearing and suited to the industrial nature of the work. Black steel stairs provide access and demarcation to the spaces. While dark timber joinery and a fully wrapped stainless steel island are the center piece of the social space. The resultant atmosphere is the culmination of traditional marine knowledge, strikingly modern technology and a young company that fits perfectly into their laid-back, coastal surrounds.