After master planning and designing the innovative Boxed Quarter in central Ōtautahi, Field Studio created our dream office.

“On the upper level of the western courtyard building in Boxed Quarter, up the stairs and across one of the bridges”. It is a bit hard to explain for first time visitors, but it’s the perfect spot for our office. The location comes with a great urban village feel, with plenty of interesting people, good food and shops in Boxed Quarter and the wider Salt District.

Views abound, into a leafy courtyard on one side and a laneway on the other, across to our various neighbours and with open views up to the sky. It has two decks, a long balcony all along the front and gets great light. 

Boxus frame
Fitting an office into a single five-bay Boxus frame (14.1 x 2.9m), the slender space needed some good design and fabrication to make it work well. With douglas fir ceilings and floor, glazing with timber trim, plain white walls and black steel frames, we had a nice material palette to work with.

Good materials and great people
We’re lucky to know excellent craftspeople and product suppliers who helped us out. We ordered the biggest single piece of laminated veneer lumber (LVL) we could from Nelson Pine, who cut it up for us ready to use in various elements of our office space. Added to this was birch ply from Plymasters, all fabricated and installed by Rikki from Berger Custom. Steel work was completed by Louis and the team from Slade Engineering, Paul Stanley-Boden glued the furniture linoleum, and Ant from Sherwood Works finished up the joinery. 

Two rooms around two tables
The studio revolves around two custom tables. One is a large standing meeting desk, big enough to share things around with our team, whether it’s thoughts, designs or food. Built with steel and recycled rimu, it has a shelf underneath to hold drawings and design paraphernalia.

The hard work happens at our 6m long central table made from a single piece of LVL, with furniture linoleum as the top finish. Holding this up are plywood storage units with cupboards and steel drawers for project files. Workstations are staggered along both sides so we can easily collaborate and ask questions as we work.

Separating these two tables and spaces is our utilities unit. On one side is the kitchenette, with bench, dishwasher and cabinetry. The other side holds our printer, samples, library, stationery supplies and general office work utilities. Speakers built into both sides mean the unit doubles as a boom box. 

Setting sail
Our office is a pleasant, warm space to work in, with crafted furniture and a fit out that is functional and handsome but not fussy or precious. It’s a lean and efficient use of a small space where we work together closely as a team. It feels a bit like being on a boat, in a nice way. 

Field Studio core project team: Andrew Just, Jonny Knopp, Tom Davies
Furniture fabrication and office install: Berger Custom
Joinery: Sherwood Works
Steel fabrication: Slade Engineering
Marmoleum install: Paul Stanley-Boden
Electrical fitout: Melray Electric 
Plumbing: Phill Golding
Marmoleum supplier: Inzide Commercial
LVL supplier: Nelson Pine
Plywood supplier: Plymaster
Stainless steel supplier: Mercer
Joinery hardware supplier: Blum
Plumbing fixtures: Methven
Photography: Dennis Radermacher