By CUSTANCE
25 years after Custance first designed their offices, legal practice Minter Ellison Rudd Watts approached us to design the full refurbishment of their Wellington offices. The brief called for a light, open modern environment with an emphasis on the client/staff interface. The client floor features an open reception and café/lounge centred around a glass enclosed stair linking to lawyer floors above and below, and opens out to expansive views of the city and harbour.
A suite of flexible meeting rooms surround the centrally located kitchen. The design is professional, clean and functional, with a warm and inviting feel based on quality design and materials.
“Throughout the process we retained an excellent working relationship with Custance. Their feel for novel design elements was excellent. Custance were able to guide us through design decisions, sometimes taking us to positions which were a little uncomfortable but all of which we are extremely proud of today, 3 years on.
Importantly, there is little of anything we would change today, which has not been this firm’s experience with other projects. We were delighted to be able to complete the project on-time and under budget while still achieving a high standard of finish that still impresses staff and clients.”
Paul Foley
Partner, Minter Ellison Rudd Watts
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.