The Skills Org required a site feasibility then in turn a full furniture fit out and relocation from Penrose into a new premises they were acquiring in Highbrook. Pocketspace was hired to inventory and spaceplan their current staff and accommodate for future growth and team development in their new Auckland HQ. The Skills was interesting because they were still in the ‘corner desk private cubicle’ era. So not only was our job to effectively spaceplan for this organisation it was to understand their current culture and enhance it by providing a new working environment.

The skills layout was set out in zones, those fixed and those fleet workers. The fixed included HR, Marketing, accounting etc. The Fleet workers were contractors that came in and required a hot desk to work at for a day or two. The biggest cultural improvement was at their previous office, lunch seating were provided for about 15 people because no one had lunch at the staffroom. In the new design, we had to order more café tables because everyone wanted to use the space! Given the clients ties with their Christchurch office, we sourced some rimu that had been demolished from the Christchurch Earthquake and made into two long tables which is used for collaboration, events and lunch time.

The palette for the skills was quite diverse. Their were three main zones, their for three palettes, Red, orange and green. All of them had mixes of white, grey and black. It made for a fun and energetic culture and the spaces were easy to navigate through the use of colour.