Shining addition to Cathedral Square

Designed by Sheppard & Rout Architects

From the architects:

The new Spark building is positioned on one of the most prominent central sites in Christchurch facing Hereford Street, Colombo Street and Cathedral Square. 

It is the regional headquarters for New Zealand’s leading telecommunications company who have taken advantage of this site to promote the importance of their business to Christchurch and New Zealand.

Spark was forced to relocate its workforce to the suburbs of Christchurch after the earthquake like many other businesses. 

The central city became a deserted wasteland devoid of activity and tenants immediately after the quake but that has now changed with large companies like Spark committing to Christchurch and moving back into the CBD. 

This building is designed to re-centralise 500 Spark staff in one central location helping to enliven Cathedral Square and enrich the urban experience in this area. 

 It is designed to be a landmark building which evokes the hi tech, creative, forward thinking aspirations of the company. The external form is a crystalline, facetted form with layers of fritted glass hovering over a ground floor generous retail with high ceilings. 

The fritting pattern on the exterior is a ghostly pixelated image of the slate roof pattern of the Christchurch Cathedral roof directly opposite. This links the building to its place, history and context but reinterpreted in a contemporary manner of floating ephemeral digital-like data. A highly appropriate reference to the core business of Spark.

These multiple layers of glass provide a shimmering, contemporary feel with real depth and richness. As you move around the building the effects of parallax and Moire evoke the ever shifting and moving streams of today’s virtual communications.

 The main entry into the building is via a 4-storey generous atrium space accessible from Cathedral Square or Hereford Street. The atrium is a dynamic space with sweeping curving lines flying through space culminating in a dramatic whirlpool of a feature spiral stair that descends down to ground.

The lines also evoke the dynamic movement, sharing and collaboration of information that is the heart of the business of today’s telecommunications industry. 

This public atrium is intersected at right angles by a more private atrium, social stair and terraced seating area for Spark that starts from the first floor. With a good visual relationship between the two spaces it connects the Spark office environment above with the public world below.

On the rooftop of the building a stunning hospitality space is provided. In a great location with views down to Cathedral Square to the north, Colombo Street to the west and Hereford Street to the south, it also allows magnificent panoramic distant views across the rooftops of Christchurch to the Southern Alps around to the Port Hills beyond. 

This rooftop hospitality area has a large outdoor terrace oriented to the sunny northwest and is sheltered from prevailing winds behind tall walls of glass. This is one of the first rooftop hospitality tenancies to be built in Christchurch.

The whole building is designed to be highly sustainable aiming to achieve a 5-star green rating. 

It is a base isolated low damage design over a basement carpark making it one of the safest office buildings in Christchurch. It has a generous loading and back of house area for rubbish, recycling and deliveries. 

The facetted double skin façade also provides an excellent environmental buffer to the building whilst still allowing good daylighting in and excellent views out.

Overall the new Spark building is one of the most prominent, high quality office and retail complexes constructed in Christchurch. 

Pushing the boundaries with creative sustainability features, innovative seismic engineering and international best practice urban design principles.

Story by: Trendsideas

Photography by: Dennis Radermacher, LightForge