Showcase, workspace, event space

Clean lined, wood finished and flexible, this Vidaspace showroom boasts a minimal, considered design, while the products are treated more like art pieces

Designed by Studio Pacific Architecture, for interior wood finishes company Vidaspace

From the architect:

Vidaspace wanted to achieve a world-class space that served three purposes – product showcase, workspace and event space.

The brief was to create a space that would become an asset for the Wellington A&D community along with associated trades – joinery, contractors and builders/developers – to help clients make selections on interior wood finishes.

Vidaspace wanted it to look unique to any other wood flooring showroom and have a very minimal and considered design that treated the products more like art pieces, rather than a patchwork of colours and finishes.

This meant clients could be taken through a well-thought-out selection process to achieve the right fit for every project.

Located on the Mt Victoria end of College Street, with a wide glazed shop front, we saw this as a gateway to the developing College/Jessie St precinct.

The space offered strong natural light and a highly visible outlook to traffic and pedestrians.

This was an opportunity to create a space that had a sense of welcoming and intrigue.

Flexibility on a modest budget

The challenge then was to create the flexibility to meet the Vidaspace’s requirements with a modest budget.

The brief opened the door to a feature kitchen joinery and furniture-based solution, which blends functionality, amenity and comfort within an open and airy space.

Its flexibility doesn’t overshadow its aesthetic and utilitarian presence.

A fully functional and display kitchen embedded into a feature joinery spine creates a luxurious apartment-like feel, while showcasing Vidaspace’s product in real-world terms enabling clients to view, imagine, and design their own dream environments.

Using the kitchen joinery as the primary spatial mechanism allowed us to explore a variety of materials and design treatments.

We featured Winter Larch as our hero material.

Its brushed matte finish and raised grain along with a striking colourway became the warm heart of the fit-out.

The strong, functional kitchen wall cabinetry is articulated with minimal detailing, integrated appliances, and soft curves to further highlight the larch and enhance spatial and visual flow.

Contrasting this is the cooler human-made aesthetic of textural stone and soaped galvanised steel on the central island.

A central hub in the gather space, its hard wearing materials, soft raking curves, vast storage capacity and elegant proportions function perfectly for a variety of scenarios ranging from a large catered gathering to a quite coffee with a client.