Pink Palace by Matter Architects
Pink Palace by Matter Architects is a collection of contemporary workspaces housed within a 120-year-old building on the fringe of Auckland’s CBD.
Previously dilapidated, this humble weatherboard was at risk of being demolished. However, Matter Architects – whose own office is located next door – has transformed it into a dynamic workplace through a series of complex insertions and additions.
Given Matter Architects’ physical proximity to the project, the site and its recent history were familiar. As the practice’s director Jonathan Smith says, “over the decades, the villa has been a home, a speakeasy, a brothel and a place to find alternative highs.” Most recently, it was inhabited by a handful of students who “despite their surroundings, behaved like royalty”. This, paired with the original villa’s chalky salmon colour, resulted in the affectionate moniker Pink Palace.
From the outset, maintaining the building’s heritage identity was crucial. “As Auckland has grown, the city fringe villas – or workers’ cottages – have been consumed by the requirement for office space, leading to their extensive erosion or demolition to make way for some questionable architecture,” says Jonathan. “Rather than letting a home become obsolete within an expanding cityscape, we wanted to reuse the familiar, taking something from the past to create an innovative future.” This not only illustrates a necessitated approach to the retention of heritage architecture but ultimately pays dividends in the project’s resounding character and presence amid the streetscape.
The scope involved remedial works to the villa, a pedestal base that allows for a lower-ground level and a three-level rear extension. In plan, this extensive set of works is complex yet, pleasingly, the experience is grounded in fluidity. As Jonathan says, “the building has been created as a community of efficient and flexible offices, each with its own identity.” There is generous access to natural light; a rapport between indoor and outdoor thanks to landscaped areas and green roofs; and spirited additions such as the “hieroglyphic-like images that play with shadow and light” conceived by Matter Architects in collaboration with local artist Andrew Steel, and the suspended hammock that helps to “degrade the formality of a traditional office space”.
What is striking about this project is its luxurious, domestic-leaning sensibility. This was an intentional pursuit, says Jonathan, who describes Pink Palace’s overall spirit as one of “comfort, relaxation and homeliness, reflecting a more residential feel”. The inclusion of individual kitchens in each workspace – with Fisher & Paykel appliances – speaks directly to this lifestyle-led rationale. Utility dovetails luxury with materials like walnut and brass, while integrated Fisher & Paykel CoolDrawers and single DishDrawers heighten the kitchens’ overall functionality under a guise of refined minimalism. “We wanted these office spaces to feel very welcoming, with a residential aesthetic both in quality and feel. Fisher & Paykel was able to achieve that brief, culminating in beautiful bespoke kitchens for each tenancy throughout the building.”
A similar material palette continues throughout, with herringbone timber floors, timber battened ceilings, in-situ off-form concrete walls and stairways constructed from folded steel and mesh. There is also a gamut of historically relevant materials, including bricks, copper and bluestone, which simultaneously nod to the project’s lineage and to a sense of projected permanence.
“Observing the completed building – filled with people and their dynamic interactions – brings us a huge amount of satisfaction and it feels like a positive addition to Pink Palace’s ongoing tapestry of past, present and future,” says Jonathan.
Architecture and interior design by Matter Architects. Build by C&C Renovations. Engineering by Sullivan Hall.
