Spark Headquarters

What was Spark looking to achieve with
its new workspace?

Spark wanted to bring everyone together into one space, having previously worked within four different buildings. A lot of thought went into making the areas more functional across the six levels, offering a range of meeting rooms with tech upgrades for plug and play, as well as quiet rooms and gathering spaces. We collaborated with Athena Blue Global and Whare Timu
on the workplace fitout strategy and cultural narrative, respectively.

Tell us about the cultural narrative and how
Cachet translated it within the design.

Spark is all about connecting people, not only as a telco but also with regard to its employees, teams and ‘neighbourhoods’. The te ao Māori concept of the three kete or baskets worked beautifully to bind everyone together – on the lower levels is te kete tuatea (the basket of encounter), in the middle is te kete aronui (the basket of humanities) and at the top is te kete tuauri (the basket of sacred knowledge).

Fabrics featured in the Hero image: Carrick Fossil and Felix Rust

How did you differentiate one floor
from another?

The six floors were split into the three baskets and a specific pattern was created based on each of the floors. Levels one and two featured the kaitaka pattern in the arrival spaces and meeting rooms, levels three and four featured the niho taniwha pattern throughout the meeting spaces and feature staircase and, lastly, the takarangi appeared on levels five and six.

In addition to the patterns, each floor also had a coloured theme which assisted in visual wayfinding for the employees. We used colourways for way finding through the zones, as we transition from terrestrial to celestial.

We started with neutrals, then moved to earthy red tones representing the earth’s core and lava, to blue rivers and oceans, terracotta sunrise and dawn, green forests and finally light blue and grey sky,
clouds and space.

Tell us about your choice of fabrics.

We selected a variety of Warwick Fabrics, including Maclaren, Copeland, Balmain and Brooklyn.

Not only are the textures beautiful but, also, they offer a large selection of colours. This worked perfectly for us because we wanted to keep the same fabric throughout the project but we needed six colourways of that fabric to tie in with the colour transitions, moving up through the levels from earth to sky.

Warwick had the right colours and tones, together with the right commercial durability, which made these fabrics the perfect choice.