Hardware Store
F.L. Bone's new Auckland store, located at no. 409 Manukau Rd, called for a design that would elevate the client's profile to a contemporay status while at the same time maintaining an appreciation of the traditional.
Drawing on the precedent of the F.L. Bone store in Hawkes Bay, the richness of colour and texture that characterised the earlier store became a borrowed directive within the new project. While the Auckland store offers a more limited variety of hardware than its predecessor, the aim was to retain the rich texture of the original store environment that was due to the variety of materials, shapes and surfaces of merchandise on display
Drawing on the precedent of the F.L. Bone store in Hawkes Bay, the richness of colour and texture that characterised the earlier store became a borrowed directive within the new project. While the Auckland store offers a more limited variety of hardware than its predecessor, the aim was to retain the rich texture of the original store environment that was due to the variety of materials, shapes and surfaces of merchandise on display
Curtains of light...
In keeping with the idea of rich colour and texture and the client's requirements for an environment that would best show a wide range of quality, traditional English hardware - from stoves, cookware, tiles, taps and knives to a broad range of architectural hardware, the design evolved around the primary ideas of display and contrast. Proceeding in this vein, we stripped back the interior to its original brick walls, regaining a roughness and warmth to the wall surface as a result. Against this warmth we introduced clean modern lines through sheets of translucent sand-blasted glass, which are used as screens to contain the various areas of display within the store.
In keeping with the idea of rich colour and texture and the client's requirements for an environment that would best show a wide range of quality, traditional English hardware - from stoves, cookware, tiles, taps and knives to a broad range of architectural hardware, the design evolved around the primary ideas of display and contrast. Proceeding in this vein, we stripped back the interior to its original brick walls, regaining a roughness and warmth to the wall surface as a result. Against this warmth we introduced clean modern lines through sheets of translucent sand-blasted glass, which are used as screens to contain the various areas of display within the store.
Other insertions into the space in addition to the glass screens include a curving stair and a series of architectural 'pairings'. The pairs, introduced as a means to order the space, create a conversational relationship of object and cabinet. This sense of exchange and animation is further heightened by a variation on the theme of a generic cabinet and cabinets' easy mobility, answering the client's requirements for a dynamic display configuration. A combination of golden and dark stain on a pine base was employed as an innovative, affordable means to reflect the products' English origins.
The client has received enthusiastic response for their new store from the public, with any initial concerns with the modern approach being further vindicated on their receipt of the latest Aga catalogue displays from England which employ a similar aesthetic approach
The stair, a smooth white curve contrasted against the warmth of the brick wall, provides a formal point of difference within an otherwise orthogonally ordered space.