Award-winning Auckland design studio Material Creative has reinvented the space at the Naumi Hotel. Discover how you can use technology to reinvent your own creative process
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This design duo’s secret to creative success is one we can all use
Until recently, the hotel offering across Auckland had languished as limited and lacklustre – a weak point for travellers to the city. But with international operators responding to design and travel trends, the industry is finally undergoing a shift to refined, bespoke options.
Naumi Hotel, owned by Singapore’s Hind Group, is a new offering near Auckland Airport that showcases site-specific design and how that’s achieved with local talent. Multi-disciplinary design studio, Material Creative, has applied its skills in spatial design and interior architecture to the 195-room, 10,500 square metre project.
Formerly the Hotel Grand Chancellor, the hotel required an entire re-fit, from the exterior cladding and signage, through to new interior layouts and configurations. Brandso and Patience apply their story-telling philosophy to each project, and for Naumi took a treasured New Zealand native bird, the tui, as the reference point.
“It’s a bird that’s entered our national consciousness like no other,” says Patience. “They have an array of shimmering metallic greens with blue, purple and bronze accents, and their filament-like neck feathers and tufty throat complete the brilliant display. The tui’s playful, cheeky and joyful character is hinted at in all spaces, leading your eye through the hotel.”
“Your first impression – the reception, communal spaces, restaurant and bar – are made up of emerald greens, jewel-like blues and purple-magenta splashes,” says Patience. “Gold features in feathered accents from the layered leaf canvas artwork at reception, through to discs and lighting that offset the beauty of deeper colour tones. Progressing down the hallways throughout the hotel, the tones are monochromatic, with colour pops to the carpet for wayfinding. On entering the rooms, the colour and energy of the tui greets you with an uplifting palette.”
Technology is integral to helping Material Creative communicate their visual stories to clients. “The Spectre is the most versatile piece of technology we own,” says Patience. “The pen enables us to draw on screen – it’s the perfect amalgamation of hand drawing and technology,” she says.
From specs to colour tones, details can be easily changed and communicated to clients both on and offsite, which keeps decision making nimble. “It’s great on site as we can draw over the top of photos and PDFs and make whatever changes are necessary, then send them to the client for approval,” says Brandso. “It also ties us back to our roots and makes us feel more in touch with the drawing process.”
The results are impressive – the hotel’s interior palette draws on the tui’s rich gradient of colours, referenced as a gradual progression from the entry through to each individual room.
HP Spectre: Reinventing Design
Photography by: Rebekah Robinson.
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