Design
In the zone
by Douglas Lloyd Jenkins
Local design is gaining a foothold in public consciousness.
Over the past year almost every shopping centre in New Zealand seems to have gained one of those little décor shops selling imported knick-knacks. In some smaller shopping streets, local dairies have been replaced by shops selling candles, expensive linens and sushi dishes.
More shops are showcasing local design. Indeed, contemporary New Zealand design is getting such a foothold in the Kiwi consciousness that a new generation of design stores is beginning to appear in provincial centres such as Napier and Gisborne – in a form that is, in many respects, more exciting than some of the big city retailers that they initially set out to emulate.
Mia is a large double shop in Napier’s Hastings St that presents itself as “your community store and gallery”. Its interior spaces are big, breezy and spacious enough to accommodate the occasional large-scale artwork. The selection of objects is personal and eclectic. Mia sells both New Zealand-designed furniture and homeware, while at the same time providing a Hawke’s Bay outlet for fashion labels like Miranda Brown, Zambesi and World. The result is something of a one-stop shop for those interested in the best of New Zealand design.
Further up the coast in Gisborne the design space at 66 Customhouse Quay doesn’t seem to have an actual name – most people know it as the “Gallery of Wine”. That’s because until a year ago the space was used for wine storage. Furniture designer Sally Shanks liked the building and, seeing that the wine company had more space than they knew what to do with, convinced them to let her take over some of it.
Shanks uses the space to show her own furniture, marketed under the name Staple, but when she opened she also approached leading New Zealand furniture designers Katy Wallace, David Trubridge and Bob McDonald and asked to stock their work. It turned out to be more of a negotiation than she thought – “I was interviewed by them.” She had to convince would-be suppliers that her idea for a quality design space would not cave in to pressure to show poorer-quality work just to turn a profit.
The designers need not have worried. Shanks has maintained her vision even when it has meant turning away some local craftspeople. Not that there is a disconnection between the new space and the Gisborne community. Staple uses local firms to make the work they sell (which has travelled to trade shows in New York and Paris). Sarah Spence, a local maker, is represented with her Situ chair and the jeweller Helena Andersson and the fashion designer Julie Puddick (Rubie’s Design) both work from workshops within the space.
Both Mia and Staple look a lot like similar spaces that have appeared in Auckland and elsewhere, although they are noticeably bigger. “This is possible here,” says Shanks, “because rents are minimal.” Yet the risk is that these places can look a little too like those spaces – showing the same designers and craftspeople. The addition of new younger regional designers – furniture designer David Moreland at Mia, for example – provides the necessary sense of discovery for the out-of-towner and balances the needs of local and visitor audiences.
In Gisborne, Staple has become an essential part of a new zone – one that points to how Gisborne might be. Over the years many buildings that might have provided a textured sense of an established and flourishing city have been demolished. Gisborne has lost every-thing from its excellent opera house to a charming Williams and Kettle office that still looms large in the memory of locals.
When a city connects the notion of demolition with that of progress, there is usually a part of town that is neglected, remains intact, gets rediscovered and then leads the urban revival as a “character zone”. This is exactly what has happened in Gisborne’s Customhouse Quay, where the accountants Bain & Shep-pard occupy a smart Victorian building painted in sober shades of green. The office of Labour MP Parekura Horomia is in the local Trade & Labour Hall. New Maori business is represented by Ngaru Toa Tribal Surf, and Allen Trading hangs its sign from the unpainted concrete facade of an excellent Edwardian baroque building. There are already two cafés in the area and a third is said to be opening soon. Even the old Poverty Bay Club has been reborn as a restaurant, bar and events centre.
The Customhouse Quay precinct has grown naturally, thanks to the efforts a group of Gisbornites whose vision of their city’s future differs from the bulk stores and supermarkets going up in other parts of town. Customhouse Quay is work in progress, however, a very small and somewhat fragile idea.
You also might want to make that trip soon. In keeping with the persistent idea that progress is linked to new development, planning permission has been granted for a new super-sized Warehouse development on land right next to the new zone – a development whose size and carparking requirements will threaten the shape and character of Gisborne’s new zone.
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