The new Hawkes Bay premises of David Trubridge is a multi-functional space that embodies the designer’s philosophy.
November 10th, 2011
David Trubridge and his team recently set up shop in a self-designed new workspace and showroom in New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay.
Trubridge
The studio creates an important public interface – a large, functional space for Trubridge to showcase all his pieces, and an accommodating place for visitors.
“We have never had a public face before,” Trubridge says. “Until now there has never been anywhere to see everything that we do. This includes our normal stock lights and our large feature lights like the Wing and Clouds, along with furniture, woodblock prints, landscape photographs, rugs, fabrics, and small accessories like boxes and bowls.
“The space allows us to launch new large pieces, like our Sunrise Sofa or Baskets of Knowledge, that shops are reluctant to take. Seeing our display has inspired some retailers to go back and do more with their own spaces!”
A focal point of the showroom is a large timber staircase – initially met with some resistance, the end result is striking.
“It is slightly unusual,” Trubridge says, “being made from a sort of giant plywood of solid timber, and I have left all the ends underneath at random lengths to emphasise this.
“We had a battle with engineers but finally convinced them to allow us to build it to prove its structural integrity. I knew it would work, but its structure could not be calculated. Similarly, the steel panels we have fastened to the exterior of the showroom have caused some interest. They are derived from the same pencil doodles in my workbook that we used for the graphics on our packaging of the kitset lights. As the cardboard box contains the kitset, so the building contains our whole operation.”
Efficiency was a key goal of the design – the space needed to be sustainable, as well as comfortable and pleasant, all created within a tight budget.
“It is the first timber framed commercial building in Hawkes Bay – the long-run ply roof beams (LVL) give it a much warmer, softer feeling, and of course wood is carbon positive, unlike steel or concrete, which have very high embedded energy,” Trubridge explains.
“The workroom has underfloor heating with lots of natural lighting and ventilation. We buy 100% renewable electricity. It is actually quite rare to find a design studio, showroom and manufacturing all in the same place!”
Trubridge hopes to develop and extend the use of his new space further as time goes on, experimenting with new concepts and hosting events and workshops.
David Trubridge
davidtrubridge.com
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
Natural forms meet technological sophistication to produce GH Commercial’s Pattern Perfect® Native Collection of carpets. Step inside the factory to see how local flavours inform the design.
Living Edge definitely has the edge when it comes to supplying furniture for the education sector. With a plethora of brands and collections at their fingertips, Living Edge provides the perfect solution for any learning environment.
Australia’s leading producer of solid-engineered oak flooring has recently launched a new suite of innovative resources to support creativity and ambition in the architecture and design community.
Bidding farewell to mundane and uninspired office spaces, colour has transformed our workplaces into layered and engaging environments. So we sit down with Karina Simpson, Hot Black’s Workplace Lead, to talk about the influence colour has on the workspace landscape through the prism of Herman Miller’s progressive colour philosophy.
In this edition of the Indesign Edit, Milliken creates a new generation of contemporary commercial flooring solutions with their new collection, Hospitality: Modular Landscapes.
Stylecraft are very excited to announce their new Managing Director in Singapore, Louise Courtice, who took time out of her busy schedule to answer some questions for us on her exciting new role!
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
In Vancouver, Canada, Alera Skin Care’s new headquarters brings together office, event space, showroom and warehouse. This is a workplace that cuts across the usual typological boundaries.
With an in-house design team, Tappeti has been designing custom textiles since 2006. More recently, it has partnered with Indigenous artists to create a new product range. We meet the individuals – and preview the event where designers can meet them in person.
As part of this year’s Sydney Festival, a major public artwork by Brenda L. Croft is unveiled along the Barangaroo waterfront. At once thoughtful and bold, ‘Naabami (thou shall/will see): Barangaroo (army of me)’ highlights First Nations women and girls.