Description:

‘Guardians’ was developed as part of our tender submission for the interior fit-out of Auckland’s Chief Post Office, a Category 1 listed heritage building and the architectural crown of Queen Street. We saw this as an opportunity to create something that not only showcased our thinking and values but also paid respect to the history and significance of the site.

As builders, we work with physical materials every day, so we chose to accompany our digital submission with something tangible. This hands-on approach felt true to who we are and reflected the level of care required when working in a heritage space of such importance.

During a site visit, we were struck by a discreet spiral staircase located at the top floor of the building. Its craftsmanship and understated presence felt symbolic, a hidden gem that quietly carried the building’s character. That moment became the conceptual anchor for our submission.

The resulting piece was expressed in two key design elements: an external laser-cut steel cover and a series of internal graphic covers. The steel cover abstracted the stair’s tread pattern into a bold black-on-white form. Internally, each graphic page rotated through a 2D plan view of a stair tread, creating a sense of movement through the document. Section numbers were placed within a central column, mimicking the staircase’s core, while section titles were inserted as name plates in the middle of the treads.

‘Guardians’ is a crafted response — part tender, part tribute. It reimagines a single architectural detail as a design language, embedding heritage into the structure and spirit of our submission.