Description:

Cordis Auckland came with a brief for a destination bar that was to feel like a traditional kiwi pub with distinctly New Zealand elements throughout, and be at home as part of an international 5 star hotel. The menu and bar would consist of only New Zealand produce.

We set about creating an expression of antipodean wonder. Nestled in a sunken recess at the hotel entrance, and surrounded in a new lush native forest landscape, we created a base to the interior that was a deep forest green and timber tone. Detail and form is classical providing a colonial reference. Material and texture is distinctly local.

Key local features include the long Swamp Kauri bar with a natural edge and local basalt across walls and floors with a varied texture. Pounamu toned counters and table tops, basalt landscaping walls, New Zealand leathers and hand made ceramics combine for a local material palette.

Literal and kitsch elements lighten the atmosphere such as the "land of the long white cloud" sky mural and the entrance signage that releases a puff of steam periodically as a literal expression of how alive our land here in Aotearoa actually is.