Description:

The new Centralines depot in Waipukurau, Central Hawke’s Bay, is designed to emphasise Centralines’ sustainability journey and connection with the community. By creating spaces for community events, and supporting the social and economic development of the Central Hawke’s Bay community, the depot reflects Centralines’ core values and community-centric approach.

The installations at the new Centralines depot are a representation of the company’s core values. Working alongside local carver, Conrad Nepe Apatu, this project aimed to reflect the Centralines story and its important place in the region.

The concept for this project was based on four key values: whānau, teamwork, skill, and relationship with the Central Hawke’s Bay community. It builds upon these themes and creates an integrated set of carvings and installations for the Centralines headquarters.

The carving work consists of four toko (vertical pillars) and a pare/tāhuhu (horizontal beam over the doorways).

The word ‘toko’ relates to the word ‘tautoko’: to support. Each toko consists of unique carvings representing one of four values: ‘Protection’, ‘Providing/Provision’, ‘Problem solving’, and ‘Prosperity.’

The pare/tāhuhu carving includes the pare (carved figure) and the tāhuhu (backbone). They reflect the values of co-operation, support, teamwork, and collaboration.

Elements relating to Centralines’ work can be seen throughout: for example, the sun and moon represent working all hours, the elements of wind and water, and transmission towers can be seen in the tāhuhu.

We workshopped the values with the Centralines team and then Conrad sketched the designs. Our design team then digitised these using CAD software, and our fabricators began the process of test cuts with plywood.

Once we had the designs ready for fabrication, we selected a set of stains to create the colour variations that would work within the corporate foyer of the new Centralines office and depot buildings.