Judge's comments:

What a clever project. The result is striking and the project is really impressive. Each element has been nested in another, which in turn is nested in another. The building has a narrative that is evolving but is held together by the purpose and principles of the whole project. Exciting times.
This project is thorough in its approach to meaningful social good and demonstrates a level of ingenuity and commitment to upcycling that we should all be challenged and inspired by.

Description:

Brief Detail:

Recreate an office space by radically reducing waste through salvage and reuse; design for disassembly and spatial evolution; and create a flexible playpen for a diversity of use modes.

Sustainable Vision:

Taking a 700sm inner city office with 27 outdated rooms, we took the space back to its bones whilst carefully salvaging over 80% of all materials, which we spread throughout the city - glass turned into fish tanks, lights into tiny homes, and carpet tiles installed in the Naenae pub. Many materials also stayed - all electrical wiring remained was re-used, sprinkler pipes turned into shelving, and all salvaged framing timber and doors provided materials for our furniture. Of the new, gripdeck pre-finished ply wall lining were screw-fixed to plan for disassembly. major walls are made from circular economy X-Frame - our collaboration with Ged leading to their first consented project in the country, and resulting in an ongoing partnership developing office furniture.

Sourcing things for the space second hand, along with giving lots of things away in construction, connected two/fiftyseven to the community and allowed them to share their story long before they opened.

All this allowed two/fiftyseven to become Aotearoa’s first certified Climate Positive coworking and events space - which they’re pretty stoked about.

Result:

The space is currently used by over 70 organisations with 150 members, with its modular and transformable approach providing space for workshops, conferences, arts markets, live gigs, art exhibitions, dance classes, and a pop up restaurant within its first year of operation.

Impressions: (what two/fiftyseven is to the people who use it)

“two/fiftyseven is more than an office or place of work”
“two/fiftyseven is a place to share, spark or inspire”
“two/fiftyseven is delightful”
“two/fiftyseven is a welcoming space”
“two/fiftyseven is designed for mutual thriving”