2. “Interpreting Icebreaker’s functional brief was only part of the story.
The real challenge was deciphering the essence of the brand and
culture and producing a design which brought this to life within
the space.
Icebreaker came with a wonderfully powerful message
– that adventures in nature help to strengthen our subliminal bonds
with nature, as well as between ourselves and others. This message
is boiled down to ‘born in nature, worn in nature’ and that’s the
key driver for the concept.”
Project Design Director
3. Of particular importance to the project was the realisation of
rammed earth walls built with local soils.
Working closely with BioBuild we quickly identified that the
soil around Ponsonby’s McKelvie Street wouldn’t give us the
certification we wanted - after all we were hand-picking how
the final patterning would look.
Following some research, we ended up going to a quarry site
in Muriwai, and after various trials ‘settled’ on the certification
pattern you can see pictured.
With the aesthetic decided, the next major challenge came
in carting the soil up to Icebreaker’s third-storey offices.
The subcontractor persuaded a local football team to lift the
many cubic metres of soil up the three flights of stairs as a
fundraiser.
Placing such an immense weight three storeys up in the air
was a first for our rammed-earth subcontractor, the structural
engineer and ourselves; calling for some innovative detailing
and testing. Eventually, we arrived at a 90mm thick rammed
earth veneer structurally tied back and braced to a timber
framed substructure.
The result is a wonderful, high performing, tactile, calming,
material, adding a texture and depth throughout the fit-out.
We wanted the concept
of connection to nature
to be about the sensory
experience of real tactile
natural materials, not
graphic images and
representations. So
instead of a pallette of
tussock and schist we
focussed on natural local
vernacular materials.
4. 1 WELCOME
The threshold to Icebreaker’s Global Headquarters, encased
by the building’s galvanised structural steel frame, is a portal.
Spanning the building’s central lightwell, a living, growing
green bridge manifests Icebreaker’s core value: its sense of
adventure. As their products are the antidote to the urbane
lifestyle, the sensory, rattling walkway is a nod to the DOC
boardwalks and suspension bridges throughout New Zealand.
2 MAKE YOURSELF COMFORTABLE
Consciously void of a traditional reception area, visitors are
immediately immersed into the ‘honeypot’ – Icebreaker’s
communal, social hub. A green and warm space, with views
over Ponsonby Road, the area incorporates breakfast-bar
interaction, soft-furnished bench seating and informal large
meeting spaces, in a café environment. The space offers a
glimpse into the camaraderie encouraged by the Icebreaker
culture.
3 WORN IN NATURE
Entering the Worn in Nature side, external visitors are met with
five opportunities to interact with the brand’s five key markets,
through the highly-stylised client-facing meeting rooms’
designs. The Adventure Travel, Yoga, Hunting Fishing,
Alpine and Trail meeting rooms are defined by an eclectic
collection of authentic pre-loved and found objects – either
donated by Icebreaker staff or sourced by the scouting design
and client team scouring the country’s op shops and antique
stores on road-trips from Northcote to Paeroa.
4 BORN IN NATURE
Transitioning to the Born in Nature side, the half of the
floorplate dedicated to the ‘preconsumer’ user of the space,
the design focuses on the origins of the wool and the
production side of the Icebreaker business. Immortalising the
families and farmers who supply the brand’s factory-lines,
Icebreaker’s iconic southland shearing stations and farms,
New Zealand’s numerous adventure playgrounds, and the
staff, who live and breathe the brand. The design incorporates
framed photographs of these families and iconic rescued items
from Icebreaker’s former headquarters in Wellington.
Pitched shed-form meeting rooms, clad in weatherboard
timber, individual meeting rooms and large open plan
workplace stations create a diverse working environment for
Icebreaker’s staff.
THE JOURNEY
1
2
3
4
5. EA
SHOWERS
2.02
CHAT
2.15
SMALL
MEETING
2.14
NZAU
STORE
2.17
CREATIVE
SERVICES STORE
2.18
COMMS ROOM
2.19
IT BUILD
2.20
CASUAL
MEETING
2.12
MEDIUM
MEETING
2.11
BOARD
ROOM
2.10
MEDIUM
MEETING
2.09
LOUNGE MEETING /
LIBRARY
2.08
LOUNGE / OPEN
MEETING
2.16
Layout bench
PantryFF
Courier drop
Utility / StorePantry / Fridges
Retail display
feature wall
OPEN
MEETING
magneticwall
Magnetic display
boards behind
Brand Story - Born /
Worn (Graphic wall)
Tube Map (Graphic wall)
Prototyping / Graphic wall
Graphic
wall
Coffee
Prototyping wall
Customizableblackboard/Graphicwall
Organic rug
F F
Organic rug
library
Artifactwall
'follow me'
LED light trail
(colour to match
Icebreaker orange)
Lounge seating
LED TV
o/head shelving
Suspended
ceiling above
Suspended ceiling above
Organic rug
retail display
HIVE
2.04
PANTRY / UTILITY
2.07
'THE HONEYPOT'
2.06
LED TV
LED TV
PRINT/UTILITY
2.05
PRINT/
UTILITY
2.03
OPEN MEETING
2.13
PHOTOSHOOT /
PROTOTYPING
SPACE
RETAIL / CRIT
SPACE
Kitchen
magnetic wall
STAIR 2
CHATBOOTHS
DECK 1
DECK 2
MALE W/C
ACC W/C
FEMALE W/C
W/C
LOBBY
VOID 1 VOID 2
STAIR 3
RISER 1
LIFT 2
LIFT 1
ELEC.
GREENBRIDGE
CustomizableGraphicwall
LIFT LOBBY
2.01
HOT DESKS
TBC?
ICEBREAKER / CONCEPT DESIGN
AUGUST 2014 / REVISION D 15
Planting
Planting
Out of scope
SCALE 1:200@ A3
0 5 10 20m 1:200Proposed Planting Plan
Continuing the concept
of connection to nature,
we brought the adventure
landscape into social areas
around the workplace.
Working closely with GreenAir, a plantscape specialist, we
selected specific plant species which would be conducive
to thriving in a sheltered envrionment, would be of relatively
low maintenance, and would mimic the native New Zealand
landscape.
“Nature is inside the office,
with hanging plants
inspiring our people as
they go about their day.”
Icebreaker’s Blog
6. Worn in Nature -
External Meeting Rooms
“We woke the Icebreaker project team up at 5am to come
on a road trip with us. We’d phoned ahead to op-shops and
antique stores in Paeroa, asking them to open early for us...
At one point during these trips, we’d packed a hatchback
so full, that there was an antler sticking out the rearside
passenger window.”
These external-facing meeting rooms are designed to
interpret Icebreaker’s five key markets: Adventure Travel,
Yoga, Alpine, Trail Running and Hunting Fishing. The
hard and soft fitouts of each space provide a tactile and real
connection to the activity they represent:
Adventure Travel -
Designed to express the essence of a well travelled
collector’s study containing all manner of artifacts that we
sourced from around the country, such as a vintage collection
of National Geographics and World Books, a globe and
vintage camera from and founder Jeremy Moon’s personal
travel cases.
Yoga -
Designed to suggest a contemplative studio space, the walls
are lined with soft fabrics, the meeting table is paired with
cushioned ottomans, and a watchful Buddha, re-homed from
the Wellington office.
Alpine -
Designed with a vaulted, perforated macrocarpa ceiling
reminiscent of a university ski club, the Alpine room rehouses
vintage skis and apparel donated by Icebreaker employees.
Locally designed chairs are upholstered in a quilted fabric,
suggestive of après ski wear.
Trail Running -
Designed to imbue a sense of running under a tree canopy,
the ceiling’s custom perforated leaf detail dapples light to
mimic diffuse sunlight. A loose gravel and boardwalk feature
references DOC trails.
Hunting Fishing -
The Hunting Fishing room incorporates panelled walls and
ceilings, a stag head, pelts and Chesterfield tub chairs to
reference a traditional hunter’s lodge.
7. Born in Nature -
Internal Meeting Rooms
Designing a Born in Nature ‘side’ of the office gave us the
opporunity to acknowledge the origins of the wool; from the
shearing sheds to the farmers and families that own them.
Icebreaker supplied us with images of their suppliers busy
at work on their farms, in their shearing sheds, or of their
staff visiting the farmers’ homes. Taking inspiration from the
pitched roof of a traditional shearing shed, we introduced
these forms into the open plan workplace, creating the
Shearing Shed and Shearers’ Quarters meeting rooms.
The various objects within the meeting rooms are authentic
salvaged items which have been relocated from their former
Wellington home; the shears, bundle of wool and framed
photographs have all been rescued and relocated in to this
new home.
“Our meeting rooms
are a reminder of
where we come from.”
Icebreaker’s Blog
