‘I just fell in love with it. It was so beautiful’
The artist who renovated this colourful inner-city apartment felt an instant connection to an art deco-era building that had been a famous department store. Words by Karen Burge, photographs by Jane Ussher.
The artist who renovated this apartment in the former George Court’s department store building on Auckland’s Karangahape Rd was drawn to the diversity and urban energy of the inner-city area. But she also felt an instant connection to the art deco-era building.
‘‘As soon as I walked into the building I just fell in love with it. It was so beautiful, and I loved its history as a department store.’’
The building was converted to residential living in 1993, with the high-stud, timber-floored apartment spaces sold as bare shells, allowing owners to complete their own fit-outs. The result is a building full of unique dwellings.
The transformation of this particular apartment began just days after the new owner took possession. A glass end wall was rebuilt and double-glazed, the kitchen replaced, the bathroom refitted, a fireplace installed, the whole apartment repainted, the floor strengthened to take tiles and the outdoor area redesigned.
One of the boldest decisions was to lay a floor of black and white chequerboard tiles. The owner was born in the Netherlands and the floor was just like one she remembered in her Dutch grandmother’s home. She had pictures of interiors and scribbled notes she’d been gathering for years, so she knew exactly the look she would create. The result is a very chic and personal space, perfect for creating her intricate hand-stitched quilts, beadwork, jewellery and handmade boxes.
Her favourite colours, purple and minty-green, are picked up throughout the apartment, most strikingly in the kitchen and the opulent bathroom, where she used grid paper and felt pens to design mosaic-tiled walls that give the sense of raindrops falling in a night sky. The spaces are adaptable, to make the most of the compact apartment. The workroom has sliding walls that open to the living area, but when guests are staying she can close the area off as a spare room.
Through the seasons, the apartment is a lovely place to be – it’s cosy in front of the fire in winter, and in summer the roof terrace comes into its own. ‘‘And I hardly notice the background hum of the motorway; it gives me a feeling of life going on around.’’
and services in the international marketplace’’.
Twenty years later, that image is eroding, and when younger generations ask for proof, we will not always be in a position to provide it.
For New Zealand to maintain our global perception as a leader in sustainable business, we need to take action. Businesses need to approach sustainability holistically – including their social and environmental impact and the effects of their business on community, supply chain, employees, consumers and their governance model. We need to make hard calls now that will pay off later: measuring carbon emissions and taking action to reduce them; removing singleuse plastic and decreasing packaging; working with suppliers to reduce upstream social and environmental impacts; understanding the role that businesses play in the communities they operate in; and acknowledging employees as stakeholders by bringing them to the table in key decision-making.
Businesses that can show transparency and honesty in their social and environmental action will come out on top as the younger generation gain spending power. Honesty can seem risky to businesses as greenwashing is increasingly called out by consumers, but the good news is that no company has this 100% right. Consumers value genuine efforts to do better when they are communicated honestly, and there’s a commitment to ongoing improvement.
There are businesses in New Zealand that are poised to succeed from these shifting trends. In particular we will see the rise of Ma¯ ori-owned and led businesses, which often integrate care for people and planet across their operations in a way that goes far beyond Western ideas of sustainability.
Awhi, a Whanganui-based and iwi-owned agribusiness, is one example. Their tagline, ‘‘looking after nature so nature looks after us’’, comes with statistics: 511 hectares of native bush fenced, 5.7km of fencing to keep stock out of waterways, a single annual honey harvest to maintain the health of bees and honey that is traceable to specific native forests.
A second example is Wakatu¯ Incorporation, which owns multiple brands including Kono, Annie’s Fruit Straps, Tohu Wines and Hop Federation. Wakatu¯ Incorporation recently wrote a 500-year plan – mapping out what they want their community, Te Tauihu, to look like in 500 years’ time, with the voices of rangatahi, iwi, elders, councillors and the public at the table.
The vision is Tu¯ puna Pono: to be good ancestors: ‘‘our vision recognises what is important to the generations of Te Tauihu – balance and regeneration, leaving a legacy that we can be proud of and contributing to a higher purpose beyond ourselves.’’
Importantly the leaders of both organisations recognise that their businesses are on a journey and that taking action today is the most important first step.
These narratives will shine on the world stage when they are surrounded by claims like ‘‘clean and green’’ that increasingly mean nothing to consumers. Today’s 12- to 25-year-olds, Gen Z, will have more spending power by 2030 than Millennials, the generation above them. That is only seven years away. They are looking for values-led businesses that are acting with people and planet in mind and demanding that businesses act honestly and with integrity.
Aotearoa can gain value from meeting these demands, but that will not happen by resting on an eroding green image. We have an opportunity to measure impact, to share our unique stories of people and place to become a global leader in sustainable business. The time to act is now.
Despite inflation, supply chain disruptions and the rising costs of energy internationally, people care about the state of the planet.