Looking to take over a new tenancy underneath their old Auction Room, the owner contacted Bubble Interiors with a brief to explore better utilisation of space, and to create something new and different.
We took the staff through a briefing process and established that the key to new premises would be flexibility.
There was no point having a large Auction Room that sat empty for the majority of the week, so we suggested the idea of Auction “Lounge” that could be reconfigured into a traditional assembly style set up for their main Auction once a week, but that could otherwise function more like a “Koru Lounge” where staff and clients would feel welcome to come and go in a space more like a cafe, with enclosed meeting spaces and phone booths, but also a variety of open informal meeting settings where they could touch down with a laptop or phone, host casual meetings, or catch up with colleagues in a far more ad hoc manner, more suited to their busy business.
The light and airy space was inspired by the sand dunes and the ocean around the corner with lots of plants bringing the space to life just like they do in the dunes. A few pops of colour here and there resemble the changing sky at dawn and dusk.
Main Contractor: Total Fitouts
Flooring: Tretford
Furniture: Harrows, ISSA, Kovacs, Modern Office
Custom Artwork: Jasmine Kroeze
Planting: Theo Spargo
Photography: Jay Drew
With the design underway for the full base build refurb of the 17 Grey office tenancies, the Tauranga team of 4sight Consulting signed up as the anchor tenant based on Bubble Interiors’ concept imagery.
And so the design and project management of their new fit-out also became part of our scope including a brand new staff kitchen, break-out spaces and meeting room.
Interior Fitout: C&I Systems
Lighting: David Trubridge, Social Light, Enhance
Flooring: Inzide
Furniture: Modern Office, ISSA Furniture
Photography: Amanda Aitken
Struggling to find tenants for her dated Tauranga CBD premises, the landlord of 17 Grey Street opted to undertake a full refurb of the first floor office tenancies.
The scope included new lighting, flooring, painting, glazed aluminium framed tenancy entry doors, and stunning custom plasterwork to cover old 70’s wall tiles.
The result is a beautiful, modern, welcoming space; and the building is now fully leased.
Interior Fitout: C&I Systems
Lighting: David Trubridge
Specialist plasterwork: Beach Break Interiors
Flooring: Inzide
Furniture: Citta
Photography: Amanda Aitken
Bubble Interiors were initially contacted by PRP to help with some space planning for a tenancy they were looking at moving to, but further discussion revealed they didn’t really have a clear idea of what they needed in new premises, so they opted for us to take them through a “Strategic Briefing Process” to help them establish a clear brief for their project.
This involved engaging all of their staff with an online survey and interactive workshop sessions to discuss the company brand, culture and working styles. This can glean invaluable ideas and feedback, and can be key to gaining staff buy-in when looking to move premises.
With a much clearer spatial brief established, we were able to easily move into a “Space Planning” exercise to test the most efficient use of the space they were looking at, together with testing how they would fit if they opted to take more or less space.
In the end that initial tenancy option fell over, but when another (better) option presented itself we were able to easily translate their spatial requirements into layout options to suit the new building footprint, as well as putting together a “Concept Design” presentation for how the new space could look and feel, based on feedback from the staff engagement around what would suit their specific business and the team.
From there we moved into “Developed Design” finalizing all the finishes, specifying feature lighting, and detailing the staff kitchen and custom cabinetry for the boardroom and copy area.
We prepared a basic set of architectural drawings to communicate our design, and then handed over to fit-out contractors iLine to manage the building consent and fit-out.
Then while iLine took care of that side of things, Bubble continued to work with PRP to source all new furniture for their fresh start in new premises… that the staff are delighted with!
Main Fit-out Contractor: iLine
Furniture: Modern Office, ISSA, Harrows
Lighting: Enhance, Social Light
Photography: Amanda Aitken
With the design for a larger new warehouse plus office building underway, Base Up contacted Bubble Interiors to review the layout of the office spaces, design all the required new cabinetry, specify all the finishes (including the stunning 6m high tonka and reindeer moss feature wall!) and organise the procurement of all new furniture.
Interior Fitout: Skilled Building Solutions/Omega BOP
Lighting: Enhance
Furniture: Modern Office, Cintesi, Harrows, Simon James
Cabinetry: Eastwood Kitchens
Photography: Amanda Aitken
Having outgrown the prefab house they were previously working in, the franchise owners undertook to convert an adjacent old warehouse to create statement new office premises; but to also provide a multi-purpose public space that locals could use as a gallery, yoga/pilates studio, board/conference room and more…
Bubble Interiors took care of the space planning, all finishes and furniture selections, and detailing of all the custom cabinetry and stunning feature wall panelling for this amazing conversion.
Photography: Amanda Aitken
In June 2016, Boffa Miskell Tauranga approached Bubble Interiors to look at the space-planning of their existing office premises. They wanted to open up the middle of the tenancy - to create more connection with, and allow more natural light to, the internal reception.
After a strategic briefing process, and a hunt for new premises to better suit the business, they ended up in this stunning tenancy on Grey Street.
In 2016 Seeka purchased the iconic Kiwi 360 building outside of Te Puke, and undertook a full refurbishment to convert it for use as their new head office.
While Page Henderson Architects took care of the base build, Bubble Interiors were engaged to design of all the cabinetry, including reception counter and staff kitchen, finalise all the furniture layouts and selections, plus specify all the finishes throughout.
*Winner of an NZIA 2018 Waikato/Bay of Plenty Interior Architecture Award
Photography: Amanda Aitken
A new retail offering in The Lakes residential development saw the sales office relocating from it's original prefab into a brand new retail tenancy. So that they could get on with selling property, Bubble Interiors managed the full design and building consent process, and project managed the installation of all new furniture and promotional artwork for the new premise.
Main Fit-out Contractor: Marra
Occupying dated premises that hadn't been touched in 20 years, Michael Stemmer Law wanted to create a fresh, contemporary new look...
Looking to move their office into a larger adjacent tenancy, Property Managers Group engaged Bubble Interiors to explore the best way to space plan the long narrow space, and to establish a clear aesthetic direction.
Once our concept was signed off we specified all the finishes throughout, and detailed the feature acoustic ceiling, the new solid oak and granite reception counter, and stunning black staff kitchen.
Occupying multiple sites around Te Puke and the Western Bay of Plenty, Eastpack have engaged Bubble Interiors to assist with the ongoing staged upgrade of their Washer Road campus... Stages 1 & 2 saw the refurbishment of their ground floor reception, meeting rooms, open plan office areas, feature stair and informal waiting/breakout area.
With their Papamoa office occupying a dated converted relocatable house, Ray White wanted to refurbish this branch too to keep it in line with their new Mount Maunganui premises.
They wanted it to feel similar to the Mount branch but with a more coastal/beachy vibe.
Ingham Mora, a large well-established Tauranga Accountancy Firm, had expanded into adjacent tenancies in their Durham Street premises to accommodate their growing staff and felt it timely to face-lift their front-of-house areas.
"The team at Bubble Interiors are fantastic. We found it so easy working with them. They listened to all our requirements and were able to incorporate them in to an area that not only looks amazing, but works extremely well, for both staff and clients. We feel very proud of our new reception and meeting rooms. Thank you Bubble Interiors for helping make this happen." Neil Fullerton – Director
Colliers Tauranga was completed over 10 years ago now, and while they have expanded into the tenancy below them now too, the design is still going strong.
The idea grew from the franchise owner talking about creating a subway map with the names of the stations representing the areas that Colliers do business, to different spaces within their office space referencing New York landmarks, with additoinal details in the finishes selections and signage nodding to the subway concept throughout.
Colour therapy and it's affect on people really came to play here too, with the LED colourchange lightbox in the reception/client cafe area, and the agents then starting to recognise that clients could be "hyped up" in the busy, colourful Times Square Boardroom, or calmed down in the Brooklyn Bridge or Central Park Meeting Rooms.
"The result is spectacularly successful in achieving it's purpose in creating an invigorating and inspiring workplace without ever losing sight of the fact that this is an office where business gets done." (Quote from UNO Magazine - Autumn 2014)
“Bubble Interiors brought us into the 21st Century! The office looks inviting and dynamic. It even appears spacious despite a tight floor plan.
The team love it… they find it interactive yet there are many spaces to retire to should they require privacy or somewhere free of interruption. We love it!”
Gillian Carnham – Owner, Mount Ray White
When I started Bubble Interiors back in 2010 (based in Papamoa initially), my girls were still really young, and I wanted to be able to have the flexibility to pick them up from kindy, then work from home in the evenings after they went to bed.
So we converted the garage for our Bubble studio, with the capacity for 4 of us to work there.
It worked so well that I did it again in 2019 when we moved across to Tauranga!
Read more on the Blog: Home Offices that Work
Built-in storage seating and gallery shelf: Arrowsmith Builders
Carpet Tiles: Inzide
