BNZ Place Wellington

Fitting in with working and communal areas

As part of a suite of amenity spaces for staff at BNZ Place in Wellington, Studio Pacific Architecture incorporated a gym and studio that sit comfortably within the corporate environment, specifying rubber floor tiles from Advance Flooring to do much of the heavy lifting.

‘The amenities on Level 12 are available to all staff within the BNZ tenancy,’ says architect Marcellus Lilley of Studio Pacific. ‘There are lively communal spaces – a café and group meeting area at the eastern end – and quieter, more private ones at the western end, including a retreat space, wellness and parenting rooms.’

Setting a gym within a high-rise building came with acoustic requirements. Advance’s 75mm Neoflex™ High Impact Tiles proved the answer for both visual coherence and acoustic separation.

Aesthetics, resilience and acoustic control

‘We needed a material that did a few things in one,’ says Marcellus. ‘Aesthetics, resilience and impact noise within the gym and flooring was a key part of solving all of that.’

Performance aside, the flooring also had to hold its own aesthetically. Adjacent to a relaxation lounge with timber, sheer curtains and soft lighting, the gym had to feel both separate and part of a whole.

‘The idea was to create a gradient from extroverted, communal spaces through to more singular, restorative ones. The gym needed to feel energised and active within that broader journey.

‘We chose an orange and blue graphic pattern for the wall, loud and deliberate, so the Neoflex™ rubber tile is a sophisticated grey-brown that grounds the room and holds everything together.’

The large-format, 500 × 500 tile grid creates an architectural pattern to give the space a soft industrial character and a surface with some softness when users climb on and off the exercise equipment.

A gym with a view – a joy to use

Occupying a bird’s-eye perch high up in the building, with full-height windows out to Wellington Harbour, the gym feels protected and apart from the other amenity spaces. ‘You don’t feel self-conscious using it, even though the outlook is big and open,’ notes Marcellus.

‘The rubber flooring is a clear cue that this room is different from the carpeted areas around it. There’s a practical, safety feel to rubber underfoot, and it helps with impact noise and vibration control, which is critical when you’ve got an activated space sitting directly above desks and quiet working environments on the floor below.’