colour starter

An old dairy and integrated house were damaged beyond repair in the Christchurch earthquakes and subsequently demolished.

The planning concept for their replacement was taken from the earthquakes themselves, with ideas of ‘slippage’, ‘separation’ and ‘slicing’. Conceptually, a ‘fault line’ separates the shop from the house, with the slippage allowing for the boundary line that curves around the corner. The ‘separation’ allows for a separate entrance to the house and a link between the two buildings.

The planning concept was taken from the earthquakes themselves, with ideas of ‘slippage’, ‘separation’ and ‘slicing’. Conceptually, a ‘fault line’ separates the shop from the house, with the slippage allowing for the boundary line that curves around the corner. The ‘separation’ allows for a separate entrance to the house and a link between the two buildings.

The roof ‘slice’ was a result of the need to reduce costs by removing internal gutters.

The canopy ‘slipped’ southwards away from the northern boundary in order to acknowledge the corner and provide more cover to the entry from the southerly rain.

The building was also raised from the original ground level because it is in a floodplain.

The facade concept had two sources of inspiration:

1. The original dairy/house was covered in colourful advertising. Dalman Architects decided to make the building itself the advertisement so it would stand out and be noticed along the busy street.

2. The colours were taken directly from the lollies on display in the dairy that the owners own and manage on Ferry Road.

Using these colours the dairy would become a ‘bag of lollies on Hills Road’. In this area of town, graffiti is unfortunately common. It was thought that if the building looked like it was already tagged it would be less likely to be tagged by others. If tagging did occur, only a small panel would need to be repaired.

The budget was extremely low as the insurance pay-out did not meet the building costs. The cost-effective use of colour and straightforward materials enabled an interesting building rather than ‘expensive’ detailing. The colour palette is bright with Resene Belladonna (fuchsia pink), Resene Wham (yellow based green), Resene Turbo (energetic yellow), Resene Roadster (bright red) and Resene Tango (feverish orange) with neutral Resene Black White (grey white).

This project required a resource consent. Council planners were concerned about the multi-colour scheme with the potential for neighbours to paint their houses bright colours. The design team’s response was “what an excellent thing if they did!” The resource consent was granted.

Hills Road Dairy won a Resene Total Colour Commercial Exterior Colour Maestro Award. The judges said: “Who would think a dairy could look like this? It takes a brave team to ignore the norm and create something unique. Moving away from the sombre colours and wall to wall advertising usually seen on dairies, this project is inspired from the inside out. Bright, bold and irrepressively cheerful jellybean colours are introduced in a blocked Mondrian way. Immediately appealing, and cleverly wrapped around the building, this dairy advertises its presence with optimism. It’s a colourful welcome for all ages. We hope it inspires a new look for diaries.”