pitch perfect

The owners were keen on an industrial look and wanted to use a variety of raw, natural materials for interest, so different zones were created with the use of different wall claddings as backdrops to the product display… red brick, rough sawn timber and chequer-plate aluminium.

In addition to the raw polished concrete floor, the owners were keen to use turf grass as flooring in the boots area for a more realistic ‘trying-on’ experience. Mirrored fronts were added to built-in seating that doubles as storage, and staggered seating plinths were used as a nod to stadium seating.

Because there were other generic sports shops already within the mall, the store fit-out needed to play up the soccer theme. They had seen several examples of soccer pitches as feature ceilings that they were excited to create their own version of.

The initial design concept was for the feature soccer pitch ceiling to be finished in artificial turf grass, but to meet the NZ Building Code Fire Regulations the solution needed to have a Group 2 Fire rating. Funnily enough, artificial turf grass is rarely used on ceilings and so to date there are no companies in New Zealand that have seen the cost benefit in having their product tested to achieved that high a fire rating.

So it was back to the drawing board to find a textured product that would still look somewhat like grass that a Group 2 compliant paint finish could be applied to.

Numerous green testpots were tried on the ‘wood wool’ substrate before Resene Dell was chosen as the best match for the artificial turf grass being used on the floor below the feature ceiling.

With a lot of other materiality and visual interest at eye level, plus the feature soccer pitch ceiling, the rest of the high ceilings and the walls above three metres were painted in Resene Black to help them fade into the background. Both hues were painted in Resene Zylone Sheen low sheen waterborne paint.

The feature ceiling is an instant hit with shoppers drawing immediate attention to this shop as the home of all things soccer.

Architectural specifier: Bubble Interiors Limited
Building contractor: Total Fit-outs Limited
Client: NZ Soccer Shop
Joinery and Feature Ceiling: INSPACE creative shopfitting solutions
Photographer: Amanda Aitken Photography
Project: Resene Total Colour Awards 2019