Sons & Co. studio
The Sons & Co. studio, designed by Rufus Knight of Knights Associates, is situated in a 150sqm warehouse space, above a ship chandlery, in the port town of Lyttleton in New Zealand's South Island.
The brief was a studio for six people. Sons & Co. chose the word studio in preference to office as they believe there's a difference. They’re a very small team of friends. They work very closely together and they have an implicit understanding. Every day they sit together, work together, have coffee (at least twice) and eat lunch as a group.
Sons & Co. like an ordered environment, calm, beautiful and refined. They believe the way in which creative people work hasn't changed since the birth of time and the design of the studio didn’t need to facilitate a process, it can stand alone, but they sincerely believe in design and its power to have an uplifting effect upon us. They’re not of the "design can change the world" school, but love art and design and when it's good, really good, it raises the human spirit.
Sons & Co. enjoy ‘pure’ design. They say they’re attracted to design in its most direct form: work full of rigour, original, uncompromising, but often with an element that is pure whim - they’re not anti-fun - they like the nonsensical and the "just because". They told us they were interested in architecture rather than fancy taps and asked for material and sculpture to do the work and the use of minimal elements to create something magical.
Metal trusses, timber sarking, and polished concrete created a robust industrial canvas from which we could reference. Stained timber flutes, individually milled, were introduced in the form of wall-claddings and large sliding doors delineate the studio environment from meeting spaces. The fluted motif – a reference to Achille Castiglioni’s ‘Taccia’ lamp – was also applied to cabinetry and concealed doors introducing a rich and tactile continuity throughout the space.
