Stories

Nightworks Studio isn’t yet a household name in Christchurch, but the team are designing and making cutting-edge lighting that’s winning awards on the global stage. Cityscape heads behind the scenes to shed some light. Perhaps the most prominent feature in the foyer of the restored and renovated Public Trust Building is its chandelier. Drawing inspiration from Morse code, it consists of five long polished brass pieces, each broken up by dashes of sandstone and luminescent dots. It is elegant and refined, but with a raw quality to the rough-hewn ends to the lowest of the sandstone pieces. It lends a warmth and classic feel to the entrance of the 1925 heritage building, but on closer inspection, the chandelier is incredibly modern, with irregular distribution and lengths, and clean lines throughout. It’s a duality that can only come from very skilled design and immaculate craftsmanship. When Cityscape visits Nightworks Studio, the team...

Monarch is a sensory experience that feels like it belongs in New York, Tokyo, or London. Something special for the audiophiles among us who also enjoy a perfectly executed cocktail in a crystal glass. The concept is a ‘listening bar’, with a hand-made sound system delivering high-fidelity music so clear you can hear every tsk of a cymbal, every layer of sound and every note despite being in a central city bar. The bar is dedicated to music, and it doesn’t apologise for turning it up loud, but you can hear every word the people sitting across the booth from you are saying. There’s simply nothing else like Monarch anywhere in New Zealand. The bespoke wooden-boxed speakers are beautiful, and so are the three 300-watt power amps, on display and built into the wall behind the bar, each lit up with the famous McIntosh blue VU meters on the front. The...

The Ōtautahi outlook is a mini-series catching the thoughts of Christchurch's leaders on the postitive things happening in Christchurch. What’s good in Christchurch this year? When you look at the Canterbury economy, we’re in a pretty strong position compared to other regions in New Zealand. That’s underpinned by manufacturing and our primary industries, and our diverse sectors. We have quite a unique diversity of our economy and that’s served us well through the pandemic. Businesses are reasonably optimistic about the future despite the challenges of the cost of doing business and the long Covid tail. There appears to be a turning point, and optimism that things are going to improve. We couldn’t have said that two months ago. We’ve still got a pretty long Covid tail. The quality of life, we as Cantabrians can take for granted. It’s a great place to bring up a family,  lots of opportunity with new...

Fur Patrol’s 20th anniversary tour has become a 21st party tour, and the band are pulling out all the hits. Cityscape catches up with frontwoman Julia Deans to find out who Lydia was, and what’s good on the music scene. Is it strange to think that PET is officially an adult now? It sure is. They seem to be quite a pleasant, friendly adult though, considering how sullen and silent a teenager they were. And we’re glad about that. Who was Lydia, and did you really not hold it against her? Lydia was a semi-fictional character, a conglomeration of various people and situations happening in my life at the time. It’s a commentary on the way people often blame the third party in a love triangle. So yeah, nah, I’m not gonna hold it against her when he’s the ship-sinker. Talk us through the fairly intense cover art of PET. Our...

Emma Dilemma talks to Cityscape about her new solo career, the significance of vinyl, and filming nude on trampolines. We’re looking forward to your full-length album. How does Spit Side B follow on from Spit Side A released last year? It was originally gonna come out as Spit, as one whole album. But due to Covid ruining touring opportunities and the supply chain for getting vinyl records made, we decided to do it in two parts. But finally, this second half, I started releasing it at the start of this year and it will all come out as one big beautiful record on July 1st. Is making it a vinyl important to you? I haven’t done it before… I grew up with my dad putting on vinyl records. I’ve recently acquired this pair of speakers that used to be in the family home that my Dad’s brother made, like way back...

Emerging Ōtautahi singer-songwriter Sam Heselwood hit No. 4 on the charts with his single ‘18’, and now he’s following it up with his latest tune, ‘Don’t Speak’. Fluttering synths and warm guitar lines set the scene, and Sam puts forth a mesmerising vocal performance throughout ‘Don’t Speak’. Once again, the Christchurch boy proves he can deliver an authentic and relatable track. Sam says he wrote the emotive track after his grandad died. “After my grandad passed away early last year, I started to reflect on the fact that I never had a lot to do with him. My dad and his dad didn’t get along that well and never really spoke. I started to think about how grateful I am to have the relationship I do with my dad. That’s what sparked the idea.” ‘Don’t Speak’ arrives at a crossroads for Sam, as his dreams of playing professional rugby come to...

Luke Dawkins and Blue Hamel are bringing gin into the 21st Century with their new physical and digital NFT project. Cityscape hits them up for a taste of what’s to come. Blue is waiting for us in a busy café, and there’s no missing him. He’s wearing thick-rimmed, tinted, oversize glasses, beads and chains around his neck, and chunky rings on all his fingers. Everything from his high-line hairstyle to his distinctive footwear screams "I’ve got a style, and I’m here to put it in your face." Blue’s a local Christchurch boy who headed overseas and got big in the LA advertising scene. His business partner Luke is an English boy who headed to Christchurch and got big in the Aotearoa gin scene. Luke joins us, brandishing a cardboard box containing the precious cargo we’re here to talk about: a matte black bottle of YEN Gin. A whiff and a sip...

Addington’s getting a whole new precinct complete with entertainment, food, drink, office space and New York loft-style apartments. Cityscape catches up with The Mill’s mad engineer to find out more.

“If I’m not having fun, I’m doing it wrong.”

Mike King’s idea of fun is something a bit different. He’s leading us through an abandoned theatre office by torchlight, skirting around dilapidated furniture. He takes us out into the stage area and shines his torch up into the trusses, dust falling gently between the enormous timber structure. “Everyone who walks into this building is going to be blown away.”
The building was formerly The Mill Theatre – originally built in 1886 as a flour mill. It’s one of two buildings that form the historic Wood’s Mill complex, and Mike is halfway through giving them a whole new life.

Mike, The Mill’s owner and visionary, is a structural engineer and historic buildings expert from San Diego. He caught one of the first flights to New Zealand after the February 2011 earthquake and set about helping to restore our city in the following years. He’d restored lots of buildings for other people, and wanted to do one for himself, a last hurrah before retirement, so he bought the dilapidated mill buildings in 2016. “My wife looked at me and said ‘I’ve married a madman’.”

Mike has already renovated the smaller of the two huge buildings, stripping its four storeys back to red bricks and native timber joists and piles. “I see it as a New York loft,” he says. “You buy the floor, you do what you want with it.”

Mike’s open attitude to tenancy had surprising results, even for him. “I never in my wildest thoughts, thought here would be a music school downstairs. That’s cool.”
The ground floor is occupied by Sole Music Academy; the first floor is Mike, his team of engineers and a couple of other businesses in a massive open-plan, light-filled office; and the second floor is Millworks, a co-working space for small businesses and freelancers. The top floor is up for grabs.

Most of the building has been meticulously restored, the bricks scrubbed clean, the original wooden sliding doors opening each floor up to the outside world, steel bracing unobtrusively installed at the end. Modern touches include the concrete floors (added for structural strength, soundproofing, and underfloor heating), double glazing (carefully hidden in hand-made wooden joinery), and the glass wall at one end of the top floor, filling the hole made by a falling capstone in the Canterbury earthquakes.

The new structure that joins the two buildings is unapologetically 21st Century: all glass panes, charcoal joinery and cream panels. “The philosophy I did here was: if it’s old, let it be old,” Mike says. “If it’s new, let it be hyper new so that the contrast is easy to see.”

The juxtaposition is very cool, with a clean line dividing the 1880s from the 2020s, while somehow the buildings marry up perfectly and create a sight that is completely unique in Christchurch.

The former theatre building is Mike’s ‘phase two’, which he hopes to have renovated, up and running by the end of the year. It’s hard to imagine, looking that the dusty and dark interior, but Mike insists everything is on track after a couple of years of Covid-related delays.

The structure is sound, he says, as it was one of the only buildings in the world at the time built with steel reinforcing in the brickwork. The walls are six bricks thick, and the whole thing is supported by eight-metre solid kauri and shorter ironwood piles. All there is left to do, Mike says, is clean it all up, do some remedial works, and add floors, dividing walls, plumbing, electrical, balconies, and fitouts. So just a small job, then.

Mike’s vision is big, big enough to fill the behemoth building with life. Half of it will be an events space, modelled after Mike’s favourite San Diego jazz clubs. There’ll be a modular stage and ground-floor seats and tables that can be packed away to make standing room for concerts. On the upper floors there will be mezzanine seating and booths. “You’re going to be standing on the stage and looking up and every booth is going to be a different colour,” Mike says. “It’s going to be a little bit of Vegas in here.”

It won’t be restricted to theatre, either. Mike’s opening up the stage to any kind of entertainment: comedy, gigs, TED talks, DJ dance club pop-ups, or anything else cool that comes along. “There are so many people in Christchurch that have all these ideas. They’re so creative. I just want to make sure that I don’t pigeonhole it too much.”

The other half of the building is into three levels. The ground floor will be a dining hall with seven small concept restaurants, kind of like stationary food trucks. Visitors can order directly from the restaurants, Little High-style, or they can grab a table, order through an app, and wait for the food to turn up.

Next up is a floor with nine apartments and an office space, with a deck that extends over the old railway line looking out on Hagley Park. This level has a four-metre stud, and creative tenants are welcome to install mezzanines or find other ways to capitalise on the height.

On the top floor, Mike is opening up the attic space to build eight two-storey ultra-modern apartments, each with a bi-fold door and its own balcony with a view. The apartments will be smart homes, with electronics controlled by iPads that come with the property.

The key is flexibility. Mike says he’s providing the framework, but whoever buys or rents a space can bring him ideas for how they want it set up, whether it’s moving a wall in an apartment, installing special lighting for a show, or setting up smart technology in a restaurant.

“I’m an engineer. If you give me a problem, I’m gonna want to fix it… Let’s have some fun.”

Timeline: The Mill

1890 – William Derisley Wood decides to build the Wood Brothers' Addington Mill.

1891 – The steam-powered mill begins operating.

1908 – Architect J.C. Maddison completes an extension of the complex.

1913 – Large brick grain silo completed.

1916 – Mill converted to electric power.

1924 – The mill closes for a year while the complex is extended by Architects S. and A. Luttrell. Gardens and bowling green added to the grounds.

1949 – Large fire damages the mill, but it is up and running again in a fortnight.

1970 – The Wood family sells the complex to the Wattie Group. IT is leased for small businesses such as a gymnasium, a bakery, and an exhibition space.

1982 – Plans are approved for a theatre, restaurant and apartments in the complex.

1983 – The Riccarton Players community theatre group buy the building and make The Mill Theatre their home.

2011 – Buildings damaged in the February 22 earthquake.

2016 – The Riccarton Players sell the complex to Mike King, who begins restoring and developing it for commercial, residential and entertainment use.

woodsmill.co.nz

Meet the millers

Millworks

This co-working space upstairs is the sister to the Salt District’s Saltworks. Probably the best views of any co-working space in Christchurch. It’s dog-friendly and you’re pretty much guaranteed to find cool k9s here any day of the week. Millworks is also a collaborative and creative space, buzzing with a mixture of small businesses with permanent setups, flexible workers, and hot desks for drop-in freelancers and entrepreneurs. An awesome place to find inspiration and meet amazing people doing incredible things, all in The Mill’s red brick chic surrounds.

Millworks was set up by Christchurch businessman Leon Mooney, and he’s very hands-on when it comes to working alongside the businesses that occupy the space, and helping promote them. Leon’s been a Salt District advocate for a long time, and is super supportive of Addington’s growth and development as a new hub of innovative enterprise.

works.nz

SOLE Music Academy

This academy opened its doors on the ground floor of The Mill in early 2020, championed by music industry aficionado Sacha Vee. SOLE Music Academy trains students in singing, songwriting and producing, with a view to writing recordable songs, making real records and putting on shows. It also teaches students about the business side of the industry, helping them define a vision, image, brand, and target market, and even teaming students up with the right producers to get them ahead of the game. Society may view music as a hobby, but SOLE is helping passionate people rise above that and make it into their career. Sacha sees each of her students as an entrepreneur setting out to create something unique and make a profession of it. The academy is all about real people, and The Mill is the perfect gritty surround to hold regular talks by artists like Tiki Taane, Mousey, and Emma Dilemma.

Sacha is a Christchurch girl who made it big on the European music scene performing on Dutch television show The Voice of Holland in 2011, before going on to record multiple hit singles and albums, including Poland’s 2017 Hip Hop Album of the Year, Życie Po Śmierci, in collaboration with O.S.T.R.

solemusicacademy.co.nz

It might be Merivale Mall’s best secret – within minutes of arriving at Bhava, I’m whisked away from the hustle and bustle of mall life and into a calming cocoon. Warm bed, warm room, and warming energy from my beauty expert, Aleisha. As the world opens back up and life returns to lightning speed, taking a break from it all has not been high on my agenda. But I have vowed that in my post-Covid life I’ll appreciate the art of slowing down, and my visit to Bhava is an important part of that vow. Bhava claims to apply a holistic ethos to treatments, and I’m keen to experience that for myself. The spa is spacious with sleek style and a minimalist design that is very soothing to the soul – all soft lighting, halcyon colour scheme and wooden highlights. After I fill out a very thorough skin analysis form, Aleisha...

The former Chief Post Office in Cathedral Square has a 140-year history, and it’s about to be thrust into the 2020s in style. It’s going to be a 24-hour hub of food, drink, entertainment and commerce, right smack in the centre of the city. The Grand, as the restored brick heritage building will now be known, is one of the most ambitious private developments inside the four avenues since Riverside Market opened in 2019. The cornerstone will be 1879 Restaurant and Bar, giving Cathedral Square a new eating and drinking venue. But perhaps the most interesting aspect is the 24-hour deli, something sorely missing from central Christchurch’s scene. The Grand chief executive Darin Rainbird says it will be a hybrid of a New York Deli, a made-to order sandwich shop, and a smoothie bar, with coffee and food available at all hours for night-owls and weary travellers venturing out from the...

Art sanctuary Ravenscar House has taken the top gong at the 10th New Zealand Commercial Project Awards, with Te Pae and other Canterbury projects also picking up awards. Ravenscar House, constructed by HRS Construction, also took out the Tourism and Leisure Project Award, along with the award for projects valued between $10 million and $25 million. The project brought Ravenscar House, a grand architectural wonder, back to life in a new and more central location following irreparable damage during the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The 2022 awards mark the 10-year anniversary of the prestigious New Zealand Commercial Project Awards, owned and run by Registered Master Builders. For the first time, the awards were held in Christchurch at Te Pae Christchurch Convention and Exhibition Centre, which also picked up the Civic Project Award. Toka Hāpai Selwyn Health Hub won the Health Project Award, and Ashburton's Muyrney Main won the $1 million to $3...

The Royal New Zealand Ballet is bringing a new Cinderella story to Christchurch this August, told by some of the best in the business. Coreographer Loughlan Prior and composer Claire Cowan, the creative minds behind 2019's hit ballet Hansel & Gretel, have reunited for RNZB's first national tour in over a year. Feisty, funny, and fabulous, Cinderella is the brainchild of award-winning master storyteller Loughlan, with a magical new score by Claire, and fashion-forward designs by the San Francisco-based Australian designer Emma Kingsbury. Read more: Grit in your pointes - Choreographer Loughlan Prior on RNZB's The Firebird with Paquita "Our Cinderella story centres around a quest for identity, true love and the courage to be yourself," says Loughlan. "The characters exist in a society of excess, titles and possessions, in which more is more; a direct parallel to the oversaturation of 21st Century living. Cinderella and Prince Charming must push against...

Rock up to Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū this winter to catch innovative moving image works by leading Māori artists. The gallery's newest exhibition, Māori Moving Image ki Te Puna o Waiwhetū, will be showing from Saturday 4 June to Sunday 16 October, featuring recent moving image artworks ranging from slick animation to 16mm film, and even a spot of karaoke. The exhibition is a rich collection of works that showcase differing creative perspectives on issues that are important to Māori, putting history, lived experience and radical hope at the centre. Visitors can expect a huge variety of look and feel, with subject matter including such diverse topics as World War II, tīwakawaka, and Christian Louboutin. Co-curator Melanie Oliver describes the exhibition as "a unique alignment of forms and concepts of toi ataata – visual art – with those of ngā mahi a rēhia – performance art.” The karaoke...

That's right – we missed out last year, but the visual spectacular stage production is bringing the magic back, and tickets are on sale now. If you're up for a trip to Wellington this September, you'll be well rewarded. All the Aotearoa and international finalists who didn't get to take the stage last year now have a chance to show off their stuff at a mind-blowing two-week event. The capital city will host an audience of over 60,000 from across the country, with designers coming from around the world. The show is legendary. With a new cutting-edge creative vision this year by executive creative director Brian Burke. Brian is a Las Vegas show-maker, creative producer of America’s Got Talent, and co-executive producer of American Ido. Each night the stage will come alive with incredible works of wearable art, dancers, aerialists, and foot-tapping beats. A digital effects team will add to the...

Canterbury gin lovers have another reason to sip and celebrate – there’s a new boutique distillery on the scene. Akaroa Craft Distillery’s first gin varietal is a stunning dry style that tells tales of its home – Akaroa Harbour – through local botanicals and a subtle seaside saltiness. The distillery is proudly local. It's named its first release, Hector’s Long Harbour Ocean Wash Gin, after Akaroa Harbour’s famous Hector’s dolphins, and the ingredients are all lovingly foraged from around Banks Peninsula. A portion of sales from each bottle of Hector’s Gin goes to the New Zealand Whale and Dolphin Trust, to support the preservation and protection of these lovable ocean locals. The Akaroa Craft Distillery Tasting House recently opened in Rue Lavaud, and the Hector’s Gin is the star of the show. Pop in to sample the magnificent citrusy hit with beautiful herbaceous notes of mānuka, thyme and lavender, and a...

Christchurch resin artist Ann Ciciani takes a moment to tell Cityscape about her artistic process and walking her dog, as she prepares for the Christchurch Art Show. Tell us a bit about you – who is Ann Ciciani? That's an interesting question. I will let you know when I find out... What kind of art do you create? I create conceptual art. That means that rather than aiming to create a visual representation of an object, I create visual conceptual ideas. These concepts are designed to provoke the audience into a higher state of awareness of themselves and the world we live in thereby raising the consciousness of the collective – which I believe is the main purpose of us being on this planet: to contribute to our collective psychic evolution. Your works often have tonnes of incredible detail – what kind of process goes into making something like that? I...

Caitlin Crisp is an up-and-coming star of New Zealand fashion. Her timeless, easy-to-wear pieces are in trendy boutique windows around the country, and she’s dedicated to supporting local fabric and trimming suppliers. Caitlin fits Cityscape out with the deets on growing up in Christchurch, Project Runway and the evils of low-rise. We’re keen to get to know a bit about the woman behind the designs. How would your friends describe you? Motivated, loyal and lots of fun! Outside of fashion, what are your passions? I enjoy being outdoors and on the weekends you'll often find me sailing or on a hike with my partner. I also love a night out with the gals. What’s your favourite story about one of your Kiwi fabric suppliers? Ooh I have a good one. I always leave my fabric scissors around the studio in silly places so they end up being used to cut paper and...

From his studio in Wellington, Bruce Mortimer produces excellent artworks in many different styles, from fine art photography to expressionistic paintings. He paints us a picture of his life as he prepares for the 2022 Christchurch Art Show. Tell us a bit about yourself. Third Culture kid, creative from a young age, and a fine art photographer for much of my adult life before rediscovering traditional mediums. Ambidextrous, multilingual and difficult to categorize, I am no more an artist than I am the other pursuits that I have. I am an explorer and adventurer by nature, I renovate my own property, I play and listen to music, I have some enthusiasm for vehicles and mechanics, I am innovative, an athlete and I am interested in psychology. I trained as an earth scientist. I've left some stuff out because I get overwhelmed, let alone anyone else reading this. What kind of art...