Trends New Zealand Trends Volume 32 No 5 New Zealand | Page 40

Previous pages: The elongated island
in this kitchen by BE Architecture has
a working zone and a social zone.
The 3.5m long island is designed for
casual gatherings at the end easily
accessed from the living spaces.
Above: The view from the living
area looking across the end of the
kitchen. Textured subway tiles laid
in traditional format add a classic,
hand-worked flavour to the modern
space. Wood joinery also features.

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Divide and rule, the saying goes – a concept
reflected in this multi-room project by architect
Andrew Piva and the team at BE Architecture.
“The owner’s brief was for a practical kitchen
that would retain a tidy look even when in use,”
Piva says. “In response, we designed a cleanlined, expansive kitchen that looks the part from
the adjacent living spaces and added a prep
pantry room for the messier aspects of cooking.”
In fact, the layout went further than that,
creating two separate zones within the greater
space, part of an addition to a period home.
“The owner wanted the circulation to respond

to her movements separately to those of visitors,
so two zones were created to achieve this. One
route flows from her parking spot into the mudroom, and past a storage area and the pantry to
the kitchen. A more public route leads from the
formal entry to the living spaces and kitchen.”
The kitchen and ancillary spaces – there’s
also a small study annexed off the pantry – are
designed to complement rather than echo the
look of the original residence. In fact, there are
two ‘looks’ within the expansive kitchen and,
while quite different, they both reflect attention
to design detail and craftsmanship.