carnival australia refit
2006
the project
I was approached by Carnival Australia, the cruise operator, to create a communal breakout room on three levels of their offices.
Their brief was to transform currently under-utilised areas in order to create convivial spaces that encourages interaction.
process
The existing rooms were cluttered with mis-matched furniture. They were not well thought out and were underutilised.
My vision was to create inviting spaces that were comfortable, relaxing, and encouraged communication and creative inspiration.
The three rooms were identical in layout but on different floors so my starting point was devising a colour scheme for each one; orange for the sales floor, green on the management level and a coffee and cream for the operations level.
As high traffic areas, the materials and finishes needed to be durable and maintain their quality.
The furniture was designed to tight tolerances in order to accomodate 34 seated persons comfortably per level.
The largest pieces, galley tables, were welded onsite and then the caesarstone tops assembled in situ to give a seamless finish.
The sofas I designed and commissioned were upholstered in a hard-wearing leather-like fabric. Slight variations in colour were introduced in order to complement the stripe feature walls.
The bases of my signature resin tables were built by a specialist joiner and then painted in a baked-on satin two-pack paint for durability. The colour gradations of the hand-poured resin tops were matched to each room and topped with toughened glass.
The final element was to create a hardwearing outdoor stainless steel table and benches for the balconies. .
The project was completed in eight weeks from the go-ahead with the fit-out taking place on the last two weekends.
Project managing this fit-out as well as designing the furniture was challenging but ultimately very rewarding. There was a real sense of ‘mission accomplished’ when it was completed and the feedback – including that from the head of Carnival International – was excellent.