Silver Fern Farms by Unispace

All photography by David Straight

Design Inspiration

Enrich and energise: A post-covid workplace for a global food business.

Silver Fern Farms is New Zealand's leading marketer, producer, and procurer of premium grass-fed meat with operations in China, the US, the UK, and the Middle East.

With the pandemic serving as a catalyst to rethink its future of work, Silver Fern Farms came to Unispace with a simple desire; “create a workplace experience where our people feel more energised and enriched when they leave.”

Housed within a Category 2 heritage-listed building that was once Dunedin’s Central Post Office, the Silver Fern Farms hub needed to pay homage to the company's rural roots in a fresh and dynamic way while supporting face-to-face collaboration and project-based work.

As new meets old, the new design language creates its own symmetry within the building, adding softness. The architecture of the building façade is abstracted into forms within the fitout, bringing new life to the heritage base build. The decorative heritage columns essentially formed negative space, to then be filled by the new built environment - only lightly touching each other.

Motifs derived from the arched windows and geometric columns are translated into a consistent series of forms, seen in all furniture and joinery. The rounded edges and arches bring a human softness to better connect people with the base build.

The team partnered with local craftspeople to bring back some of the former glory of the Central Post Office. Wool fibres from Silver Fern Farms’ sheep farmers are used throughout the furniture upholstery.

Flaking plaster is retained to respect history, materials have been retained in their raw state – along with re-introducing historic materiality such as Georgian wired glass. The result is a seamless layering of brand throughout the design.

The design models the notional experiential user journey from each ‘Welcome’, ‘Discover’, and ‘Innovation’ zones. These zones include dedicated long and short-term project rooms, and a digital terrace connecting the Dunedin hub with Silver Fern Farm sites nationally and globally.

The final zone, ‘Taste’ includes a commercial tasting kitchen, providing a space for in-house product development, cooking demonstrations, and marketing, and is also where Silver Fern Farms' internal ‘MasterChef’ competition is live-streamed to its people across the globe.

“We wanted a cutting-edge space that our design and innovation team could use to showcase and create products. Previously they did this off-site so it’s great to be able to bring this in-house and allow our people to see what’s going on.” Julie Cooper, Organizational Development Manager at Silver Fern Farms

The result is a global destination hub, a space that enhances the connection and collaboration of its people. The use of materials, detailing and finishes deepen the connection of the brand and its history to the space, integrating Silver Fern Farm’s DNA and values throughout.

“The space is transforming the way we work together, and this is reflected in our engagement scores. There’s chatter around the Dunedin community about this iconic building and how it's been repurposed in a way that is respectful of its heritage which is important to us.” Julie Cooper, Organisational Development Manager at Silver Fern Farms

The detailing within this project is beautiful, which really highlights the heritage building in a sophisticated way. This project has a lovely balance where nothing is too over the top, honouring the past while embracing the present.”

- Wendy Leung / Director at M Moser Associates

Featured Product
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