Kingi Private, The Hotel Britomart, Auckland – New Zealand

Kingi Private is a space tucked between the earth and the underside of a hundred-year-old waterfront trading building. It is both attendant to The Hotel Britomart, and its own thing.
It opens at dawn and closes late. It transforms from a boardroom to a private dining experience with the flick of a switch; a conceal TV tucked within cabinetry, carefully crafted to hide audio and a discrete camera for the new zoom age. It is a small and narrow space but needed to fit 14. The new space needed to feel like a lavish cousin to unify the existing laneway.
Our aim was to unify these loosely related spaces, infusing craft, detail, and organic softness into the robust realm of cobble stones, brick, and beams. We merged old-world elegance with local materials, incorporating rough plaster walls, textured curtains, and bespoke furniture. Bespoke hand-blown chandeliers added dappled illumination, while a 4m swamp kauri piece anchored the space atop reclaimed tree trunks. An old brick arch with display shelves framed a glazed box, spotlighting the chef for both laneway passersby and private guests.