Auckland must have more shipping containers recycled into retail space than any other city in the world.
They’re everywhere. You’d trip over them if they weren’t so darn big.
But containers, per se, are ho hum of course. From Camper to Puma, pop-up retail concepts in shipping containers have steamrolled (or perhaps sailed?) their way across the world in the last few years. (And yes, recently in Auckland I saw both brands strut their stuff in containers as part of a pop-up precinct for the Volvo Round-The-World Ocean Race, which had temporarily descended on the City of Sails.)
But the clever folk in Auckland have taken the container concept to a whole new level with The Showcase & Central, a luxury shopping development at the heart of the Britomart precinct, perched atop New Zealand’s busiest transport hub.
The Showcase is called a “medium-term development”. In other words, it’s a sort of permanent pop-up that will be demolished in five years to make way for a new state-of-the-art commercial and residential building. And it’s executed beautifully.
The primary structures are two giant container-like steel boxes, clad with perforated black aluminium panels, illuminated from within by over 1200 linear metres of LED lighting. The idea is that at night The Showcase glows gently like a jewel case.
Between the two boxes is the Sanctuary Garden, a manicured courtyard featuring seven “pou”, magnificently carved posts meant to represent a family. And housed within the boxes are some really interesting retail concepts, including NZ’s first Onitsuka Tiger store, and Curate, described as a “micro designer department store, offering a fantastic array of New Zealand’s best fashion labels in a single destination.”
Next to The Showcase are three more conventional (but still fascinating) pop-ups. The best of these is leading NZ designer Kathryn Wilson’s charming “shoe box”. It’s literally a perfectly scaled shoebox on the outside, and a clean, crisp, minimalist showroom for shoes on the inside.
Alongside Wilson is Trelise Cooper Boardroom, executive wear by local designer Cooper, housed in a pair of black and ivory shipping containers. Finally, there’s Sarge’s, gourmet fare in a restored vintage Airstream caravan.
The area hosts festivals and art installations, a farmer’s market with local produce every Saturday, and great bars and restaurants surround the precinct. (Including the award-winning Britomart Country Club, situated in a space ringed with, you guessed it, shipping containers.)
What’s not to like? So many shopping centres around the world are soul-less and “samey”. Particularly in the US, malls are populated by cookie-cutter chains – seen one, seen ‘em all.
By contrast The Showcase & Central at Britomart is fresh, new, open-air and filled with interesting and different retailers, with a strong bias to New Zealand operators. It’s a precinct that demands to be walked, shopped and enjoyed, and revisited often. And I for one can’t wait to return.
Above: Trelise Cooper.
Jon Bird heads up IdeaWorks, Australia’s leading specialist retail marketing agency. Email Jon. Read his blog. Twitter: @thetweetailer
