Boo! Christmas comes early for Context Architects in Christchurch

Context Architects celebrated a busy rebuild year this week at a stunning new bar it designed in Christchurch’s burgeoning Victoria Street. With a speakeasy, American South vibe; Brett Gidden’s popular new Boo Radley’s bar hosted Context’s South Island Director Alisdair Daines, Director Stephen Voyle and clients and friends in acknowledging what has been a brilliant and demanding year for the practice in Christchurch. Credits for Context this year include designing four new major residential and mixed-use projects for local and international developers that will add another 60-plus apartments to the city, as well as another two commercial and office developments. Construction on the residential developments will get underway in 2015 and demonstrate how greater density can be achieved attractively in the city centre.

New offices for venerable law firm Rhodes and Co, also in Victoria Street were delivered earlier this year, as well as the South island’s first-ever veterinary hospital in Rangiora. And Context is currently overseeing finishing touches on a new exclusive home on the Clearwater estate. “We are passionate about rebuilding Christchurch. Great design is vital to Christchurch’s resurgence and we love that we are now affecting change in the city and as the pace of construction picks up,” explains Alisdair Daines.

More than 70 people turned out on Wednesday night to christen the venue with its first Christmas party. “The bar is deliberately located in the narrowest part of the space, creating an informality and intimacy that encourages people to get to know each other. Timber and copper accents, newspapered walls and oversized booths provide warmth and comfort in the prohibition-style dark corners - perfect for whiling away long hours sipping modern-day equivalents of Mississippi moonshine,” added Context designer Caroline North.

Context is the preferred national architects for leading retailers and banks, and also specialises in the medium and high-density residential and mixed-use sectors.

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