SPARCHI

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DARE TO BE DIFFERENT...
DARE TO BE UNIQUE

Creative, Individual and Modern Architecture is a personal and energising thing ...
It speaks of your style, your passion, and how you like to live, work and play. Form and Space responding to context and environment with clever unique solutions fulfilling your aspirations.

Buildings last a long time and involve enormous amounts of creative and technical input to make them the very best they can be. This is where we do our work with specialist knowledge, skill and experience; blending timeless artistic and creative rules with modern technical solutions.

Beautiful and expressive architecture, spaces and environments are smart choices. Investing in carefully crafted Architecture can be one of the most satisfying things you can ever do, with real tangible value, and the opportunity to truly express who you are.

You deserve it!

Welcome to SPARCHI Architects


WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT ?


SPARCHI Architects is a small boutique design and research driven architect's practice specialising in creative and unique one-off bespoke work. We design and detail every aspect of a building then only work with capable and professional craftspeople to deliver the finished project for our client.

Unique Architecture

Architecture is a distillation process uniting perceptions, emotions, and context, wrapped up in practical building science. We do this every day making authentically unique and fresh design...

High Performance

We know what a 'high performance building' really means. It's actually all the cool things you can't see, the things hidden in the core, designed and built-into the way it is made....

Honest, Real Materials

Honest materials are confident; they know where they come from and what they must do. We like to use real materials as close to raw as they can be. We know they can deliver like no other....

Professional Services

The difference working with a professional Registered Architect is the combination of real-world knowledge, years of experience and the creative resources that help ensure your project is truely unique....

WHAT DO WE DESIGN ?

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Houses

Urban Houses, Country Houses, Luxury Houses. Cool and stylish, rugged and earthy, tucked away or on display. We design special, unique houses for people who really care about where they are and where they want to be.

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Mixed-Use

Making the city a great place to be. Inspired development, imaginative form, beautiful space and seamless integration. Safe, secure and self-funding urban places for living, working, playing and unique investment.

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Apartments

We understand apartments having designed and lived in a few. We know they can be intensly technical but hugely satisfying to design. From concept to reality we really enjoy creating medium density living.

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Interiors

Making space work and feel right, seamlessley delivered with Style, Finish, Substance and Identity. Bespoke interior design and fine detail is the human interface with the building and we know how that works.

TAKE A STROLL THROUGH OUR GALLERIES

A small selection of how we do our work...

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DESIGNING WITH TALENT AND TECHNOLOGY

All our projects start with conceptual ideas and hand sketches then seamlessly and creatively developed with industry-leading 3D BIM software ensuring the conceptual design, technical detail and construction processes are completely integrated with nothing lost. Images and other 3D media produced from the digital building model allow us and our clients to visually test every idea as the design work develops. Nothing ever happens by accident.

This selection of our conceptual work illustrates a variety of projects now completed, in the planning stages, or for one reason or another didnt get off the ground.

We consider unbuilt work as important as built work in that every new design problem generates a new solution which is added to our extensive knowledgebase and body of work. That formidable resource is drawn upon for every new project.

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SCTK Urban House

Recently completed Mixed-Use Urban House.
A superb new economically sustainable family home in the central city.

Christchurch CBD, New Zealand. Completed 2020.

The SCTK Building is a single-family Luxury Urban House project exploiting the full potential of Mixed-Use town planning rules in a post earthquake-disaster rebuild location. The building is the first within a new block of similarly re-zoned, reinvigorated commercial sites. The building is configured over 5 levels with the private house component occupying the upper three floors including a sleeping level, main living level with a convertible indoor-outdoor terrace, and a rooftop terrace. The main roof terrace connects seamlessly to the living level by spiral stair and lift, with the combined terrace areas releasing the entire building footprint as private outdoor space. The private lift connects all house levels, extending to a hidden ground level entry foyer and rear 2-4 car garage with vehicle access from a private laneway. 

The house is designed to be a private sanctuary for a busy family living in the inner city, within a regenerating area that will become more challenged for space over time. The house needed to be bright, light and sophisticated for living, but also flexible for regular entertaining. The interior spaces are designed to feel, flow, and perform like an exclusive hotel, detailed with an Industrial-Luxe aesthetic of bespoke individually designed and fabricated steel elements, raw concrete, ceramic and fine timber finishes. Outlook and views from the house are directed toward distant topography and cityscape, with significant cultural and civic centres and public parkland close by. Separate ground and first floor tenanted commercial spaces provide a permanent income for building maintenance and outgoing cost for the entire life of the building. 

The SCTK Building is regarded as a local exemplar project demonstrating a compact mixed-use design response for post-disaster urban replacement and renewal.

SPARCHI as Architect and lead consultant was responsible for the design of every aspect of the building including all interior design and detail, selection and procurement of specialist fittings, building systems and appliances from local and international sources. SPARCHI carried out full construction contract administration, and project management of separate contractors and component fabricators.

(Images by SPARCHI)

OCEAN VIEW HOUSE

Our Ocean View House was featured on GRAND DESIGNS AUSTRALIA (Series 3 Episode 8)
The story of our clients journey and how it was built is not to be missed.

OCEAN VIEW COUNTRY HOUSE is carved into the ridgeline of a mountainous rural bushland estate in Queensland Australia. Although with spectacular views, the site is subjected to extreme winds and bushfire risk, highly variable temperatures and limited services. The house needed to be robust, fire resistant and self-reliant including on-site water collection for both household use and firefighting, and deliver very high levels of thermal performance and energy efficiency. To meet these challenges, construction is entirely of Concrete and Steel with zero-timber content. The house composition gives two distinct personalities; a fortress-like public side and an open private side connecting with the land and embracing the endless views. The Neo-Brutalist style architecture is infused with a Japanese 'wabi-sabi' appreciation of rawness, texture, materiality and form inside and out, reflecting and connecting to the local natural environment. The house delivers a pared-back, safe and very comfortable gallery for art pieces, sculpture, family gatherings, entertaining and most of all, the enjoyment of abundant life high up in the Australian bush.

(Some images courtesy of Paul Broben Photographer/FOXTEL)

MAKING THE BUILDINGS

Making the building real is the ultimate point of our work. Following the extensive design, technical development, document preparation and building authority formalities, construction begins. Attending to the work on-site and every aspect of the construction process is essential to ensure the essence of the Architecture is not lost. We manage contracts, supply lines, processes and relationships to make sure everything goes together exactly the way it is meant to be. 

TECHNOLOGIES

Some of the tech capabilities we utilise throughout all our work

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BIM - Building Information Modelling

We utilise Autodesk REVIT as our core Design and 3D modelling platform. This BIM platform provides the ability to make, illustrate and technically document great Architecture as well as ensuring accurate and seamless design integration of building systems in close collaboration with our consultants.

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VR - Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality is a rapidly emerging tech and a cool design tool that we use as part of our creative process. It allows our clients to engage in an immersive experience of their project as it evolves, and helps us and our consultants for checking and confirming design intent during the design processes.

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IMAGING - Drone, Photography, Video

Imaging is an important tool we use from early site and context investigation, through the construction process, and at completion of the project. We utilise aerial drone still and video imaging, gimbal camera and SLR still and video, and comprehensive software facilities for final editing and presentation.

WE LOVE CONCRETE.....

As you have probably guessed, we really like working with concrete... 

The limited palette of core construction materials we like to work with is concrete, structural steel, aluminium, glass, ceramics and fine timbers. Limiting choices keeps us focused, but these materials used to their full potential allow better residential buildings to be built without physical constraint or structural vulnerability. And there is nothing more satisfying than the texture and quality of concrete and the living experience of an industrial strength building.

We do love timber, but in respect for the forests and their fragile ecosystems we use timber thoughtfully, carefully and sparingly, and only in finishing work for its inherent visual beauty, texture and warmth. 

PEOPLE

Martin is the owner and Principal of SPARCHI Architects and a Registered Architect with a passion for cutting-edge architecture, design, and advanced building sciences. Martin is a thoughtful and creative designer, and approaches each and every project from a fresh position focusing on form, space, beauty, performance, and most importantly tailoring design solutions to the people the building is made for. 

Through many years work in practice, academic research and ongoing technical R&D activities, Martin has significant experience in modern concrete-based and industrial techniques for achieving authentically Resilient, Sustainable and Highly Efficient next-generation residential buildings.  Having a passion for detail and creating things in design from imposing steel and concrete structure down to the finest of interior fittings, Martin particularly enjoys working closely with other specialist designers, artists, skilled fabricators and assemblers who also care about design excellence and superb finish.

Martin Chant

M.Arch, ANZIA 
Registered Architect

Meredith is our Interior Designer with degrees in Psychology and Design. With a strong interest in Place Science, her focus is within the psychological and emotional drivers of spatial design. Meredith works closely with Martin and our clients on all of the interior aspects of our projects from concept through to delivery, incorporating her Design, Coordination and Project Management skills to help achieve successful project completion.

Meredith is an outstanding cook and avid food lover. The skill and passion for taking fine fresh produce to the table, and understanding the unique social aspects of this process helps infuse living and entertaining spaces with life, vitality and rational functionality. Meredith considers that experiencing the true fullness of living within a unique bespoke, and personally crafted space enriches life and wellbeing, and defines architectures true purpose.

Meredith Dobson

B.Des (int), B.Sc (psych),
NZCert. Project Management

LET'S TALK!

SPARCHI Architects are based in the spectacular South Island of New Zealand with a focus on creating high quality and timeless Architecture for local and international clients.

We only accept a limited number of projects at any one time to ensure our high standards and individually dedicated services are appropriate and consistent for every client, therefore each project is considered by application.

If you like what you see of us and feel your project might be a good fit, then please contact Martin directly by email or phone, or by message from the form below. 

CONTACT FORM

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SPARCHI Architects 

P.O. Box 1810                     
Christchurch City, 8140
New Zealand

Contacts

Email: studio@sparchi.com 
Phone: +64 (0) 3 337 1360 
Mobile: +64 (0) 27 512 4148




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