The Auckland Customer Service Centre — located on Wellesley Street — was briefed to the team at design agency Creative Spaces as needing to be attractive, functional and to be outlaid with little capital.

Due to the open planned nature of the centre and the breakaway areas, there was a considerable amount of reverberated noise and general echo in the space, which could have led to distractions and made conversations with customers harder.

Creative Spaces wanted to source an acoustic and visual solution that worked with the general theming of the area. There was a desire to provide the 'Genius Bar Helpdesk' with a dramatic feature for effect, and to also naturally draw customers to the centre.

Creative Spaces kept the focus on the customer's needs and away from the traditional 'service centre' approach', and created a clever, colourful fit-out that entertains while being focused on the service delivery to ratepayers and council customers.

Drawn to the geometric profiles of Autex's 3D Tile S5.53, Creative Spaces were able to create a rock-like aesthetic that links with the lighting penetrating the product. It was important during the installation to ensure the positioning of the lighting matched the design of the 3D Tiles, invoking the feeling of being inside a glow worm cavern and identifying the screen-work of the area as a reference.

Using the traditional 3D Tile mounting system, the installers were able to connect the 3D Tiles to a suspended plywood substrate which allowed Creative Spaces to achieve the look and feel they were after.

Both aesthetically pleasing and functional, Auckland City Council and the team at Creative Spaces are exceptionally pleased with how the 3D Tiles have defined the space and provided localised acoustic absorption.