Completed in May 2016, Atomic Coffee Roasters, Wynyard Quarter is a recent addition to Atomic's popular cafés across Auckland. The new café was designed by creative teams Paul Izzard Design, Fuman Design Studio and Blank Canvas Design Co., who collaborated to bring the brand's aesthetic to the forefront.

The team at Paul Izzard Design had previously worked on other interior fit-outs for Atomic, and wanted to maintain consistency across the different cafés — while also providing a unique design. As the Wynyard Quarter space was located in a contemporary building quite different to Atomic's other locations, they opted to use similar materials to the other cafes — including Plytech's Futura HPL — in new, different ways.

Futura HPL with a black laminate veneer was selected for the cabinetry and benchtop surfaces of the café, and was also layered and stacked to create the customer counter space and bespoke shelving. "We wanted to create visual impact in a small space in a simple and effective way by stacking the ply," says Interior Designer, Sara Erdos. She explains that the edge detail of Futura HPL adds another dimension to the design. The modern, layered effect of the ply extends up the back wall of the café where strip lights have been recessed into the staggered ply wall, creating an eye-catching feature.

Plytech's Futura HPL comprises Birch plywood finished on both faces with a premium high pressure laminate from Egger in Germany, and is available in a range of colours. It is a popular product for interior fit-outs as it is not only attractive, but also provides a host of practical features. "We use Futura HPL for a lot of cabinetry and other uses because it's really good around wet areas," explains Erdos. "It's pre-finished, hardwearing and robust  — a good quality product."

"It's also readily available and machines really easily," she adds — features which would have been appreciated by the cabinetmakers of this complex installation. Approximately 35 sheets of Futura HPL Black and 30 sheets of Supawhite laminate were used for the project, and intricate fixing was required to get the ply sheets sitting right without interfering with services.

The extra effort was well worth it, with the stacked ply adding an element of depth without sacrificing space in Atomic's striking new café.