The Kings Plant Barn chain opened an architect-designed garden centre in Stonefields in Auckland. The garden centre is near Mount Wellington and set near one of Auckland’s biggest recent residential subdivisions.
The 2800 square metre site is a garden centre with a difference reports Des Snell in the August-September issue of Commercial Horticulture magazine.
“Stonefields is the first major step in a project of continuous re-invention for Kings,” says Nat Cheshire from Cheshire Architects, the firm behind the design of the garden centre. “The project turns garden centres into urban epicentres supporting and delighting in, reconciliation of humanity and nature.”
Solar panels supply all the power needed for lighting the centre during the day.
Features include:
- A high-ceiling building housing indoor plant categories, accessories and gift lines with a children’s play area and large café.
- Plastic-covered roofed area for outdoor plants with steel modular tiered displays.
- Drive-through area for garden mixes and landscape supplies.
- Plant displays by landscape designer Xanthe White with take-home ideas.
- Displays by local artists (100 per cent of profits returned to the artist).
- Locally built timber display units for gift ware.
For the full story see Commercial Horticulture
