Vodafone builds innovation precinct

This is the workplace of the future, says CEO Russell Stanners on Vodafone's new Auckland headquarters

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We set the bar in 2005 with the office at the Viaduct. We are poised to move that bar significantly higher with the design and technology behind our new Auckland home at Smales Farm in 2017 - Vodafone NZ CEO Russell Stanners

Vodafone is moving next year to a fully enabled smart building at the Smales Farm in Auckland’s North Shore.

“This is an exciting opportunity to create our vision for the future – an iconic Vodafone community and a working environment that is truly digitally enabled – for our people and our customers,” Vodafone CEO Russell Stanners says in a statement.

“We set the bar in 2005 with the office at the Viaduct. We are poised to move that bar significantly higher with the design and technology behind our new Auckland home at Smales Farm in 2017.”

Over one third of the existing Smales Farm area will be dedicated to the Vodafone branded innovation precinct –modelled on similar urban communities internationally – which will be a hub for large and small businesses, all powered by Vodafone.

This is about more than just the building...It’s about what we can do with our technology and our working practices to lead the rest of New Zealand and show them the future.

Russell Stanners, Vodafone NZ

“Vodafone’s Auckland team of 1800 people are currently spread across four locations including Smales Farm and the Viaduct. This development enables us to bring our large and diverse workforce together under one roof and create a Vodafone branded innovation precinct that will be the first of its kind in New Zealand.”

“In the next 18 months the existing Vodafone building at Smales Farm will be completely refurbished to create a unique, world class workplace, offering employees the most technologically advanced environment to work, collaborate and enjoy.”

Within the building, we will have a variety of work environments: open plan, collaboration, libraries and private spaces, dedicated project spaces, and large communal spaces to bring people together. Everything in the building will be enabled by the smartphone, wireless enabled, voice and video aware and also incorporate virtual reality, says Stanners.

Alongside the Vodafone building, Smales Farm is also developing a hospitality zone with working greenhouses and a leafy laneway of boutique eateries where people can meet and eat.

Conceptualised by Cheshire Architects – the group behind Britomart and the City Works Depot – this will be a vibrant hospitality area that will have people, sustainability and wellness at its heart, says Stanners.

“This is about more than just the building...It’s about what we can do with our technology and our working practices to lead the rest of New Zealand and show them the future.”