Designer Feature: Fabric

Christchurch-based Fabric has been a humble high-achiever in the New Zealand Architecture scene since it was founded by architect Mitchell Coll in 2009. The practice’s list of prizes and accolades is impressive, spanning from NZIA and ADNZ wins, to several Best and Timber Design Award nods, as well as features in local and international publications. Currently a tight knit team, Fabric’s success comes down to a keen focus on detailing, which begins from early conceptual drawings.

“We are looking to build architectural houses that perform really well, but without making compromises on aesthetics,” Mitchell says of the practice’s core values. “That means making sure our detailing is really top notch. We don't consistently adhere to a specific look or style, but instead aim to design buildings that connect people to their environment. It’s predominantly about how people are going to use spaces.”

Sustainability is a key driver for the team, who design for high thermal performance and a low carbon footprint from the get-go. Rather than simply including some solar panels, Fabric aims to foster a true understanding of sustainable building design, helping clients to see the power and sense behind good thermal performance. Mitchell sees sustainability as being the biggest influence on New Zealand architecture today, and envisions this growing exponentially over the next decade.

“It comes down to the quality of the technical side of building design, much of which has been left out in recent years. It’s about having a legitimate understanding of operational and embodied carbon but also just creating better detailing around aspects like dew points,” he says.

In terms of an ideal project to work on, Mitchell appreciates a degree of bravery, with some of his favourite projects stemming from a client’s wish to push boundaries on a beautiful site. One of the most influential buildings he has worked on to date was Red Pine Villa, an earthquake rebuild that recaptures the essence of a beloved family home in Christchurch. Finished in 2025, the multi award-winning house is clad in Abodo Vulcan in Protector - Nero.

“That project brought together a lot of our learnings from over the years and it has been a turning point for us, both in terms of demonstrating the culmination of our skills and in showing the power of using timber en masse, as well as the benefits of lifting the building off the ground without concrete foundations,” says Mitchell.

Red Pine Villa also demonstrates a key feature of Fabric’s work: a beautiful way with light. Like another multi-award winner, Nightlight, this and other Fabric projects make use of light filtering effects created through translucent walls and timber or metal screens. With the effect of standing beneath a canopy of trees or looking out at a misty morning, these screening elements are influenced by Japanese design, an aspect of Mitchell’s design sensibility that hatched when he lived in Japan on a formative student exchange in his early teens.

“I'm not a big fan of just a little timber wall here or a block there. I think it always looks better if you're using it in large quantities,” says Mitchell. “For us, the biggest drive for using Abodo is the fact that it's a very stable timber. I mean, there's a lot of stuff I like about it, but the stability is where I see it as just light years ahead of any substitutes. It doesn't bow, and the colouring and the graining is really consistent. And it comes from a renewable source.”

Mitchell’s own property in Akaroa is slowly taking shape, with his much-loved Nightlight project - an artful utility shed - marking the beginning stage. When he thinks about a Better Tomorrow, Mitchell denies wanting to be finished with his own house. Quite the opposite, in fact.

“We never want to finish our house. Because if we finish it, then we'll have to start another project. So this is a project that's actually going to go until we die!” he laughs.

When it comes to the future of architecture, Mitchell hopes to see the value of good design better appreciated and understood across New Zealand in years to come.

“Good design can increase the quality of people's lives. It should begin with conversations in school. Design should be everything; it shouldn't be just an extra.”

FABRIC PROJECTS

Nightlight

When Mitchell and his partner Amy Douglas purchased their Akaroa property, they needed a services block for the long running project of creating a home there. Rather than a temporary, purely practical structure, they instead created a building that doubles as a light feature, to be enjoyed from their future outdoor living space. With a polycarbonate shell and a wrap of Vulcan Screening, Nightlight lives up to its name - glowing like a beacon from the edge of the property in the evening, while its wedge-shaped roofline and mix of vertical and horizontal lines gives it a sculptural quality during the day.

Product:
Vulcan Screening (88x18) in Protector – Patina (one coat)
Vulcan Screening (65x42), Uncoated

Location:
Akaroa, New Zealand

Credits:
Fabric team: Mitchell Coll, Amy Douglas
Builders: Mitchell Coll, Amy Douglas, Chris Carter, Dani Pinion, Bill Mulholland
Photography: Nancy Zhou

Shed Light

Following on from the success of Nightlight, Shed Light serves the practical purpose of a modest garden shed but transforms at night into a glowing architectural folly. Designed to reflect the effort many New Zealanders put into creating thriving gardens, this structure demonstrates that beauty can be created in all corners of domestic life. Enveloped in uncoated Vulcan screening, donated by Abodo, Shed Light was commissioned for Pleasure Garden, an Objectspace exhibition in Ōtautahi Christchurch.

Product:
Vulcan Screening (65x42), Uncoated

Location:
Pleasure Garden exhibition, Objectspace

Credits:
Fabric team: Mitchell Coll
Builder: Mitchell Coll
Photography: Fabric + Natalie Bascand

Red Pine Villa

Fabric designed this Christchurch home to create a building that captured the scale, form and charm of their earthquake-ruined villa, while updating it for high thermal performance and future proofing it for further development. The brushed texture of the dark, Nero coated Vulcan Cladding gives a shou sugi ban aesthetic, with red metal sliding screens providing dynamism and filtered light for outdoor living spaces. Detailing is pared back, with gutters absent from the design, creating clean, modern lines within a suburban context – creating Red Pine Villa.

Product:
Vulcan Cladding, Brushed Finish in Protector – Nero

Location:
Christchurch, New Zealand

Credits:
Fabric team: Mitchell Coll, Amy Douglas, Dani Pinion
Builder: Parthenon Construction
Photography: Stephen Goodenough

Fifth House

Located on a prestigious Christchurch street, Fifth House was designed to sit back among its neighbours with a sense of quiet confidence. Schist forms and concrete lintels contrast seamlessly against the depth and sleekness of the vertical Vulcan cladding, which is finished with Protector - Nero. While two-storey, the pitch of the roofline gives a low-slung appearance from the street, with the rear of the house revealing sheltered outdoor dining and a pool patio.

Product:
Vulcan Cladding in Protector – Nero

Location:
Christchurch, New Zealand

Credits:
Fabric team: Mitchell Coll, Dani Pinion
Builder: Buchan Homes
Photography: Stephen Goodenough

Studio Dental

A design inspired by architectural elements of the owner's Korean family heritage while creating a pleasantly recognisable landmark from the street, Studio Dental’s office features a white pre-primed and painted Abodo Vulcan latticework screen, sturdily based with stone-footed columns, with Vulcan Cladding beneath. Providing a play of light and shadows through all times of the day and night, the latticework is reflective of traditional Korean architecture and also complements heritage villas in the surrounding neighborhood.

Product:
Vulcan Cladding, painted

Location:
Christchurch, New Zealand

Credits:
Fabric team: Mitchell Coll, Amy Douglas, Dani Pinion, Mary Ghattas
Builder: Mike Newman Builders
Photography: Simon Devitt