Dunedin's other heritage.

Dunedin's grand heritage buildings are remembered for who paid for them. This one is remembered by who worked in it: piano makers, printers, engravers, and the tradies giving it a new life.

Who works in 25 Bath Street?

Hover or select a dated brick to read more.

Piano makers 1903–1945
Printers 1945–1953
Hatmakers 1953–1969
Pipe makers 1969–1974
Engravers 1974–2022
Builders 2024–2026
You 2027–
2027
The next entry is you.
Book your stay in the apartments. Book a desk or meeting room.

Giving the factory a new life.

Between 2024 and 2026, we stripped this building back to its bones and rebuilt it for a second life.

For more than a century, people came here to work for the businesses inside it. Work looks different now, so we've opened the doors wider: the ground-floor workshop is now Workspace 25, a co-working space for Dunedin locals and people passing through.

Upstairs, where the big factory windows let in the best light, we built two apartments, so visitors to Dunedin can stay in a converted factory.

We documented the whole process: the traces left by the people who worked here before, which now live on the walls as images, and the work of taking the building down to its structure, replacing the roof and building new walls.

Ground-floor workshop with stacked framing timber
The ground-floor workshop at the start of the job, framing timber stacked and ready.
Ground-floor workshop with stacked framing timberUpstairs with the ceiling opened up and new insulationUpstairs room with refitted windows and painted brickWorker downstairs beside a post covered in handwritingHandwritten messages from 1991 and 1992 on a postDownstairs posts covered in messagesOld timber lining piled up on the ground floorTwo workers investigating the ground beneath the floorPartition wall removed back to the original brickTyped joke dated 26/10/89 pinned to a wall

The ground-floor workshop at the start of the job, framing timber stacked and ready.

Upstairs with the ceiling opened up: new insulation going in above the original brick.

Upstairs, nearly finished: the factory windows refitted and the brick freshly painted.

Downstairs, working beneath the beams where staff wrote up their Christmas parties.

1991 and 1992, written on one of the downstairs posts.

The downstairs posts, covered in decades of Christmas messages, before the floor work began.

Stripping out the ground floor: old timber lining piled up for sorting.

Ground investigations beneath the old downstairs floor.

Taking a partition wall back to the original brick.

A typed joke dated 26/10/89, still pinned to the wall.