Sunken Fire Pits - The Modern conversation Pit, with Flare

Fire pits have been a trend in Auckland for a while now, and honestly I understand why. My partner is quick to tell me that marshmallows are the real reason, as a huge advocate for smores, but I believe it might be a little further than that.

In the 70's and 80's houses on the market had remnant objects in them call conversation pits, carpeted steps that faced in towards themselves, unique and beautiful as they were the New Zealand market hated them... then. But fashion is truly circular, and now 40 years later we have lived vicariously through our televisions, conversed via landline, mobile, Zoom and Skype, and at long last the time for the conversation pit has returned.

After the effects of the Coronavirus, I found myself, a huge introvert, wanting people to chat to. I went out of my way to try and spend 10 minute a day having an actual conversation to keep myself sane, but I didn't have a house of my own to build a space specifically dedicated to it, so let's be theoretical.

The first thing I would have done was looked to the outdoors. New Zealand may have a dangerous sun, but it is realllyyy nice on a good day, which approximately 230 days a year are, and I just spent the last 2 years fixing my living room to be ultra comfortable. So, now I have to consider what space I have available, and what furniture I want, and I honestly believe that I would turn to fixed furnishings in order to create atomic habits, and in order to drastically alter the space fast and fairly inexpensively, but a great slab of rock wouldn't be attractive (unless...) so I would consider building it into the landscape. Lawns get wet often enough that grass seats might not be logical in limited space.

Auckland has a LOT of townhouses, with flat yards, and limited space, so down is the way to go. A sunken space. But the evening is the nicest time of day, and it would get cool as we chatted, or wet, so drainage and some form of heat and BAM... we have reinvented the Conversation pit, but this time we call it a Sunken Firepit.

That was a long walk for a short drink of water, but I found myself with multiple clients over the last few years looking for precisely this, and it has been a great pleasure to work on them every time. Right now I have an enormous lawn space to look at, so skirting the fire pit and having a path lead to it has built interest into the greater environment, a sense of excitement in the expanse, so paired with some well thought out materials and we have a winning Sunken Fire Pit.

I would love to work on more of them, and I truly believe that in this market it would continue to grow as a trend, thankfully, so give us a call when you have decided!