HARDcore is the new kid on the block at the intersection of Ponsonby and Karangahape Road. Open seven days a week, the space is billed as a cafe, art studio, retail store, art gallery and community centre all in one – and it’s hardcore huge.
Located inside a heritage building once home to Starkwhite gallery, the ground floor is at least twice the size of nearby empty lots. Inside, its cavernous interior is emphasised by the high ceilings, supported in the centre by two grand pillars. And there’s an upstairs, too. For anyone used to the usual eclectic, cluttered, and sometimes pokey independent arts spaces dotted around Tāmaki, HARDcore’s size is unexpected, even brave, considering the current economic outlook. For owner-operator Robby Hekkers, that’s precisely the point.
He’s seen many in his community leave Aotearoa to pursue creative endeavour elsewhere, “which is so fair because times are tough,” and wants to do the opposite – nurture all the things that are happening here. “We’re pretty cool and there’s people doing really cool things here. That’s why I bit the bullet on this."
Hekkers says he’s dreamed of operating a cafe / community art space like HARDcore since he was a teen growing up between Aotearoa New Zealand and The Netherlands. “Everyone’s doing cool stuff, and I just want to accommodate it,” he says. In 2022 Hekkers opened Lucky Strike in Mt Eden, hoping to create a community hub for artists. But Hekkers says his first venture was ultimately let down by its location and size – he wanted more space, more central to the city. He sold the business around a year later when it “fizzled out”, and began scouting for the right space to bring his vision to life. When he took a viewing for the commercial space at 510 Karangahape Road, he knew he’d found it.
Given the economic downturn has hit hospitality hard, a venture of HARDcore’s size seems almost foolhardy. This impression is compounded when you consider that artists and creatives aren’t exactly a target demographic flush with cash. But as a creative himself, Hekkers sees huge potential in the city, and a growing momentum in the arts scene which he wants to nurture through HARDcore. In its vast expanse, he offers a shared space for artists to meet up, collaborate, make, and show work. On street level the massive cafe, and its massive table is a place creatives can pop in, meet, or quietly work and also host events. The first was held Friday 8 May, a premier for a video made by Harry Kidman.
Upstairs, four rooms are being leased as shared studios. Sharing keeps the costs down, says Hekkers, and all but one of the rooms is already filled with creatives from varied disciplines: fashion designers, painters and musicians among them. Each artist receives their own keys for all-hours access, and unlimited coffees downstairs. Already, the response has been enthusiastic and overwhelming.
“It’s kind of organically picked up,” he says. “People are saying a lot of nice things about there needing to be more spaces like this, especially on K’ Rd.”
Local designer Caitlin Snell is one of the residents. She makes leather bags, accessories and clothing, and her eponymous brand is stocked in the retail area. She shares her studio with a friend. When we pop in to say hello, she is steaming some fabric for her next collection beside a few of her famous Horse Girl charms. A canvas dropsheet covers much of the hardwood floor, and large paintings on plywood lean against the walls to dry.
Snell made the dramatic semi-sheer curtains veiling the stairwell, says Hekkers, who designed and built much of the fitout himself, recruiting help from friends along the way. With a laugh, Hekker says the counter was built with “Bunnings paint, some plywood, and a dream”. It features a custom-cut stainless steel top, which matches both the floating aluminum shelves, and Totty Bowham's silver star stools.
All together, the DIY nature of the space combined with its celestial elements, brutal minimalism and light colour scheme serve to express an almost utopian hope for the arts in Tāmaki, positioning HARDcore as a safe heaven for creative communities. Built by artists, for artists, HARDcore’s expansive space expresses the sense of possibility that Hekkers, and other creatives see in our city. By nurturing the community here, Hekkers says he hopes to help realise that potential, envisioning Auckland as a cultural centre that draws artists from all over the world. “I think people are going to come back,” says Hekkers referring to the many young creatives that have drained out of Aotearoa recently. “We’re starting to get out of this funk that we’ve been in.”
