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About Pollen

Pollen is the brainchild of New Zealand industrial designer and landscape architect Adam Ellis.

In 2006, Adam brought together his passion for product design, landscape architecture and Aotearoa New Zealand’s native flora and fauna to establish Pollen Ltd. Since then, Pollen has undertaken a diverse range of design consultancy, landscape architecture, public art and product development projects for clients including Auckland Council, Wellington City Council, KiwiRail, the Government of South Australia, Whitireia & WelTec, Wellington City Mission and numerous private clients. Pollen values the lasting relationships formed through its work.

Consistent throughout Adam’s work is a sensitivity to how objects and spaces can tell stories.

“Story is central to my design approach. I seek to find the narrative behind a space, object or place and embed it within the materiality of the project. Sometimes subtle, sometimes loud, but always there to inform and enrich experience.

I believe people are affected by these embedded messages, whether they consciously notice them or not. Design operates on a subconscious level. There is an adage that good design is invisible. The same is true of landscape architecture. People may not even register that an environment makes them feel better, or that the planting heightens their sense of place. 

For me, good design is about deep messaging, enduring functionality and the relationship between people and the natural environment.” AE

Image; Kaka, sculpture in cast iron 1996. Photography Guy Robinson

Tom Dixon, London | 2002–2003

Adam worked in London as a product designer and developer for internationally renowned designer Tom Dixon. During this time, he designed Mirrorball, a ‘constructivist-swank’ lighting product that played a not insignificant part in the rise of the Tom Dixon brand.

Returning to New Zealand, Adam completed the award-nominated Wilberforce Street House, an architectural collaboration that brought together his new ideaology of integrated landscape architecture.

Image; Inspired by Japanese timber craft, Adam conceived the modular concrete staircase while in London, subsequently designing and building it in Wellington.

Photography Simon Devitt

Te Papa – Mountains to Sea | 1996–1997

Following his graduation from Victoria University with a Bachelor of Design in 1995, Adam was employed as Designer for the Natural Environment at Te Papa.

“As designer for the Natural Environment exhibition, I was privileged as a young designer to work under Mark Pennington to deliver an enduring spatial public experience which influenced and affected an entire generation of young people. Working with an incredibly diverse team and with remarkable freedom made this the best job I have ever had. Of course, the huge Rātā representation, which invited visitors to pass through its hollow interior, was central to the exhibition.” AE

 Mountains to Sea was the permanent natural history exhibition at Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand and ran from 1998 to 2018. 

Photography Kate Handley

The Shrine

In 1992, Adam conceived The Shrine. It forms part of a life’s work exploring the growth of New Zealand rātā species over found and purpose-built objects, exposing and celebrating their sculptural root formations while telling their whakapapa and remarkable survival story.

“The Shrine concept sits between object, landscape and living systems. I have a fascination with ecological processes that outlive, overcome and continue beyond humanity’s control. A designed form sets an initial trajectory, but control is progressively surrendered to biology. Like a deliberate ruin in the jungle, the structure is slowly overtaken by the life it was designed to support.” AE

HONEYCOMB & Integrated Landscapes | 2015–present

In 2015, Pollen developed HONEYCOMB, a modular greenwall and architectural partition system designed to bring planting into commercial interiors without compromising valuable floor space.

With a slim footprint and a suite of accessories supporting multiple workplace functions, HONEYCOMB brings together industrial design and wellbeing. Pollen continues to specify and install the system nationwide, with thousands of modules now in use.

Between times, Pollen undertakes a variety of commercial and boutique residential landscape architecture and public art commissions.

Image; Pregrown Pollen Greencell planter bags hoisted into place at Whakamaru, Wellington City Mission.