Clare Athfield

Nancy Clare Athfield (née Cookson) is a retired New Zealand interior designer. She was influential in using New Zealand place names to name the colours of paint for buildings. Her design input was seen in decorative motifs on architecture projects of Athfield Architects amongst other places.

Biography Athfield is from Northland, New Zealand. She went to Auckland Teachers' College and trained as an art teacher graduating in 1959. She taught art in Auckland and worked at the Auckland Art Gallery in the late 1950s. In 1964 she moved to Wellington, and in 1971 she began working in her husband's architectural firm, Athfield Architects. She established the firm's interiors division, provided interior design advice and also collaborated with artists as and when needed.

Athfield influenced the colours and names of paints used in New Zealand, developing limewashes for Aalto Paints and contributing her 'knowledge of the effects of colour and light on spatial quality and materials to both Dulux and Resene paint ranges'. Athfield designed the pink and white petals and worked with Neville Porteous who hand-made each tile. When the building was demolished in 2022, parts of the capitals were retrieved and exhibited.

In 1977, Athfield Architects began designing Crown House, in Wellington. Athfield designed and made the clay rams' heads seen on the keystones on the windows.

Projects

With Athfield Architects

Sindall House, Lower Hutt (1971-1976) Oriental Bay Apartments, Wellington

In 2014, Ian Athfield was made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. As his wife, Athfield may use the courtesy title Clare, Lady Athfield or Lady Athfield.