The concept of an office space has changed in recent years, and along with it how we use them, how we interact and what they mean to us. Melbourne based Interior Design firm Studio 103 have envisioned a new kind of workspace with the opening and release of Charter Hall’s fresh new offices in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD.
Even as we leave Covid-19 in the past, the effects continue to be felt by us all. We have changed how we dress, how we communicate, even our consumption habits, but it has been workspaces and traditional office offerings that have keenly felt the impact of the pandemic. A new generation of offices have been designed to reinvigorate the commercial space and encourage people to return with spaces that resemble living rooms, spas, hotel lobbies and innovative tech suites. They have been elevated by kitchens that provide room for meetings, conviviality and happenstance networking, and they have been boosted with private spaces that shut out the world, enabling immediate connectivity with assured privacy. In short, like home, but better.
Engaged by Australia’s largest property development and funds management company, Charter Hall, the almost 3000 sqm of office space at 555 Collins Street, Melbourne represented an opportunity for Studio 103 to demonstrate the possibilities of the ‘new office’. The team split the available space into four distinct personalities to not only appeal to different tenants and businesses, but to set a benchmark in office design and be the example for modern, workplace environments.
“The intention was to provide more of a hotel experience as soon as you walk out of the lobby,” explains Vanessa Serruto, Associate at Studio 103.
One of the four personalities Studio 103 laid out for 555 Collins Street, was Elba. An oasis of sorts, it uses warm, light timber, cooled by sea greens, emerald stone benchtops and gold detailing. Textural paint and mosaic tiles add to the feelings of luxury hotel or high-end apartment outlined by the brief.
“We wanted to express calmness, and for these materials and textures to complement each other, so these choices led the colour palette in this tenancy because it expressed what we were trying to achieve.”
The kitchen is the hero of the space, connecting the rooms and offices to each side. It has been designed to form a bridge between the spaces and much like a modern domestic kitchen, “these aren’t just places where you eat your lunch, it has been designed as kind of multi-purpose room, for networking events and company town hall meetings, so it has various types of seating to accommodate the needs of staff and individual styles of gathering,” says Vanessa.
Adding to the effectiveness of the space are the curves and circular motifs that function as more than just aesthetic embellishments, but practical, instinctual pathways that guide and direct.
The Elba space began with Laminex Spinifex, an earthy, organic green-blue with grey base. It allows timber tones to operate naturally, letting cooler colours – in this case Esmeralda, an emerald quartzite stone from Signorino and grey herringbone floor tiles from Perini Tiles – to complement and add to the overall calmness Vanessa had stressed as the design language for this part of the building.
“It’s the colour range, to be honest,” says Vanessa on her choice to use Laminex, “and you can play with the palette a lot, as it supplements all the other finishes you work with. You can work with different types of finishes and play with colour a lot more.”
Like all commercial projects, costings and value management is a constant juggling act. 555 Collins Street and its four unique spaces employed Laminex in a multitude of capacities. By offering colours, textures and qualities to bend and fit to the different design directions and personalities Studio 103 required, its ability to work with a whole manner of textiles and materials is testament to its position in the marketplace and its ability to provide benefits at varying scales and budgets.
“[Laminex] Spinifex is a coastal grass found in sand dunes and the quartzite benchtop is a muted seafoam colour. The fact that these two worked together in meaning and in colour, we thought, well, there’s no doubt, we’ve got to use it,” finishes Vanessa.
Learn more about the project and Studio 103’s portfolio here.
Credits:
Designer: Studio 103
Photographer: Tom Blachford
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