Gensler designed a modern and collaborative office space for a confidential professional service company in Melbourne with an emphasis on the future workplace prioritizing human connection, flexibility, and sustainability.

Gensler designed a modern and collaborative office for a confidential professional service company in Melbourne, Australia.

Designed as a future workplace prioritizing human connection, the refurbished office provides a purpose-driven environment that empowers employees, enhances collaboration, and reinforces client relationships. The new environment projects an image of teaming, respect, inclusiveness, and fosters innovation and flexibility with a competitive edge in attracting talent.

Gensler was tasked with creating a space that improves collaboration for a creative culture, allows for flexible spaces, maximizes space efficiency, and provides a positive working environment with operational efficiency.

The hospitality-inspired workplace design principle creates a boutique hotel experience with a warm and friendly reception that welcomes visitors like a hospitality concierge and lounge. The space accommodates various modes and connects to more formal meeting spaces. The design stimulates all the senses, including smell, with a special scent and curated artwork that reinforces the firm’s culture.

Flexible spaces were created that enrich the client experience and reuse existing elements for sustainability. The focus is on small, intimate spaces that build deeper relationships, balancing the personal and digital experiences. Curtains allow for different combinations of scenarios, opening or dividing the space for a changing user experience. The Design Studio incorporates technology, audio-visual overlay, enhanced digital experiences, and modular components.

The principle of “Remembering One’s Roots” acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land and pays respect to their Elders past, present, and emerging. The design includes bespoke pendant lighting created by a community collective of local First Nation women artists and furniture suppliers certified as Indigenous ownership suppliers through a program called Supply Nation.

To build a sustainable and resilient future, the principle of resilience was placed at the core of the project by refurbishing a 15-year-old fit-out and retaining high-impact items for adaptive reuse. The design supports a resilient future by protecting and utilizing existing features of high embodied energy, such as stone floors, aluminum partitioning and glass, stair structure, mechanical services, and stacked stone walls. The design integrates existing elements with new finishes to create a new dynamic and contemporary arrival sequence, challenging the meaning of refurbishment.

Design: Gensler

Photography: Nguyen Dang, Nicole England

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