Woodhead is excited to have been shortlisted in the Corporate Design Category for both the Department of Education, Employment & Workplace Relations in Canberra and Coffey International Workplace in Adelaide.
Woodhead has designed the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations interior fitout, delivering a new building for 2,500 of DEEWR’s National Office staff. The interior design encompasses 40,000m2 office accommodation over 11 levels, and is designed to perform at a 5 star Green Star / 4.5 star ABGR level.
Through a series of detailed workshops with DEEWR senior executives and leaders, Woodhead established a series of guiding principles that underpinned all decision making throughout the project. The result is a workplace which demonstrates accessibility and visibility, both literal and metaphoric. The design concept creates an environment that engages human emotions and experiences in a ‘living’ space, a place where the boundaries of work life and home life are blended.
A connection stair intersects all 11 floors, designed to breakdown departmental barriers, and foster communication and interaction between staff. Community areas adjacent to the stair well alternate in size, from large to small, between floorplates, creating variation and people flow. These social spaces promote a unified presence for DEEWR staff, bringing together ideas about building form, activity and movement to encourage and maximise the interaction and collaboration of staff and visitors.
Coffey International have partnered with Woodhead to deliver the organisation’s first truly consolidated headquarters in South Australia. The project known as Worldpark 01, brings the Coffey Group from a number of disparate locations across Adelaide into one workplace environment delivering the many benefits of increased knowledge sharing and improved efficiencies.
Coffey’s new workplace design provides an open, naturally lit environment featuring chilled beam air conditioning, external views for all staff and a diversity of locales to meet and work. As part of the co-location project, purpose built laboratory spaces and soil testing facilities are provided on-site, ensuring staff from all groups within Coffey have been catered for.
At the heart of the workplace design is a large central atrium, a “One Coffey” space where the whole organisation can meet as one to celebrate success. The atrium is accessed via an interconnecting stair and includes a communal library, function facilities and lounge.
Woodhead have worked closely with the client to apply the Coffey brand to the three dimensional space. Subtle design language references ideas of exploration, typography and the connected network which Coffey operates within.
The new workplace for Coffey embodies the group’s aspirations of applying its specialist skills and knowledge to finding solutions that deliver extraordinary outcomes to improve the lives of world communities.
Awards and commendations will be presented during the Awards Announcement Dinner on Friday 15 April 2011.
