JUNE 2022 CAPABILITY STATEMENT
Woods Bagot Commercial Portfolio
Contacts Jason Fraser jason.fraser@woodsbagot.com T +61 2 9249 2665, M +6 14 2147 5580
WOODS BAGOT
Image above and cover: Blue & William Sydney, Australia
Contents
01 About Woods Bagot 02 Relevant Experience 03 Team 04 Thought Leadership
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Funan Singapore
Company Overview
01
Welcome to the Practice of the Future
ARCHITECTURE
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INTERIORS
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MASTER
PLAN
WOODS BAGOT spans design, research, data, and performance to create People Architecture. We place human experience at the centre of our design process in order to deliver engaging, future-oriented projects that respond to the way people actually use space.
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01 Company Overview
SYD Sydney Studio
Our studio is highly design focused and produces many of Woods Bagot's award winning projects. Based in the city above Wynyard train station, our studio is the perfect central location for our clients and collaborators to visit. Based around the concept of hospitality and welcome, the studio is the perfect place to meet, talk, and share ideas.
50%
Our practice continually advocates for gender equity in the profession. With over 50% representation of female leadership in the Sydney studio, we support diversity within our practice and on our projects.
Woods Bagot Sydney Studio
“The Sydney studio is one of our most established, allowing us to contribute to the improvement of this beautiful city” Sarah Kay, Director, Studio Chair
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120+
Our diverse team of over 120 designers work on many of Sydney's major projects. Our key areas of specialisation are transportation, education, residential, workplace architecture and workplace interiors.
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ivy
25 Martin Place Redevelopment
Wynyard Walk
CBA Axle South Eveleigh
03 Capability Statement
Workplace Architecture
The future of workplace architecture is the opposite of its rigid, stratified and homogeneous past — it’s flexible, diverse and connected.
55 Pitt Street, Sydney, Australia
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Approach
Architecture for the workplace Through our Workplace e(X)perience (WX) tools, we design digital systems based on qualitative and quantitative user and spatial analysis. This provides data‑rich evidence to advise tenants, designers and developers on how to craft contemporary workplace experiences. Floorplate Test Zoning
1 William Street, Brisbane, Australia
MC2 Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, UAE
“A new workplace typology has emerged – one that embodies sustainable objectives through adaptability, meeting the evolving needs of occupier and market demands. Authenticity, character and experience are key success measures that underpin our design approach.” Richard Fenne, Principal, Global Workplace Architecture Leader
55 Pitt Street Sydney, Australia
Relevant Experience
02
Project Name
Global best practice workplace design
Ground plane/public domain activation
Connection with the city
Creation of place and user amenity
Focus on customer needs and experience
Large format floor plate design
Sustainability strategies & certification
Designed for adaptability
The table below demonstrates our experience and capability across workplace, mixed use, retail and public domain projects. Further information on these projects and our experience is provided on the following pages.
Attracting major tenant pre-commitment
Our team offer extensive local cross-sector experience and global expertise to ensure the best project and design outcomes.
55 Pitt Street Sydney
Cockle Bay Park, Sydney
Central Place, Sydney
CBA Darling Square, Sydney
80 Ann Street, Brisbane
1 William Street, Brisbane
Collins Arch, Melbourne
80 Collins Street, Melbourne
NAB 405 Bourke Street, Melbourne
NAB 700 Bourke Street, Melbourne
NAB Brookfield Place, Sydney
CBA Axle South Eveleigh, Sydney
347 Kent Street, Sydney
25 Martin Place Redevelopment, Sydney
Gateway Podium Redevelopment, Sydney
275 Kent Retail Precinct, Sydney
ivy, Sydney
Funan, Singapore
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02 Relevant Experience
Theme 1:
The future of workplace and how this relates to building design principles. The future of workplace is transforming, forcing commercial buildings (some of the least changing and static sectors) to rethink their value, how they respond to changing demands and most importantly for the first time, force the architect to rethink design for the ‘user’ and the people rather than the skyline. The idea of the workplace has changed dramatically, along with people’s expectations. These places should be regenerative- stimulating and engaging environments where our non-digital selves can be nurtured and challenged. Australians are some of the most flexible working in the world and we are seeking more flexibility, better amenity and better space from our employers in order for them to be an employer of choice and ‘attract talent’ and to ‘earn our commute’. More than ever we need to blur the boundaries between work and leisure, allowing people to make the most of their time and giving them a sense of connection and a humanised experience- that is ‘purposeful and enriches their lives.’ Coupled with the altruistic needs, the future workplace we create must provide spaces that are exemplary in terms of the quality of space, users' comfort and control and the ability for the building to deliver this through access to light, outdoor space, mixed mode and quality ventilation. Connectivity In a time where digital connectivity and ‘video’ has been the way we have connected for nearly two years, the purpose of the workplace is connection: human connection. Therefore a building must be designed to enable connection,
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Health and wellbeing embedded into design principles and space programming. Over the last twelve months there has been a resurgence in the quality of space being provided by employers. A building, must deliver the best in servicing, with access to fresh air, elevated fresh air rates, filtering and, if the current legislation is approved, changed ventilation rates, to ensure the workplaces we create are ‘healthy’ Scalability, adaptability and flexibility The future development will need to accommodate the need for change, be that in tenancies and in the overall building, by reviewing the entire ecosystem, from leasing to the creation of space. The flexibility in design of both services, tenancies lines and the use of ‘common’ space will be key to the future workplace tower, in allowing users, to constantly adapt and change to project and workforce needs. This is a concept that we call the “on Demand” workplace. This flexibility will require some thought in the way we design services, and also common amenity like co-working. Smart, intuitive building systems Despite ongoing and continuous rhetoric from developers and buildings owners alike we have not really reached the ‘smart’ building and the pandemic will really drive an impetus to evolve the ‘smarts’ of a building to monitor and respond to the buildings environment and users. The technology in the building from entry through to monitoring of systems and people will continue to evolve and these technologies will continue to influence the way we design buildings.
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02 Relevant Experience
55 Pitt Street Sydney, Australia
Blue & William Sydney, Australia
Won through an international design competition, the proposal brings to the forefront a next generation building centred around a sense of belonging and place dictated by guiding principles of Country, community connections and a workplace environment focusing on new return to work principles. With its focus on wellbeing and flexibility, 55 Pitt Street will truly be a workplace of the future.
Blue & William is a mid-scale commercial building that will add diversity and an alternative, high quality commercial offer. With a focus on the incredible views across Sydney Harbour towards the city, the building design celebrates its unique location at the junction of the city and the leafy, characterful harbourside suburb to the south.
Client: Mirvac
Client: Thirdi
Size: 70,000 sqm (753,470 sf)
Size: 15,300 sqm (165,680 sf)
Completion: 2024
Completion: 2023
129-131 Henry Street Penrith, Australia
CBA Axle South Eveleigh Sydney, Australia
Won by Woods Bagot through a design excellence competition, the project comprises a new commercial building offering over 8,000 sqm of flexible work space with ground floor retail. The three inter-connected forms allow the floors to be programmed separately or entirely, and create better natural ventilation than a uniform box, enabling the building to flexibly adapt to changing future needs.
The building's full-height atrium is activated by open collaborative spaces, and recessed meeting rooms. Café-style meeting areas, multi-purpose rooms for groups, and secluded private booths give staff freedom to connect from wherever. Biophilia is woven through the workplace, with indoor gardens, ample daylight and terraces on levels 1 and 7. CBA Axle was rated #4 globally on the 2019 Leesman+ certification results.
Client: Penrith City Council
Client: Commonwealth Bank
Size: 8,700 sqm (93,646 sf)
Size: 42,000 sqm (452,088 sf)
Completion: 2023
Completion: 2019
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02 Relevant Experience
Ivy in Sydney provides multiple through-site connections and carefully located entries at various points that invite visitors to weave in from the street to rest, shop, and socialize away from the bustle of the city and rediscover Sydney’s lost laneway network.
Theme 2:
Ground plane/public domain activation and connection with the city. While the skyline defines a city’s identity, it is the streets and its public realm that define its true character and connects with the people. Never before has this been more important as we work to ‘reactivate’ and reinvigorate our city. As Sydneysiders and professionals, this is our motivation and our approach – to create buildings and precincts that are for people and for our city.
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To attract people and have them constantly coming back, the place needs to be welcoming to everyone, no matter their age, race or earning capacity. They need to feel safe to work, socialise and participate. They need to feel a sense of ownership, not necessarily because they have been involved in the process, but because the process has considered their community and the ground plane.
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02 Relevant Experience
25 Martin Place Redevelopment Sydney, Australia
275 Kent Street Sydney, Australia
The centre’s relationship to Martin Place creates a public plaza, drawing people into the retail, food offerings and also acts as a key address to the tower lobby. Maintaining and enhancing the centre’s role as a connective destination is crucial to its continued success. The reactivation of Lees Court and Rowe Street as a natural and vibrant city laneway provides greater connection within the urban realm.
The project re-orientated the main entrance to provide safer pedestrian access, refreshed Westpac's lobby, provided new EOT facilities and revitalized the retail precinct and urban park. The new retail precinct provides convenience and best in class food operators, integrated art, laneway activation and a lush, verdant landscape that provides a respite from the daily grind in a dynamic urban jungle.
Client: Dexus
Client: Mirvac
Size: 6,500 sqm (70,000 sf)
Size: 7,890 sqm (84,930 sf)
Completion: 2021
Completion: 2020
Funan Singapore
ivy Sydney, Australia
The redevelopment of this marketplace synergistically combines retail, leisure, entertainment, wellness, dining, office, co-working and co-living settings into one experiential civic hub. With community, connectivity and convenience at its core, the porous streetscape program and flexible ventilation creates a ground floor accessible by pedestrians and bicycles 24 hours a day.
Sited on busy George Street, this mixed use development celebrates and adds new energy to its downtown Sydney location. Comprised of 12 boutique shops, 18 bars, nine restaurants, two penthouse suites, a rooftop pool, a garden atrium and one of the city’s largest ballrooms, the intricate hospitality ensemble seamlessly reinvigorates previously neglected laneways and pedestrian areas
Client: CapitaLand Mall Trust
Client: Merivale
Size: 83,000 sqm (893,412 sf)
Size: 20,000 sqm (215,280 sf)
Completion: 2019
Completion: 2007
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02 Relevant Experience
W-B North Sydney Model
Theme 3:
Understanding North Sydney. The opportunity to further contribute to the strategic development of North Sydney is extremely exciting. This quickly emerging and significant part of Sydney is critical to the success of Sydney as a whole, driving real economic growth and activity.
Our experience has been across a range of projects types and scales, all of which have been focused on how they contribute to the design quality and public space of the city.
Through our experience of delivering significant projects in North Sydney our team has a unique understanding of the area. We can provide strategic advice around planning regulations as well as foresight on any potential project risks.
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02 Relevant Experience
Warada on Walker Sydney, Australia
Blue & William Sydney, Australia
63-83 Walker Street aspires to be a major contributor to the evolving vibrant and highly connected city of Sydney, creating a new benchmark commercial offering within the North Sydney CBD. The envisioned design is more than just a workplace – it is a place to connect and collaborate. Access to natural light, nature and exceptional views across Sydney Harbour will help to attract and retain the best and brightest talents.
A mid-scale commercial building re-envisions contemporary work based lifestyle. Blue & William celebrates it’s uninterrupted views of Sydney Harbour and the junction between North Sydney’s leafy, residential neighbourhoods with its active and buzzy business district. Armed with deep insight into the rapidly changing urban landscape of the area we’ve conceived a innovative and healthy workplace building that redefines workplace lifestyle.
Client: Thirdi
Client: Thirdi
Size: 33,000 sqm (355,200 sf)
Size: 15,300 sqm (165,680 sf)
Completion: In Progress
Completion: 2022
173 Pacific Highway Sydney, Australia
168 Walker Street Sydney, Australia
173 Pacific Highway represents a unique opportunity to disrupt the traditional office tower landscape of the North Sydney CBD. As well as contributing to the growth of the local area, the building will help diversify its commercial market, offering an alternative office space for a different tenant mix – from start-ups and smaller businesses to larger offices.
168 Walker residents will never need to leave home again. Ambitious and cosmopolitan, this new luxury mixed-used precinct will offer the residents the benefits of a suburban dwelling with the amenity and convenience of forward-thinking high-rise city living. Catering to different tenant interests, a variety of active, passive and outdoor amenity spaces will encourage residents to exercise, relax or socialise.
Client: Maville Group
Client: Aqualand
Size: 11,090 sqm (119,371 sf)
Size: 51,000 sqm (548,959 sf)
Completion: In Progress
Completion: 2023
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02 Relevant Experience
Theme 4:
Creation of place and user amenity. Creating a space that has relevance, feels 'of its place', and is unique is critical to the success of any development. The way we live, work, shop and play has changed forever. And places are no longer competing with the physical realm, but the digital too. The next generation want meaning in work and the organisations they work for and this meaning extends across everything they do, from work through to the places they shop, eat and socialize. This generation – future tenants – are socially conscious and will demand a building and precinct that is authentic, that respects our often disregarded past, and visibly supports an optimistic, sustainable and integrated future. A successful place is no longer simply about architecture, it’s about experience, service, programming , storytelling and serendipity.
In this new landscape, where we ‘are earning the commute’, we need to think about place differently. The future tenant and generation will seek out authentic places that are good for the environment and unique in their format (and attributes) – think rich in amenity, stories and diversity, not homogeneous, shopping malls or office spaces. Spaces like our Funan project in Singapore that ‘blend’ shopping, work, living, co-working, recreation and garden – a blur of amenity. Great places combined with great architecture can make a big, bold statement. But this is bigger than that. This is about a declaration. This is about creating a legacy — an egalitarian one that we all belong to. A magnet we are all drawn to and a destination for all. This is about a place of purpose and meaning. Where we respect heritage while defining tomorrow.
As a new paradigm for living, working and playing in the city centre, Funan integrates public spaces, commercial functions and cultural facilities with its urban location. With community, connectivity and convenience at its core, Funan will cater to the new breed of consumers who favour a collaborative environment and authentic experiences that reflect their passions and tastes.
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02 Relevant Experience
347 Kent Street Sydney, Australia
Collins Arch Melbourne, Australia
New glass-fronted atrium invites the outside in, creates a hive of activity and gives passers-by a glimpse of what lies beyond the facade. A far cry from the cold, sparse lobbies of old, 347 Kent Street features a unique ground-floor space, where workplace and local community converge. Blurring boundaries between on and off duty the lobby is alive with activity and interaction.
Sculptural mixed use tower provides increased city amenity in a city block precinct that energises the central business district with a 24-hour life. With 49,000 sqm of premium office space, 184 apartments and 294 hotel rooms in Melbourne's first five-star W hotel, along with 1,000 sqm of ground-level retail, the precinct pushes the boundaries of how city space can and should be used.
Client: Investa
Client: Cbus Property
Size: 12,000 sqm (129,170 sf)
Size: 162,500 sqm (1,749,135 sf)
Completion: 2019
Completion: 2020
Gateway Podium Redevelopment Sydney, Australia
Aboriginal Arts & Cultures Centre Adelaide, Australia
Gateway is a vibrant three-level dining precinct situated within the reconfigured architectural envelope of Gateway Plaza at Sydney’s Circular Quay. Designed to support the growth of a vibrant and safe night time economy, the retail mix and planning connects and activates the precinct to the streetscape via laneways and voids, redefining the location as a dynamic food hub and lifestyle destination.
Grounded on Kaurna land, the design narrative of the cultural centre is based on the deep Aboriginal connection to country, place and kin, with connected layers being the foundation of the design. Between the exhibition levels is a radically welcoming arrival ground plane that extends to the land in all directions and reorients the building and its entry to Kaingka Wirra (Adelaide Botanic Garden)
Client: Dexus
Client: South Australian Government
Size: 12,000 sqm (129,200 sf)
Size: 15,000 sqm (161,460 sf)
Completion: 2016
Completion: 2023
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02 Relevant Experience
Designed for small business customers, The Village at NAB 700 Bourke Street is a co=working space connecting NAB to its community. The village was not part of the original design brief, but rather an idea created by the Woods Bagot team in response to how we saw people working in the future.
Theme 5:
Customer needs, journey, experience, and connectivity. Mixed typology development is a must in the current climate where, work and life meld, and convenience, as well as pleasure, becomes an attractor for brands.
This trend is getting even more important and expanding further, blurring the lines and melding the requirements between the ‘user and the uses’ of the site.
Arguably, Australia has some of the most savvy local tenants and is a draw-card for the growth of some of the most progressive global tech brands. Together, these local and global tenants are driving a requirement for high quality, efficient, and amenity rich buildings and precincts. They want better quality experiences for their people and to diversify and enrich the experience of the workers, collaborators, visitors, and the communities they participate in.
The precinct characteristics are driven by a requirement for adaptability and flexibility, integrated experience, connectivity, wellness and sustainability, and in crafting the 'collision' and connection of a diversity of user groups, to craft an activated, vibrant and energetic building and precinct.
These tenants and industry trends are driving an increasingly sophisticated requirement for building amenity from wellness and end of trip facilities to coworking and activated lobby spaces. This attitude has been adopted in our most recent buildings, including 405 Bourke Street in Melbourne and the nearly completed 80 Ann Street in Brisbane.
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02 Relevant Experience
NAB 700 Bourke Street Melbourne, Australia
80 Ann Street Brisbane, Australia
The vision for NAB workplaces is to provide agile workplaces that enable and empower NAB’s business, people, customers and communities to realise their potential and maximise performances. The lower levels of the building encourage engagement with the public realm, deliberately ‘lifting the curtain’ on the inner workings by drawing the customer and community inward into immersive and accessible amenity spaces.
80 Ann Street is designed around its tenants and connection to the city. Located on the original site of the Turbot Street Fruit Market, 80 Ann Street provides a porous and connected ground floor through three different routes and places: Market Lane – a narrow retail laneway; Market Place – a new heritage inspired retail market; and the Atrium – a wide and terraced arrival and drop-off plaza.
Client: Cbus Property/NAB
Client: Mirvac/Suncorp
Size: 63,000 sqm (678,132 sf)
Size: 84,250 sqm (906,860 sf)
Completion: 2013
Completion: 2022
80 Collins Street Melbourne, Australia
Sydney Metro Central Station Sydney, Australia
The podium base comprises 5,000 sqm of street-level retail and commercial spaces that knit together the entire block. Its height and form respond to traditional street characteristics and the rhythm of its historic neighbours. Internal laneways are also integrated within this space to link the surrounding streets and perpetuate the city’s pedestrian connectivity.
The design places the user experience at the centre of the Central Station transformation. The creation of more open spaces at key decision making points significantly improves circulation and station legibility, with enhanced accessibility, permeability, and connectivity across the station precinct, resulting in an intuitive and easily used station environment for all customers.
Client: Dexus & QIC
Client: Laing O'Rourke/Sydney Metro
Size: 56,500 sqm (608,166 sf)
Size: 40,000 passengers/hour
Completion: 2020
Completion: 2024
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02 Relevant Experience
Theme 6:
Designing buildings to attract major tenant pre-commitments. In a competitive and (what is considered the most) progressive workplace market in the world, a knowledge of workplace, workplace trends and some of the most influential tenants is paramount to a development's success. No development starts without a pre-commit. Our local team have access and insight to many of these major tenants. We have worked with Google, LinkedIn, Atlassian, Amazon, Hulu, Stripe, Twitter, Facebook, HP and a few other tech companies. We have also worked with a number of local corporate heavyweights including CBA, NAB, BHP, and GE as well as NSW State Government and smaller scale tenants.
From this work we know what tenants want and how to tailor buildings to their needs to make a compelling narrative and scheme that is unique for each tenant. Our collective approach with workplace lead integration has provided a formidable advantage to our architectural teams in projects such as 1 William Street, 80 Ann Street and 405 Bourke Street and our workplace team have and continue to create some of the most referenced workplace outcomes commencing with One Shelley Street with Brookfield in 2009 to the most recently completed CBA Axle South Eveleigh workplace - which was named as the ‘workplace of the decade.’
Designed for the next generation of tenant, CBA Darling Square supports an agile and innovation focused workforce with amenity for social gathering and wellbeing.
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02 Relevant Experience
CBA Darling Square Sydney, Australia
Central Place Sydney, Australia
Woods Bagot worked with Lendlease to design a workplace specifically for Commonwealth Bank at Darling Square. The building is designed around connectivity, connecting people within the building through a large central atrium, and connecting tenants to the community through a full height, transparent ‘window’ to the outside precinct.
Central Place, was conceived in the reference scheme with SOM to attract key technology tenants, with large scale workplaces from 5,000 sqm to smaller tower plates of around 1,800 sqm. This development as part of the innovation precinct was conceived prior to the design competition to attract key technology clients Amazon and Google, as well as the Government’s start up hub.
Client: Lendlease/CBA
Client: Dexus & Frasers Property
Size: 1,438 sqm (15,478 sf)
Size: 155,000 sqm (1,668,405 sf)
Completion: 2018
Completion: 2020
80 Ann Street Brisbane, Australia
NAB 405 Bourke Street Melbourne, Australia
Woods Bagot worked with Mirvac to design a commercial development to attract Suncorp as its key tenant. Designed from inside out, the workplace experience is driven around six key themes: flexibility; connected and contiguous workspace; a uniquely Queensland vernacular with breathable floorspace; collaborative and curated spaces; community and customer focus; and increased tenant amenity.
In one of the largest single-office tenancy moves in Melbourne, NAB chose 405 Bourke Street as its next office location. Located close to Bourke Street Mall, the building offers large scale, open plan floor plates. Using our knowledge of NAB's culture and workstyle preferences, we were able to design a building to suit their needs and help Brookfield secure NAB as the sole tenant for the building.
Client: Mirvac/Suncorp
Client: Brookfield/NAB
Size: 84,250 sqm (906,860 sf)
Size: 105,000 sqm (1,130,220 sf)
Completion: 2022
Completion: 2021
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02 Relevant Experience
Google's workplaces are designed to facilitate collaboration and innovation. The diversity of work settings and spaces are connected to staff amenity and a range of food offerings.
Theme 7:
Global best practice workplace design and thought leadership. It remains clear that Australia is, and continues to be, a leader in workplace globally - and it has been for over the last two decades. Australia is home to some of the most innovative, agile, flexible, and connected workplaces in the world.
Originally released on our website, the article was replicated in various publications from mainstream media through to business and design publications and was read by over 25 million people in 25 different countries.
Our global team is considered as some of the most skilled practitioners globally with insights into leading tenants, as well as conference speakers and creators of policy, change, and future strategy.
Since the release of this thought piece, we have continued to test, evolve, re-test and roll out these workplace design strategies with both our local and our global clients. The first, and most referenced, postCOVID project has been launched, exhibiting these principles in Goodman's The Hayesbery workplace in Sydney.
During the pandemic, our Global Workplace Interiors lead, Amanda Stanaway, led a thought piece of strategy titled 'Where do we work from here' that outlined the strategies that would influence the way we work moving forward from COVID-19.
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02 Relevant Experience
55 Pitt Street Sydney, Australia
CBA Axle South Eveleigh Sydney, Australia
Won through an international design competition, the proposal brings to the forefront a next generation building centred around a sense of belonging and place dictated by guiding principles of Country, community connections and a workplace environment focusing on new return to work principles. With its focus on wellbeing and flexibility, 55 Pitt Street will truly be a workplace of the future.
CBAs newest workplace focuses on the bank’s continued commitment to innovation, learning, and the wellbeing of their people. CBA Axle was recognised as a high performing workplace when it was ranked #4 globally on the 2019 Leesman+ certification list. The project has received numerous local and global awards, including the 2020 INDE Best Work Space of the Decade award.
Client: Mirvac
Client: Commonwealth Bank
Size: 70,000 sqm (753,470 sf)
Size: 42,000 sqm (452,088 sf)
Completion: 2024
Completion: 2019
NAB 700 Bourke Street Melbourne, Australia
Google Various, incl Sydney, Singapore, Tokyo
NAB set out to radically re-imagine the workplace to achieve increased efficiencies and improved business performance. The response is a technology-enabled space that supports physical and virtual synchronicity, parallel processes and collaboration across a matrix organisation. The workplace has received many awards and was a finalist in the 2020 INDE Best Work Space of the Decade award.
Woods Bagot and Google have created an innovative and supportive working relationship over the 12 years, delivering amazing work environments across the globe. Together we have defined the benchmark for translating their metricdriven design standards into a series of bespoke environments that capture global and local aspects of the company’s culture and build on a layered workplace experience.
Client: Cbus Property/NAB
Client: Google
Size: 63,000 sqm (678,132 sf)
Size: Various
Completion: 2013
Completion: Ongoing
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02 Relevant Experience
Theme 8:
Large format floor plate design. Woods Bagot has extensive strategic and architectural experience and our Sydney team leads the market in exemplary workplace.
The drive for scale is based on contiguous space and the drive for energy and serendipity that is critical to these ‘scaled’ businesses and their innovation culture.
Independently, and in collaboration, Woods Bagot and ERA-co have worked ‘from the inside out' to design many of the floorplates in the Sydney CBD and have influenced many workplaces globally working with a wide range of architects, developers and owners. We will draw on our unique perspective on the opportunities for the future workplace of users, organisations and suppliers of our team.
All of these businesses identify visual and physical connection as central to building community and fostering collaborative innovation to achieve the best outcomes.
From our work tenant side, we are fortunate to work with some of the world’s most progressive tenants. GAFA (or Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple for the uninitiated) are some of our global clients and we have been fortunate to work with them not only locally but also in Silicon Valley and in China, where their scale of workplace is impressive.
Our work has allowed us to take a position on the right scale of workplace, and question 'Is bigger better and when it a floor plate too big?'
Community, teamwork, and creativity are supported by intimate space and by highlighting individuality and personality dynamics in complement with the large scale plates. Large scale plates should not be a factory floor and at scale we must ensure that the physical parameters such as access to light, and distance to spaces are met. Our work with tech companies largely drives this large scale plate. The biggest floor plate being an eye watering 20,000 sqm at Tencent Headquarters in Beijing, and more locally relevant being the 9,000 sqm floor plate at CBA's Foundry workplace at ATP. These examples are somewhat atypical and a large floor plate in the Sydney market is typically considered between 2,500- 5,000 sqm – a size we have designed for a number of projects, including CBA Darling Square in Sydney and NAB 700 Bourke Street in Melbourne.
B1
B2
CBA Darling Square
NAB 700 Bourke Street
CBA ATP South Eveleigh
3,700 sqm per floor
5,130 sqm per floor
B!: 5,575 sqm per floor B2: 8,360 sqm per floor
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02 Relevant Experience
Central Place Sydney, Australia
NAB Brookfield Place Sydney, Australia
As part of the proposed Sydney innovation hub, Central Place was designed to provide spaces to allow tenants to grow and adapt to their space requirements. The design offered large scale floor plates to the podium base of 5,000 sqm and 1,500 – 2,500 sqm tower plates above, providing a diversity of space for a diverse group of tech tenants allowing them to scale up as they ‘grow’ in the tech ecosystem.
In response to the requirements of the potential tenant (NAB), Woods Bagot, in collaboration with MAKE and Brookfield, devised a scheme to connect the lower levels to the heritage building Shell House, through a series of voids, and connecting stairs and bridges. The result was lower plates of around 3,200 sqm that support NAB’s requirement for contiguous space, and a 90m long contiguous trading floor.
Client: Dexus & Frasers Property
Client: Brookfield/NAB
Size: 155,000 sqm (1,668,405 sf)
Size: 33,000 sqm (355,210 sf)
Completion: 2020
Completion: 2020
NAB 700 Bourke Street Melbourne, Australia
Tencent Headquarters Beijing, China
The 5,000 sqm triangular floorplate is divided into eight zones that act as hubs for 50 people, with the added flexibility to cater for 100 drop-in staff, community and consultants. Each of these zones are further sub-dividable into a series of spaces for social, shared, focused and learning environments. 14-floor open atrium includes stairs to provide connectivity between the floors.
The interior design solution for the sevenstorey building's mega floor plates is both functional and iconic. The central core design integrates two intersecting spiral stairs with mezzanine platforms, for an informal and collaborative workplace destination. On every level, the seating configuration and design are different, conducive to varied forms of engagement or working styles.
Client: Cbus Property/NAB
Client: Tencent
Size: 63,000 sqm (678,132 sf)
Size: 170,000 sqm (1,829 860)
Completion: 2013
Completion: 2019
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Theme 9:
Sustainability strategies, net zero carbon initiatives and delivery of Green Star, NABERS and WELL rated projects. The next generation are shifting the landscape around sustainability and social agendas. We know that comfort is linked to performance and an employee who enjoys the environment and the community they are part of will be more engaged, productive, and healthy. Holistic sustainability must be embedded in everything we do, ensuring contribution to community, the city, the site ecosystem and the end users.
Our Commitment Woods Bagot is committed to the pursuit and integration of environmentally sustainable principles throughout our work. Our objective is to provide clients with products of high performance standards which respond to their needs, while reducing the impact on the environment. Woods Bagot recently declared a climate and biodiversity emergency with other design firms by signing up to Architects Declare. As part of signing up to this initiative, we have pledged to: accelerate the shift to low embodied carbon materials in all our work; collaborate with engineers, contractors, and clients to further reduce construction waste; and minimise resource waste in architecture and urban planning, both in quantum and in detail. Our involvement in the Architects Declare initiative has triggered a review of our systems, target and initiatives. This includes the clients and suppliers we work with; widening the knowledge we capture; the training and competencies of our staff; public reporting, as well as our carbon footprint, waste, etc. We are currently reviewing environmental targets applicable for our business and we are investigating the move to becoming a carbon neutral business.
As a global business Woods Bagot has the advantage of having worked with the world’s most accepted sustainability rating tools – BREAM, NABERS, Green Star, LEED and WELL Building Standard. Using these rating tools, we have designed and delivered some of the most sustainable projects in the world, including: – 1 William Street in Brisbane (6 Star Green Star - Performance) – National Australia Bank 700 Bourke Street in Melbourne (6 Star Green Star Performance) – IRENA Headquarters in Abu Dhabi (Estidama Four Pearl rated); and – Collins Arch in Melbourne (WELL Platinum Pre-certification) – South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute in Adelaide (LEED Gold Certified). Green Star and NABERS are imperative and ‘business as usual’ for most of our local clients and are fundamental in the development of the services and interior design solution. We are also seeing increased interest from clients in the WELL rating system and how this can influence design to improve the health and wellbeing of the building's users. In addition to the recently completed WELL Platinum rated Collins Arch development in Melbourne, Woods Bagot's is currently delivering the 80 Ann Street commercial tower in Brisbane, which is targeting WELL Platinum Shell and Core rating, and 405 Bourke Street commercial tower in Melbourne, which is targeting a WELL Gold Shell and Core rating. We have also just received planning approval for the Esplanade Plaza commercial building in Perth, which is targeting a WELL Gold Shell and Core rating.
Sustainability Rating Tools WOODS BAGOT
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Holistic Design Process We believe sustainability is more than just achieving a point score or the implementation of symbolic gestures. We believe that good sustainable design should be integral to a holistic design process, based on well considered first principles, and not reliant on expensive technological add-ons. That is why we have developed a methodology to underpin our design process and to elevate the user experience and enrich the health of building users. We provide a holistic approach to sustainability that focuses on the required outcomes, sets real objectives, and develops the most cost-efficient means of delivery. We don’t allow design to be steered entirely by the intricacies of the relevant rating systems, but instead we remain focused on the outcomes and objectives of the project. We understand that sustainability needs to be economically viable and we look to incorporate initiatives that provide the best Whole of Life (WOL) benefit to each project.
Achieving Sustainable Design Outcomes To develop and align to the Architects Declare mandates and our sustainability ambitions, we launched our Global Impact Group (GIG) in July 2020. The GIG consists of team members from across our global studios, all working together to develop and introduce initiatives across our client, design and delivery, management, and technical innovation streams that allow us to achieve better, more sustainable design outcomes and improved environmental and social impacts. The GIG recently worked with our Design Technology team to create an Environmental Performance Toolkit (EPT) that contains a collection of location and project based analysis tools that integrate with the Rhino and Grasshopper software programs for use by project teams.
NAB 700 Bourke Street was Victoria's first office building to receive a 6 Star Green Star performance rating. 700 Bourke Street now boasts a triple 6 Star rating, having previously secured 6 Star Green Star ratings for the Design and As Built stages.
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Woods Bagot's EPT integrates seamlessly with our existing 3D modelling software to produce designs that directly respond to the climate conditions of the project location and context.
Utilizing the latest open-source environmental simulation and analysis platforms and data, the digital toolkit helps drive design development and produce architecture that directly responds to the climate conditions of the location and project context with validated results. This thoughtful approach can help determine building orientation, massing, facade development and solar mitigation or benefit, while providing for optimal conditions for your project. Location-based analysis informs the project from its initial inception by visualizing the climate and solar data. This analysis guides and helps designers understand the architectural needs of that site through the consideration of thermal comfort, prevailing winds and solar exposure. Project-based analysis is introduced early in the design process to simulate performance of the design against environmental factors. This analysis evaluates a project
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and its context for solar radiation, sunlight hours, shadows, daylighting, and views. The analysis helps the design team determine building orientation, massing,facade development and solar mitigation or benefit, among many others. In addition to the EPT, the GIG is currently developing our own sustainability guidelines and web-based sustainability assessment tool to be used globally across all projects. The guidelines are driven around twelve main criteria that impact on both environmental and human sustainability. These criteria include: location; site; resiliency; economy and society; community; innovation; adaptation; design with nature; massing; performance; resources; and wellness. The assessment of our projects against these criteria will allow us to drive a consistent and deeper and holistic approach to sustainability.
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1 William Street Brisbane, Australia
Collins Arch Sydney, Australia
Clever design and innovative solutions have resulted in an energy-efficient building that contributes to the health and wellbeing of its users. 1 William Street includes a high level of environmental credentials, achieving a 6 Star Green Star - Office As Built v3 certified rating a 5.5 Star NABERS Energy rating. In 2018, the building also received a 6 Star Green Star Performance 'World Leadership' rating.
Collins Arch was the third development to receive a platinum WELL Pre-certification. This was accomplished through indoor air quality monitoring, superior natural lighting and ventilation, an emphasis on bicycle access, and more. To round off Collins Arch’s sustainability endorsement, the building has also been submitted for 6 Star Green Star accreditation and 5.5 star NABERS energy rating.
Size: 125,500 sqm (1,350,870 sf)
Size: 162,500 sqm (1,749,135 sf)
Completion: 2016
Completion: 2018
Sustainability: 6 Star Green Star
Sustainability: WELL Platinum Shell & Core
IRENA Global Headquarters Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Goodman The Hayesbery Sydney, Australia
The design of the IRENA HQ building was driven by a desire to conserve energy and water, balanced with a vision to promote biodiversity, minimise the use of high-embodied-energy materials and create an attractive, liveable and inspiring environment for occupiers. IRENA HQ was the first office building in Abu Dhabi to be awarded the 4-Pearl Estidama Construction Rating Certificate.
The Hayesbery regenerates four older industrial buildings into a modern campus. Our design approach was to touch lightly, minimise waste and reduce carbon footprint by reusing materials to create a modern, sustainable workspace. The campus features extensive indoor planting as well as a wellness room, solar panels, EOT facilities and openable panel lift doors and roller shutters to provide outside air.
Size: 32,000 sqm (344,448 sf)
Size: 4,000 sqm (43,056 sf)
Completion: 2015
Completion: 2021
Sustainability: 4-Pearl Estidama
Sustainability: 5 Star Green Star
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Theme 10:
Design for adaptability as society and technologies rapidly evolve. Businesses are constantly competing in a world that is growing even more complex and this requires the buildings they inhabit to be adaptable. Work is constantly changing, evolving slowly into a more global, digitised and collaborative endeavour and never more than the last 18 months has this been the case with workplace and its purpose being constantly questioned. Work is so much more than an office. It brings together the needs of the individual, the team, the organisation and increasingly, the needs of the community into not only a building but a place that becomes an expression and an extension of organisational brand and values. There are universal requirements when designing the ideal workplace, but for commerciality these are often amalgamated into a set of average controls, a world of ‘one size fits all’ or ‘one size fits no one’. The future workplace puts the control back into the hands of the occupier to curate and change their workplace to suit their changing and diverse needs now and into the future. Comfort, well-being and respite: access to daylight and views, minimising use of blinds, allowing fresh air and the city in, direct connection to the city
Diversity of workplace: Contiguous ‘curatable’ floors, mixed mode offices, garden meeting rooms. Identity: Exemplary future workplaces will have a distinctive character of human that has to move away from the homogeneous, mineral fibre ceiling, carpet tile warm shell of typical office buildings. Ideal future buildings and workspaces will be hackable and capable to respond to shifting patterns in workplace or to completely shift to accommodate a different building use. This includes immediately “hackable” workspace, and the bigger picture development of site that can be adapted to infinite iteration and change over time. The key for the technology change, is to see the ‘technology’ ecosystem of a building as constantly changing and evolving, rather than the developer philosophy of some items of set and forget. The platform of the building technology ecosystem or ‘smart’ building platform, needs to be adaptable to tenant, but also responsive to change, to be able to add on, change, augment and reinvent and realign to changing parameters, over time. We are yet to see a building or a developer fully embrace the integration of technology and the tenants needs into a comprehensive ecosystem, and we believe the future workplace typologies, will require this to be ‘best in class.’
Rapid workplace change requires adaptability and long life loose fit
Now
2 Years
5 Years
Flexible, permeable ground plane, Mixed Use
Pushing forward multiple leasing options
New paradigm, blurred boundaries, per head leases
Outdoor space, Internal atria, Shared tenant amenity, fixed long term leases
Mix of uses, Smart buildings
Fully connected buildings
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Cockle Bay Park Sydney, Australia
Schools Infrastructure DfMA Guidelines Sydney, Australia
Designed with a disconnected side core and timber structure, Cockle Bay workplace floors were designed for flexibility and adaptability. The structural design of the tower allows the office floors to be reconfigured in order to adapt to a future range of typologies. The timber subfloors between the steel structure creates an ability for voids and connection to be easily created across the ‘villages’ .
Developed as a case study on the Meadowbank K-12 Schools project, Woods Bagot collaborated with SINSW to develop a method of standardising the design and construction of future primary and secondary schools using the Education Facilities Standards and Guidelines to create a kit of parts based on the construction approach known as Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA).
Client: GPT & AMP
Client: Schools Infrastructure NSW
Size: 86,000 sqm (925,700 sf)
Size: Various
Completion: 2020
Completion: 2020
Zero Carbon Tower London, United Kingdom
Google Majulah Campus Singapore
This project to refurbish an existing concrete-framed office tower used innovative mass timber extensions to provide a framework for inhabitation. By creating an adaptable building formed from a set of parts that allows for and celebrates tenant expansion, contraction and modification - this flexible and adaptable building will have a unique character on the London skyline.
We worked with Google's global teams to create a flexible 'on demand' kit of parts that could be curated and changed by a team within timeframes of an hour, day, or weekend. This "jacks and flappy desks" concept provided the end users with flexibility to tailor their spaces to respond to changing team needs, phases of projects and growth and created a new service delivery model for the workplace team.
Client: Confidential
Client: Google
Size: 95,900 sqm (1,032,268 sf)
Size: 73,000 sqm (785,800 sf)
Completion: 2018
Completion: 2016
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55 Pitt Street Sydney, Australia WOODS BAGOT
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Key Personnel Today, architecture is more than a building – it is about creating places that optimise human performance and experience and this extends far beyond the realms of the physical space. It requires looking at this site and opportunity through various perspectives, both human and data.
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We are highly communicative and come with a diversity of opinions and an ability to be objective and approach design from differing perspectives. We have outlined a CV for our proposed project leader in the following pages.
Our team is a multi-disciplinary and diverse team, providing a unique combination of expertise. We propose a team that will lead with their expertise and knowledge of this city and of exemplary world class commercial developments.
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03 Key Personnel
Jason Fraser Principal
Jason has extensive experience in commercial, residential, mixed-use and urban design projects. A diverse background in Real Estate, Fine Arts and Architecture underpins his unique design approach. Applying that across a range of sectors and project typologies, Jason’s engagement spans phases from urban master planning and development feasibility to concept creation and project delivery. Jason’s strength is in translating complex requirements into efficient and elegant solutions. His design process has the highest regard for collaboration with the client and team. As a result, he can weave together multiple aspects of a project—from over-arching social and commercial imperatives to simple details and overall form. Experience Mixed Use – 8 Phillip Street, Parramatta, NSW, Australia: 39,180 sqm (421,730 sf) – Lachlan’s Line Master Plan, Sydney, NSW, Australia: 240,000 sqm (2,580,340 sf)* – Lachlan’s Square Stage 1, Sydney, NSW, Australia: 53,900 sqm (580,180 sf)* Residential
Project imagery on the page that follows: 01 129-133 Henry Street Penrith, Australia 02 Warada on Walker North Sydney, Australia 03 Warada on Walker North Sydney, Australia 04 2 Melbourne Quarter Melbourne, Australia 05 2-4 William Street North Sydney, Australia 06 168 Walker Street North Sydney, Australia
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– 168 Walker Street, North Sydney, NSW, Australia – 180 George Street Tower, Parramatta, NSW, Australia: 91,750 sqm (987,600 sf) – 295 Church Street, Parramatta, NSW, Australia: 28,000 sqm (301,390 sf), (Design Excellence Competition Winner) – 330 Church Street, Parramatta, NSW, Australia (Design Competition Winner) – Botany Road, Sydney, NSW, Australia (Design Competition winner)* – McEvoy Street, Sydney, NSW, Australia (Design Competition winner)* – Odea Avenue, Sydney, NSW, Australia (Design Competition winner)* – Victoria Square Stage 2, Sydney, NSW, Australia (Design Competition winner)*
Workplace Architecture – 1 Denison Street, North Sydney, NSW, Australia* – 129-133 Henry Street, Penrith, NSW, Australia: 8,700 sqm (93,646 sf) – Blue and William North Sydney, NSW, Australia: 15,300 sqm (165,680 sf) – Argyle Tower, Parramatta, NSW, Australia: 106,000 sqm (1,140,980 sf) – Two Melbourne Quarter, Melbourne, VIC, Australia: 51,700sqm (556,500 sf) – Warada on Walker, North Sydney, NSW, Australia: 33,000 sqm (355,200 sf) Design Panels – ACT Government, National Capital Design Advisory Panel – Waverley Design Excellence Advisory Panel Qualifications – Bachelor of Architecture (Hons), University of Technology Sydney, 2006 – Bachelor of Arts (Architecture), University of Technology Sydney, 2004 – Advanced Diploma of Fine Arts, North Sydney Institute of Technology, 1999 Professional Affiliations – Registered Architect, NSW, No. 8431 * Experience prior to Woods Bagot
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Where do We Work from Here? Whilst it is unknown the extent of the workplace transformation after COVID-19, we do know that future workplaces need to address both safety, culture, and engagement to ensure the long term, sustainable future of workplace.
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Thought Leadership
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CBA Axle South Eveleigh Sydney, Australia
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04 Thought Leadership
The corona virus pandemic put the spotlight on working from home and, as a result, it is believed that the experience will lead to a significant change in our work habits and expectations. In response to COVID-19, working life instantly shifted from our offices to working from home. While this trend had been on the rise over recent years, the immediate mass shift bought on by stay home orders exposed the benefits (and challenges) to a far wider range of us than ever before. Many discussions have been had about how the traditional 9-5 office working model has been disrupted by the pandemic, and how the swift change to working from home ushered in – and cemented – a new normal of remote working. As we become comfortable with working remotely, more of us will expect to do so more often and it will be one of the most significant impacts of COVID-19 on how we design and use our workplaces in the future.
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The WFH experience will see HOME forming an extension of the WORK more so than ever. The challenge is how to execute this while ensuring organizations have physical time together to build their culture. Despite employers having witnessed how it’s possible for their teams to work in other ways and change their leadership from command and control overseeing, this won’t negate their people yearning for and needing an office and sense of purpose belonging in the future. The power of place can’t be underestimated, and while many organisations will move forward with more flexible strategies than before they will continue to believe in the importance of the office for valuable social interaction as well as being able to collaborate and ideate face to face.
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04 Thought Leadership
Whilst it is unknown the extent of the workplace transformation after COVID-19, we do know that future workplaces need to address both safety, culture, and engagement to ensure the long term, sustainable future of workplace. Touch-free soap dispensers in bathrooms and sanitising stations are now a common sight, and the number of people allowed to occupy collaborative areas, like lounge spaces, and social areas, like kitchens and breakout areas, have been stripped back to about half their normal capacity. Meeting rooms have signs and table stickers indicating ‘pre-distanced seating’, and even the circulation paths and air filtration systems have been carefully thought through. Workplace design post COVID-19 requires a 360-degree vision of design, technology, and operational aspects. These aspects cannot be regarded in isolation. Some design considerations include: – Integration of technology to allow prebooking of spaces and meeting rooms as well as contact-less building and room access. – Space booking technology integrated with facilities management to ensure spaces are sanitised before each use. – Online food ordering through in-office app system with grab-and-go stations for pick up, with specific timeslots to avoid queues.
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– Motion-sensor soap dispensers and hand dryers in bathrooms as well as motion-sensor hand sanitiser dispensers distributed throughout the workspace. – Replacing larger hub kitchens with smaller “pit stop” stations and kitchenettes to serve smaller groups of people and act as hygienic ‘bump’ opportunities. – Use of discreet dots or markers on the floor and tables to indicate the recommended distance. – Use of longer and wider desks with higher (transparent) partitions to ensure social distancing. – Choosing adaptable furniture to provide greater flexibility to respond to future change, such as workstations with legs offset from the edge of the table to accommodate dividers. – Limiting loose furniture pieces to the number of prescribed number of people allowed in the space. – Selecting products with finishes that meet hygiene requirements, so they are easier to clean – looking at the lessons we can transfer from the healthcare industry. The immediate recovery demands the rebuilding of trust between colleagues and addressing the points of anxiety. Trust to re-engage. And then reform: re-setting how and when we work.
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04 Thought Leadership
Post-Corona Workplace Models To anticipate the impact corona virus could have on workplace design, Woods Bagot’s re-imagined workplace models see working from home playing a role in them all, to greater or lesser degrees. The reality for most organisations will likely be a combination of two or more of these models. Model 1:
Culture Club Office as the collaboration hub, the vital ingredient for creativity in complex problem solving. As great as the technology is improving, and as hard as we try, creative collaboration suffers in a virtual environment. It will continue to evolve, but before it does we’ll see the physical office becoming a more club-like space, a place of creative interaction. In this model, the workstation transforms to a variety of adaptable settings for collaboration, leaving quiet, focused or process work to be accomplished remotely at our homes. Focus work is done from home and people only travel to the office when it is necessary or preferable to collaborate physically with colleagues with buzz and energy. Imagine a workplace with no desks!
Model 2:
In and Out A percentage of the population in at any one time (an extrapolation of some of the ‘back to work models’ except for handover time where teams might come together for a short period). When we talk about ‘agile working’, we’re talking about creating freedom for people to decide how, when, and where they work. Agile workplace experiences include flexible start and finish times, shared spaces, and remote working. For employers, the strategy offers benefits in space optimization. The future of work in this model will be a more hybrid version of ABW or agile which de-densifies and manages the workplace population over times and days of the week through a complementary combination of working from home and colocated agile staff. Relying on rotating teams that best support the interactions and activities, it provides more space for people (because there are fewer).
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Model 3:
Community Nodes The decentralized HQ, where people work in disaggregated offices of their employer, located closer to their homes. This model changes the way we live, work, and commute but maintains the connection and tribes essential to organisational culture by ‘working from work’. With our reduced desire to use public transport and be among large groups of people, the future in this model is more distributed than consolidated. Its focus is on smaller satellite, community based, offices. The offices will be closer to people’s homes making significant impact on the ‘time’ challenges of the old working models and supporting people to ‘live and work locally’ in tribes. With most people working from their local community nodes the central HQ office becomes smaller and serves as the Culture Club (model 1) bringing people together as required, from their community nodes. This approach balances the social benefits of being physically co-located with the efficiency of proximity to home. It also has the potential to reduce rent (in lower cost distributed locations).
Model 4:
Collectives Defined, cellular spaces are created for people to work together in small clusters (collectives). Does COVID-19 mean the demise of open plan offices? Not at all. This future office maintains open plan layouts but reduces large groups to smaller team communities. A version of co-working, in this model the collectives coexist within the boundary of the centralized office. While the boundary is flexible the intent is to reduce the scale of a massive workplace, bringing the circle of trust closer – the people you need to be with. Anchoring teams to studio-sized neighbourhoods within a larger office minimizes exposure to people. Long term exposure between the studio communities is limited, while amenities can remain shared. The model relies on increased cleaning and hygiene regimes and associated operational discipline. The spaces between the studio teams could include hygienic ‘bump’ opportunities by way of shared staff amenities – much the way the singular super hub kitchen functioned in the larger shared floorplate.
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04 Thought Leadership
Putting the 'place' in workplace The importance of place can not be underestimated. We believe good workplace design requires a building connected to Country with an activated ground plane and urban realm.
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04 Thought Leadership
347 Kent Street Sydney, Australia
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04 Thought Leadership
Cities and urban centres are beginning to realise that to compete for people, retain their creative communities, attract tourists and promote civic pride, they need to redefine and update the public realm, drawing out visual qualities that hold cultural resonance and foster collectivity. With so many competing attitudes about the role of public space in a metropolitan city or urban centre, we believe it is necessary to work closely with the local authorities to develop a unified vision as quickly as possible in the process, to minimise compromise of the aesthetics, sustainability, accessibility or cultural meaning of the cityscape. We take a collaborative approach with our clients, the users, and local authorities, pairing the local community with an international vision, to translate and make legible the unique history and physical characteristics of the place into a visual and spatial language that can be collectively spoken and expressed to the world. We believe public spaces can make cities and urban centres culturally sustainable, in terms of economics, society, aesthetics and placemaking. A disconnected society in
a placeless world will reinforce behaviours that waste our resources and disregard our planet. We have the responsibility to create enduring spaces that awaken the senses and help nurture a collective consciousness. It is only by reviving the local and maximising the potential of a place that we can create positive connections between people, urban communities and the physical world. What connects people emotionally to a site are the expressions of meaning, aesthetics, beauty and culture, through visual, spatial and sensory design. Only through addressing these aspects of cultural sustainability can we inspire people to value and protect the public realm. Beyond the visual, spatial, and emotional layers, a place must address the temporal as well—enlivening the day, the year, the decade into new generations.
275 Kent Street Sydney, Australia
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04 Thought Leadership
While a site should function as a backdrop, allowing for a multitude of interactions at different scales, it must also carry a strong enough identity to shape experiences and memories. A place is something that endures, synthesising its past as it records new histories. A day is an event, mobilising communities to come together through common ground and open dialogue: happenings, celebrations, performances, ceremonies, and festivals. Events are forces of change, and though they last only moments, their after lives are vital to a site’s identity.
A year is a rhythm, as overlapping communities coexist, maintain and utilise the space: workers lunching, tourists shopping, children playing, teenagers hanging, couples embracing. These small habitations collectively energise the space
80 Ann Street Brisbane, Australia
While fashion and branding shift with time, the public realm needs to provide spaces that are resilient to change, without losing their sense of place. These spaces need to be adaptable to the flows of the city, reconfigured transport, shifting communities, densities and adjacencies.
Place-making in the public realm must carry through events, rhythms and shifting trends to provide for a sustainable future of our cities and urban centres. WOODS BAGOT
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The Lobby is the Living Room
367 Collins Street Melbourne, Australia
The lobby has long been understood as a transient space, one that people either walk through or wait in before reaching their final destination. Walking or waiting, one thing has been thought of as clear – they are not places we stay in for long. Until now. The accelerative force of the pandemic has re-framed the lobby as we know it, evolving from a through-fare waiting room into a multi-purpose public space capable of making people stay.
The workplace lobby of tomorrow needs to be comfortable, welcoming, and social – functioning like the living room of the workplace. With roots in the more formal parlour, the humble living room has long been the heart of the home by providing a relaxed
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place for conversation and for entertaining guests. In a future that undoubtedly incorporates working from home, it follows that the comforts of home life should find their way into the office. Imagine this: your journey into your office building involves a walk through a park via a familiar barista who knows your morning coffee order. Instead of rushing into an elevator, you sit down in a plush armchair of your choosing to wait for your 9 am meeting – enjoying wireless charging for your devices and fast internet while you appreciate the fresh air, greenery, and relaxed atmosphere. Slightly later, your client finds you easily thanks to the open plan and – because you
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04 Thought Leadership
The future of the lobby is one of usefulness and invitation – they need to be designed to make their users feel continually, rather than transitorily, embedded in their city, community, and company. made use of an in-house app to order – two croissants arrive right on time to fuel a relaxed and collaborative conversation. Sounds good right? The pressure on employers to entice their employees back to the office, and to attract new talent, means that companies must consider how to intensify the use of their spaces. The lobby needs to elevate its capacity as a social space – and lose some of its past formality – in order to really perform. Additionally, lobbies can build upon their living room capacity to host and entertain – accommodating functions, talks and events. For building owners, this means a chance at extra revenue as the space can be hired out to external parties – plus a
further opportunity for their building to serve the city it stands in. This shake-up also means that a lobby can serve a city. Conjuring an Italian plaza, the future lobby could take on a civic persona by extending its comforts to the wider community. A push to a lobby’s inherent multi-purpose potential would create a space where a freelancer can write over lunch, an artist can exhibit their work, a café owner can sell slices of his mother’s famous chocolate cake, a start-up can pitch a new idea to the business upstairs, a tourist can get directions from a friendly concierge, or an office worker can buy the perfect handbag – all at the same time.
347 Kent Street Sydney, Australia
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04 Thought Leadership
Connecting with Country We believe every project is an opportunity to engage and respond to Indigenous Australians' cultural connections to Country. Woods Bagot is committed to embedding indigenous perspectives in the design process. By involving Indigenous consultants in the design process from the start, the design outcomes are more than tokenistic add-ons. Designing with Country is not possible without engaging with, and more importantly, being guided by Aboriginal community and recognised knowledge holders. By engaging with local Indigenous communities during the design process, we are able to integrate local Aboriginal culture and narratives into the design and achieve authentic outcomes that greatly enrich the project’s artistic and interpretive character.
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When it comes to knowledge-sharing, it is vitally important that Aboriginal people retain authorship and control of their cultural knowledge and intellectual property, and how it is shared with others. Aboriginal people must be invited to codesign projects rather than just be asked to provide their cultural knowledge, stories, and insights to help develop projects. On a number of our recent projects and design competitions we have engaged Indigenous consultants to join our design team. These projects include KPMG workplace in Perth, Aurecon 25 King workplace in Brisbane, Western Sydney Airport, Cockle Bay Park redevelopment and 55 Pitt Street design competitions in Sydney and the Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centres in Adelaide.
Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre Adelaide, Australia
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By respecting and celebrating the value and significance of both the heritage and contemporary culture of Indigenous Australians, our built environment is enriched and anchored into its location, its story, and varied experience.
Cockle Bay Park Sydney, Australia
Australia & New Zealand
China
Middle East
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Level 14, 11 Waymouth Street Adelaide SA 5000, Australia
10F, Building H, Phoenix Place, No A5 Shuguangxili, Chaoyang Beijing China 100028
Cloud Spaces, Level 1 Town Square, Yas Mall, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE
77 Duxton Road Singapore 089536
T +61 8 8113 5900 Auckland Level 3, 106–108 Quay Street Auckland 1010, New Zealand T +64 9 979 9490 Brisbane Level 3, 262 Adelaide Street Brisbane Qld 4000, Australia T +61 7 3308 2900 Melbourne Mezzanine, 498 Little Collins Street Melbourne, Vic 3000, Australia T +61 3 8646 6600 Perth The Palace, 108 St Georges Terrace Perth WA 6000, Australia T +61 8 9322 0500
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Level 22, The Centrium 60 Wyndham Street Central Hong Kong T +852 2526 6308
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NSW Registered Architects Domenico Alvaro 7445, Georgia Singleton 7968