Image Credit : Tanya Zouev - https://tanyazouev.com/
Project Overview
From corporate office to homely haven! Axiom transformed the Sydney headquarters of hipages’ commercial space into a seven-room, double-balcony, 1872m2 open-space dream home.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Annelie Xenofontos - Senior Workplace Strategist
Tina Teofilo - Interior Designer
Matthew Woods - Project Manager
Project Brief
As Jodette Cleary, Chief People Officer at hipages, said, “Our office should feel like a second home to our staff.” We took to that brief like a painter to a blank canvas. There was a need to look and think beyond the usual design for corporate spaces in order to create a space that welcomed the hipages people ‘home’, promote productivity and reinforce the hipages brand.
First impressions are important, so we wanted to surprise visitors, clients and staff when they entered the main floor. Essentially, we had to ‘de-corporatise’ the space to make it feel more like a home you can feel comfortable in. That meant bringing in more nature from light sources and plant life, and adding as many small details as possible to re-establish the homely hipages hearth.
Project Innovation/Need
Turning a corporate space into a home required us to look outside the conventional means of design and turn it inside out. Literally.
We took the common features of the external and brought them inside. Brick cladding, a domesticated front door and window shutters on the outside of the elevator, all complementing state-of-the-art technology in the projected logo. These are the first things to greet you when you step into the hipages foyer.
Within the workspace itself, we made sure to focus on the smallest details by adding the items you might find in a home. A floral curtain was used to cover up the services cupboard, hydraulics and fire door – providing a point of interest that removed the austere feel of an ordinary office.
The meeting rooms, while still needing to appear professional, were thematically, texturally and visually designed to reflect the various trades of hipages’ clients. The Locksmith room – which pays an incredible homage to the trade via a wall of old keys – while plumbers are invited to a meeting room decorated with LED pipes along the walls.
We engaged with student artists to help with the room designs and repurposing old, lost and broken possessions. With their help, we melded the balcony and indoor spaces seamlessly through innovative artwork that reflected the workstation screen colours.
Design Challenge
With any project, you have to think about what the client wants, and what their goals are. For hipages, that was ensuring the office was considered a second-home, a place of comfort and optimisation. It was also imperative we left the hipages brand untouched, enhancing it so it was reflected in the physical aspects of the design as much as the air of office.
We had to transform the office into a space that encouraged the employees to relax while creating an environment that would boost productivity and wellbeing. To overcome this, we had to turn ordinary design on its head, thematically designing meeting rooms, incorporating a rumpus room and redesigning a previously depreciatory balcony.
Sustainability
One of the highlights of the project was the table used in the Carpenter’s Room. We repurposed an old table that was advertised on Gumtree as needing a ‘new lease on life’. The table originally belonged to the seller’s father, who had built the table from scratch, and was sad to see it rot in a rubbish heap somewhere. We, along with the seller, couldn’t bear to see a table with such history go to waste, and decided to buy the piece for the express purpose of adding it to the Carpenter Room. The concept for the table, a creatively repurposed second-hand piece, tied in perfectly with the woodworking theme of the meeting room.
We reused materials like the keys in the locksmith meeting room, and made sure to repurpose existing furniture and partitions to build the ‘office’ area.
In comparison, fresh plants and greenery were incorporated to bring life into the space. The hydrations stations and printing facilities had recycling stations installed beside them to encourage a healthy work and world environment.
Interior Design - Co-Working & Studio Space
This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes, aesthetic presentation and functionality. Consideration also given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.
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