Image Credit : Steve Brown
Project Overview
ANZ set out to redefine and actualise the future of working for their almost 2000-strong workforce in Sydney. With a need to support flexibility and an inherent desire for staff connectivity, key conceptual drivers focused on bringing fundamental elements of the building to life and designing an intricate “mini city”.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Sophie Safrin - Design Director
Karina Simpson - Senior Interior Designer
Kate Lange - Senior Interior Designer
Kristy Ball - Architectural Lead
Leviang Teng - Interior Designer
Henry Ellis-Paul - Senior Graphic Designer
Michaella Mills - Senior Graphic Designer
Project Brief
Spread across 14 levels and a total of 28,500sqm, the overarching concept offers a flexible community experience with a “mini city” design. Through a network of spaces, weaving together the intricacies of a campus, this approach blended the scale of city living with an urban perception of our natural world. It encouraged its inhabitants to question their surroundings and explore further. Outside of the working floors, two major areas within the mini city anchored the community in the space. The Client Floor; “the club” is a completely dynamic & flexible space of craftsmanship and detailing, celebrating the clientele that makes the business what it is. Warm neutral & muted tones are enhanced by exclusive touches and creates experiences to surprise and delight. The Venture Lab; a warehouse-inspired space, where ideas are built, organised for dispatch and displayed. This space fundamentally supports the innovative culture, and is a space of constant and rapid changes, where technical details matter. It has an industrial feel and is perhaps not as polished as the other floors. The design intent underpins the mentality that nothing is ever completed here, it is a space to redefine what's known and keeps pushing the boundaries.
Project Innovation/Need
The design is supported by several foundation-concepts that form part of the bigger picture. One major pillar is the intrinsic desire to not only acknowledge, but celebrate the proud Indigenous Australian culture. Moments of recognition are scattered throughout the many levels, but most striking is the custom designed carpet by Gamilaroi Ularoi/Yuwaalaraay yinarr artist, Lakkari Pitt, that embraces you upon your arrival. Throughout the many floors, you will also find constant sustainable practices integrated within the fitout. From locally sourced and manufactured products, celebrating and supporting Australian design, to the biophilic injection consciously considered to enhance wellbeing. Supporting this mindset, much of the fitout reused and repurposed existing furniture wherever possible in an effort to also reduce waste. Furthering this thinking, L14 adopted the idea of pocket-parks within a city, providing biophilic relief so that staff could step away from their desks to improve and promote mental wellbeing and health.
The Mini City concept of community and connectivity underpins the inherent values of ANZ. It doesn’t strive to be polished and perfect, it instead acts as an incubator to motivate and inspire those that frequent the space. The Venture Lab actively encourages not only staff, but the innovative start-up businesses its supports through its client base, championing forward-thinking and disruptive companies that are here to make change for the better. The eradication of executive floors and the integration with staff and clients alike, sees a diverse and shifting mentality in a big bank.
Design Challenge
Reusing and consolidating the existing ANZ workplace from 21 to 14 levels brought an interesting challenge to the project. Hot Black had to work closely with the ANZ steering committee to unpack and understand exactly what the priorities were for the redefined working approach created by the pandemic. In addition to this, we were also constrained by a relatively tight budget and existing conditions of the space, and so the team had to get particularly creative executing a refreshed design that was able to make a suitable impact for ANZ and all those involved. This included building within an existing framework, which brings the added challenge of working with the restrictions of existing stairs, services and floor plates, influencing each design decision, and a balance between reusing furniture and finishes as much as possible whilst interweaving newer pieces which were crucial to the success of the design.
Sustainability
Establishing the project with the mindset of reuse, the project team focused on maximising the retention of furniture and fittings as ANZ reduced their leasehold from 19 floors to 14 within the Pitt St address.
Existing working floors were enhanced with the purposeful and considered addition of environmental graphics to enliven and refresh spaces without the need for a total refit. Existing materials were reclaimed from across the floors, reusing and retaining finishes such as the carpet tiles in order to reduce ANZ's carbon footprint. New material selections focused on product ranges using recycled plastics such the acoustic wall panelling for the walls and different floor coverings were selected from reputable and sustainably conscious suppliers.
Optimum natural light penetration was a key driver during planning, which alongside smart technologies such as sensors and motion detectors integrated into the building control systems to reduce overall power usage for lighting and air conditioning.
Bringing waste management to a new benchmark, ANZ Sydney has integrated a smarter solution using Charopy technology to both recycle contaminated materials but also raise funds for charity. With detailed waste streams, the often-forgotten office materials such as inks and toner, coffee cups and soft plastics are all accounted for in the integrated system.
Interior Design - Commercial
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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