Movie: Julia Borghesi of design studio Hassell discusses the hybrid aesthetic of advertising agency Clemenger BBDO’s office in Sydney, which topped the office category at last month’s Inside Festival.
Clemenger BBDO‘s Sydney office has an informal layout with open offices and meeting areas.
“We were given a brief to connect the teams together,” Borghesi says. “So we really wanted to focus on the people and the work that they produce.”
“There are areas for relaxation, there are areas for collaboration and there are areas for individual work.”
The client had a strong idea of what the office should look like, Borghesi says.
“Clemenger came to us with an ideal aesthetic, combining this industrial loft aesthetic with Scandinavian detailing,” she explains. “The space we ended up with quite nicely combines those two visual elements: the New York loft with Scandinavian design.”
She continues: “You can see [the loft influence] throughout the centre of the space. The timber panels on the ceiling, also the floorboards. The Scandinavian design really comes in through the loose furniture and the joinery detailing.”
The office features a large, open meeting area in the centre of the space.
“It becomes a pivotal point where the executive team from other areas of the building can actually congregate and strategise within the space,” she says. “It’s also a space that’s highly visible to the staff as well.”
Borghesi believes that creating an open office environment has been successful. “Every time I visit there, the energy and the vibe in the place is amazing,” she says. “It’s really inspiring.”
This movie was filmed at Inside Festival 2013, which took place at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore from 2 to 4 October. The next Inside Festival will take place at the same venue from 1 to 3 October 2014. Award entries are open February to June 2014.
Seeing off competition from architects including Zaha Hadid and Grimshaw, Herzog & de Meuron and Hassell‘s proposals were selected by a panel of architects and experts as the preferred option for the overhaul of the nineteenth-century Flinders Street Station and its surrounding spaces, including the restoration of the iconic dome and clock tower.
The winning design includes the construction of a new barrel-vaulted roof structure that envelops the station and brings dappled light and ventilation onto both new and improved station concourses. The architects also plan to add a new public art gallery dedicated to oceanic and contemporary art, a public plaza, a marketplace, an amphitheatre and a permanent home for some of the city’s cultural festival organisations.
Existing taxi ranks would be located to a more suitable location on Flinders Street, while the existing tram stop would be redesigned and a new cycle route would be inserted beneath the station in an old concourse, connecting with existing routes along the Yarra River.
“Our proposal respects the heritage, improves all aspects of the transport hub, and underscores its central civic nature with new cultural and public functions for all residents and visitors to Melbourne,” says the design team on the competition website.
The judges praised the scheme for its “beautiful and compelling integration of aspects of the original station design” and supported the decision to keep the height down on the east side, but increase it to the west.
“The extended vaulted forms provide a distinctive branding for the city, their eastern elevation to Swanston Street imaginatively recalls the intended – but not executed – proposition by Fawcett and Ashworth [the architects of the existing station building] of a family of variously scaled vaults,” they said. “At the same time, however, the language is clearly contemporary, underlined by the fact that the new line-up of vaults is bracketed by the pair of historic Flinders Street Station buildings facing the Swanston Street concourse.”
They continued:” The main train hall offers a celebratory experience of rail travel; its light-weight structure promises a filigree of ever-changing dappled light while providing ventilation, shelter and way-finding. The vaulted form will appeal to the universal collective memory of the great station terminuses of the past”.
The architects are awarded a $500,000 (£300,000) prize and the Victorian Government has two years to decide whether to proceed with the scheme.
The same team was not the winner of the public vote, as proposals by Colombian architects Eduardo Velasquez, Manuel Pineda and Santiago Medina topped the poll on the competition website.
Here’s a summary of the scheme from the competition website:
Flinders Street Station Design Competition Winner
Overall Design Merit
Decades after the people of Melbourne first talked about “meeting under the clocks” at Flinders Street Station, the HASSELL + Herzog and de Meuron proposal updates it for the 21st Century, turning it from a place to hurry through to a destination.
The overall design merit of the proposal can be seen in a new, major public art gallery, public plaza, amphitheatre, marketplace, and a permanent home for arts and cultural festival organisations. But we have also delivered the glory of the first 19th Century design for Flinders Street Station.
Transport Function
Transport function is greatly improved, with new or improved concourses making it easier to get in and out. New weather-proof vaulted roofs flood the platforms with dappled, natural light and ventilation. Taxi ranks are relocated to Flinders Street and the tram stop between the station and Federation Square redesigned to improve the connection across St Kilda Road. A bike path under the station through the old western concourse links cycle ways on the river and Elizabeth Street.
Cultural Heritage and Iconic Status
The cultural heritage and iconic status of the station is protected, with the built fabric that most people are familiar with – the Flinders Street building and corner entrance pavilion – are both retained, and paintwork returned to the original colours.
The vaulted roofs that greatly improve the passenger experience are inspired by features of the original design that were never realised. The new elements, particularly the Oceanic and Contemporary Art Gallery, enhance the station’s iconic status.
Urban Design and Precinct Integration
Good urban design and precinct integration breathe new life into the city, stitching it together. The restored station and the new art gallery fill the missing link between the cultural precinct encompassing St Kilda Road and Federation Square with the old Customs House and the Immigration Museum on Flinders Street.
The station itself is better integrated with the city, the river and Federation Square. Distinctive and memorable architecture sits with significant civic space and high quality public amenity.
News: a team made up of architecture firms OMA, Hassell and Populous has been selected to redevelop Sydney’s convention, exhibition and entertainment precinct at Darling Harbour (+ slideshow).
Above: International Convention Centre
The Destination Sydney team, lead by developers Lend Lease, were today announced as the winning bidders with their plans to create a 40,000-square-metre exhibition centre, a red-carpet entertainment venue, a 900-room hotel and a new residential neighbourhood.
Dutch architects OMA will work alongside Hassell of Sydney and international firm Populous to deliver the 20-hectare masterplan, adding the new leisure complex to the north of Pier Street and new residential neighbourhood The Haymarket on the site of the existing Sydney Entertainment Centre and car park.
Above: the theatre
“This project will redefine Sydney as a global city and create one of the world’s great meeting and entertainment destinations,” commented Destination Sydney’s chief executive Malcolm Macintyre. “Not only will it become a beacon for international visitors for conventions and events but will also build on the appeal of the Darling Harbour area for Sydney-siders creating an entertainment hub that promises to reconnect and re-energise the city.”
A phased redevelopment will see the existing Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre close in December 2013, while the current Sydney Entertainment Centre will remain open until December 2015. Construction is set to complete in late 2016.
Above: The Haymarket neighbourhood
Darling Harbour sit adjacent to Sydney’s city centre and has established itself as a centre for entertainment on the western edge of the central business district. Other recent developments in the area include an office complex that was awarded at the World Architecture Festival.
Dezeen Wire: architects Hassell have been appointed to design a new zoo on the outskirts of Georgia’s capital city, Tbilisi.
Replacing an existing zoo in the city centre, the new complex will encompass woodland areas from a national park and will include an aquarium and a diving school.
Other recent projects from Georgia include a collection of infrastructure projects by German architects J. Mayer H, which you can see in our special slideshow feature.
HASSELL appointed to design the new Tbilisi Zoo in Georgia
The London Studio of HASSELL, working with Arup, has been appointed by Tbilisi City Hall to carry out the concept design of the new Tbilisi Zoo on the outskirts of the Georgian capital city.
The project will see the existing city centre zoo replaced by a zoological and recreation complex adjacent to the inland lake known as Tbilisi Sea.
Working with Arup’s Dublin office, HASSELL has developed a concept that sits lightly within the spectacular new site, using a design strategy of minimal disturbance to preserve the area’s natural beauty. Relocating the current zoo’s species and activities calls for a number of new buildings and landscapes. These will include an entrance hub, boulevard, a secondary hub with playground and café, inner zoo and an outer open range zoo as well as woodland areas set within the Soviet era Arboretum known as Dendropark National Park. A recreation area created on the shore of the Tbilisi Sea will include new buildings for an aquarium and dive school.
The plan builds upon the dramatic landscape and mountainous topography of the area to create a visitor experience unique to Georgia. The country is positioned at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa and these will be represented by the division of the site into distinct grassland habitats. A choice of five different walking routes around the zoo affords a variety of visitor experiences, encouraging return visits.
The zoo will be built to world-class standards, creating an international tourist destination for zoo, safari, botanical and recreational experiences. The design will celebrate the natural history of the site and encourage visitors of all ages to take a personal interest in the importance of conserving the earth’s environmental heritage.
The project builds on HASSELL’s extensive masterplanning, landscape architecture and zoo experience in Australasia including the award-winning Adelaide Zoo, Taronga Zoo in Sydney and Werribee Open Range in Victoria.
Jon Hazelwood, Head of Landscape Architecture at HASSELL’s London Studio, commented: “We believe in the collaboration of landscape architecture, masterplanning and architectural design and the new Tbilisi Zoo is a fantastic opportunity to put this philosophy into practice by developing a new zoo destination from first principles. Our team has been inspired by the beauty of the Georgian landscape to create a scheme that works in harmony with the environment, respects the animals that will inhabit it and allows people to observe them in a space akin to their natural habitat.”
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