SECOND YEAR ARCHITECTURE (2018)
CO-WORKING DIGITAL OFFICES
BRISBANE, QLD
PROJECT BRIEF
The project is a co-working space for digital entrepreneurs. The site is located at 16 Railway Terrace, Milton (Lot 165 on RP 18374). It is a typical inner-city Brisbane block: 407m2 in area, but only 10m wide. The site is enclosed by neighbouring structures on all three sides.
The organisation that you are designing for is a co-operative business with 45-60 members and 5 professional support staff. Members will pay a periodic membership fee, plus additional costs for time spent on the network. It is assumed that members are independent entrepreneurs at the beginning of their careers. They are no longer working from their bedroom in their parent’s house, but they haven’t jet got the resources to rent an office or employ staff. Members includes: software developers, ‘app’ and ‘web’ designers, animators and video game designers; architectural and landscape graduates, industrial and graphic designers, etc. The support staff include: an office manager, an IT manager, a receptionist and two IT technicians.
The workplace will offer members a physical address, a place to meet clients, to work, and to collaborate with others. It will provide access to high speed internet, capacity for processing and storing large quantities of digital information, and facilities for video conferencing etc.
SECTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
PROJECT STATEMENT
Digital design and information technologies is a constantly changing and evolving industry. With this, the architecture catering to these must evolve to cater for these kind of "digital offices". Far from the conventional office style of individual offices, the design industry is a collaborative and unconventional process of work. These offices are thus designed in an open plan style, with varying working experiences. Offering a range from personal, quite spaces, as well as den, encouraging group activities and club style for an intermediate experience. The flexibility continues with the use of "hot desks" which are focused around the energetic atrium space.
Located within the historic, inner city suburb of Milton, the design aims to respect it's surrounds, while creating something "new" to the quickly developing area. The digital offices aim to embrace the industrial, manufacturing past of the neighbourhood. This is achieved firstly through the use of materials and tectonics, expressed on the exterior of the structure. Recycled brick creates the frame of the design, physically and aesthetically combined with steel support. While paying homage to the industrial, this is contrasted with the use of glass and internal timbers.
Initially conceptualised as a design to symbolise the "crack" or "break" between the new and the old, this design idea is carried from the explicit building frontage to it's more subtle interior qualities. A brick frontage is set ahead of an extensive glass screen, seeing the glass emerge from the crack in the masonry. This crack design is continued in the floor plan of the interior, with timber flooring set into concrete, used to direct circulation around the space.
FRONT ELEVATION
