Brief: To create a space to break from the everyday office environment, a place to learn from each other, share stories, ideas, think differently, experiment, make mistakes and new discoveries. Provide a training space to induct new team members as well as versatile meeting and event space for a property development organisation.
Challenges: Creating a sense of play and exploration in a corporate environment,
Solutions: Drawing on the domestic and the familiar, “The Yard” immerses team members in a space that subconsciously links to childhood memories of playing, creating, inventing and imagining in the backyard. A garage door encloses the “Shed” meeting room with plywood fold-down benches and butcher’s paper mounted to the walls to facilitate standing workshops. Moveable plywood cubbies form interactive and modular breakout spaces, hardwood decking and artificial grass, define zones in playful while keeping the floor plate open and flexible. Large sliding doors link the space to the adjoining office and provide writable surfaces to thrash out ideas in a group. The Yard was envisaged as a space to escape the office environment, a place for people to think differently, and without fear of failure.
Highlights: Working with a visionary and very hands-on client to create a socially focused training and meeting space that challenges typical workplace design.
