BVN Architecture Sydney Studio, 488 George St Architects Office, Australian Interior

BVN Sydney Studio : Office Interior Australia

488 George Street Sydney Architects Studio design by BVN Architecture, NSW, Australia

5 May 2011

BVN Sydney Studio

BVN Sydney Studio Sydney, NSW

Design: BVN Architecture

Location: 488 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

BVN Sydney studio is a simple reworking of a typical 1970’s commercial office floor that creates a daring interior working space using only the bones of a high-rise concrete building.

When designing its own studio space in the Sydney Hilton Hotel complex, BVN had the added constraints imposed by a 70’s floor plate containing a forest of supporting columns. By removing the cladding from the columns, their size was significantly reduced and the decision to leave the columns as built, even with builders’ penciled notes, provides an authentic level of ‘found’ detail.

images : John Gollings

The ceiling grid and tiles were removed to reveal all the services and new cable trays were inserted to carry computer and lighting cables in an aesthetically pleasing way around the whole ceiling. Industrial elements including the galvanized hollow scaffolding columns are used to take computer and power cables down to work stations.

In BVN’s Sydney Studio there are no offices, only meeting rooms; these can be either opened to the wider space with sliding doors or closed for privacy. All wall surfaces are usable as either drawing boards or pin up walls.

An elevated timber floor steps up from the concrete floor to form a ‘verandah’ along the Pitt Street edge, that includes a kitchen area, window benches, drop down screen and projector, television, free standing meeting tables and chairs, sofas and a foosball table. The verandah also has a new plywood ceiling, completing its differentiation from the main work floor.

Lighting is deliberately subdued with each work station having its own task lamp – this creates a softly dappled lighting effect throughout the studio.

The informality and accessibility of this studio begins at reception, where there is no reception desk, just a round table with a welcome smile.

Increasingly it is accepted that spaces that are conducive to productive activity are open and transparent with plenty of formal and informal meeting spaces and lots of shared facilities like cafes, libraries, even foosball tables. However these are simply parts of a whole, it is how they are put together that determines the ultimate feel or atmosphere of the space and whether it makes people want to be there and engage in useful activity.