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OR VIEW ALL PROJECTSOR GO BACK TO SEARCH RESULTSOR VIEW ALLPROJECTS BY ARCHITECT HASSELLOFFICE PROJECTS2004 PROJECTSPROJECTS IN BRISBANEPROJECTS PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAVID SANDISON |
Established in 1989, Leyshon specializes in property funds management, investment and development. They head the small group of private investors that acquired Comalco Place from AMP in 2003. Their fit-out, however, eschews the notions of 1980s corporate identity that attach to the landmark blue-glass-clad development in favour of a more grounded approach.
Leyshon's move into the first floor of the annex, from premises in nearby Felix Street, coincided with the firm's updating of their image. A central characteristic of this strategy was indicating the strength and quality of the business within the industry. This aspiration drove Leyshon's brief to the interior designers in Hassell's Brisbane office. The new fit-out needed to represent the background, history and focus of the company. Hassell responded to this brief by delving into the personal history and interests of Leyshon's chairman and founder Bob Bryan. While Bryan's background in the mining industry and membership of the Mineralogical Society of Queensland provided the conceptual kernel, his collection of minerals and semiprecious gems offered a means.
Items from Bryan's collection are curated within an illuminated glass vitrine that anchors the once dark and enclosed staircase volume. One side of this finely detailed frameless glass box is extruded up to form a balustrade for the stair and reception. Neatly cradling this element is a hairpin-shaped stainless steel handrail.
The otherwise neutral palette of the stair and reception is boldly punctuated by the insertion of a blade wall comprised of twisted brass panels. Each of the 22 patina finished panels, manufactured by Urban Art Projects, are recessed into the floor and ceiling. In its robust material and undulating form, this element draws on mining as a design metaphor. Imagine the blade to be the abstraction of an austere landscape viewed from the air and the rugged contortions in the flat panels become mines in the midst of a vast plain.
The floor plate of the annex (a petite 300m') has proportions that allow for transparency across the fit-out Views to the nearby Brisbane River and the venerable Moreton Bay figs on the other side of Creek Street are drawn into the plan. The arrangement of offices, workstation areas and boardroom around the edges of the building describes the shape of a central zone for the kitchen, reception and shared resources. This space is both public and private - offering a meeting area for visitors and staff. While bounded and delineated by its rubber flooring, the hub is not enclosed. The inherent transparency of the floor plate is harnessed by the use of clear frameless glass doors and partitions and heightened by the specification of crisp, white 2-pac joinery and Tate stools from dedece.
The project brief and the existing space offered the Hassell team possibilities and challenges. Their response is inquisitive and thoughtful. Variations in scale, character and materials across the fit-out create a work environment and a corporate expression that is grounded, physically and metaphorically.
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