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Toshiba Australia recently consolidated three Sydney sites into one. Designed by Pike Withers and delivered by a collaborative consultant team, the fit-out demonstrates what can be achieved when a project is implemented with sufficient time and budget to achieve a client's goals.
Toshiba prides itself on its commitment to innovation and practicality. Its operations include electronic imaging, consumer goods, notebooks, home entertainment, power generation and medical equipment. So, it may have been obvious for the business to prepare a design brief that was highly technological. However, Pike Withers were appointed largely due to their portfolio of resort projects.
The brief was to create a space based on the principles of resort design; calm, comfortable and soothing, with extensive use of natural materials and finishes. Also important to resort design are harmony between the built and existing environments, capitalising on local knowledge and experience, minimising energy use, and employing local construction methods and materials. Many of these ideas have been implemented in both the design and delivery of the Toshiba project.
The 6000m2 space is spread over three floors. The ground floor houses reception, showroom, training and meeting facilities, with two higher floors of open plan work areas and support facilities. On entering the ground floor reception area, the impression is almost bland, a sea of monochrome. However, upon closer inspection, the textures and layers begin to reveal themselves. A combination of finishes and natural materials such as travertine, timber, leather and woven papers, all in a similar colour palette, have been used to create a space that has a crafted warmth to it, in contrast to the cool, slick technology of Toshiba's products.
A high level of internal meeting rooms was required, and it was important to the designers to maximise the natural light available on the ground floor. Thus the meeting rooms are layered in two rows along the fagade, with glazed walls to both sides of these rooms. When combined with the use of timber and other natural materials, and the lightness of applied graphic film to the glazing, the space has a feeling of reverence and quiet contemplation.
With long, narrow 2000m2 floor plates, the general working floors were challenging to plan whilst maintaining the flow between functional areas. Transitional and communal spaces were created in the centre of each floor plate acting as hubs between various working functions. This also allows access to available natural light and views for the majority of Toshiba's team.
The environment is finely detailed throughout, a testament to the designers' vision and the collaborative project process that had the designer, joiner, engineer, base building architect and project manager all working together to achieve the final result. For an office, it is a beautiful and calm backdrop to the frenetic pace that is de rigueur for many workplaces in the 21st Century.
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