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INDESIGNPORTFOLIO 101

WORDS MANDI KEIGHRANPHOTOGRAPHY TYRONE BRANIGAN

ARCHITECT BATES SMARTLOCATION SYDNEY | AUSPROJECT SYDNEY WATER

SAME BUT DIFFERENTSYDNEY WATER’S NEW WORKSPACE IN POTTS HILL BY BATES SMART BRINGS THE SAME HIGH QUALITY OF WORKSPACE AS THEIR HEADQUARTERS TO AN INDUSTRIAL FACILITY

Four years ago, Sydney Water, the govern-ment body that provides water and associ-ated services to the Sydney region, began a programme to update their staff facilities.

This resulted in many staff being consolidated into a head office tower in Parramatta designed by Den-ton Corker Marshall. While it provided a high quality workspace to head office employees, there were still over 400 field workers spread over seven facilities – mainly prefabricated buildings – around Sydney. When the time came to consolidate these staff in a similar way to a site in Potts Hill in Sydney’s west, the challenge was to create the same quality of workspace the head office enjoyed, but at an industrial facility.

“The challenge was trying to recognise that the way people work is different,” says Guy Lake, Direc-tor at Bates Smart, who designed the new building and fit-out. “It’s inherently less corporate.” Employees are often on site between office visits, and so show-ers, change rooms, hot desks, and robust finishes, are

all essential elements of the design. “There were quite serious discussions about how the floor would weather. Those sorts of things were key to getting this project right.” Training rooms and a – thankfully rarely used – emergency response room are other unique features.

Another challenge – one faced not only by Bates Smart, but also the relocated employees – lay in the open plan. Most employees came from offices in pre-fabricated buildings and so the move to a consolidated open plan office was extreme. “People are very protec-tive over their own domain,” says Lake. “This project was a real threat to that, as people were getting mixed together, being taken from their own offices.” It’s not a unique story in the workplace, of course, but in this case, as Lake says, the culture was extremely male dominated and old-school. “Initially there was a fair bit of discomfort with not having an office,” confirms one employee. “But we’ve got used to it.” A high percentage of meeting rooms throughout helped to address con-cerns relating to privacy and were key to acceptance of the move to an open plan work environment. And with everyone consolidated, there is the opportunity to work more effectively together without picking up a phone or driving to another location.

As with most projects involving cultural change, the challenge in developing the brief lay in getting the client to appreciate what they could have, rather than respond to what they already had. And although there was a period of adjustment, feedback is positive, with reports of higher levels of engagement and more inter-nal communication. “I think some people even prefer coming and working here,” says an employee. “There’s less of a corporate feel than at Parramatta.”

LEFT Informal break-out spaces in the atrium encourage communicationABOVE Hot desks in the atrium cater to field workers

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SYDNEY WATERARCHITECT Bates SmartPROJECT TEAM Guy Lake, Marko Damic, Robert Moore, Bradley Schott, Allan Lamb, Stefan Strigl, Peggy Leung, Joko Tandijono, Olga Kambas, Dana Tomic, Alice PenningtonCLIENT REPRESENTATIVE/PROJECT MANAGER Alan Smith ConsultingPLANNING CONSULTANT Conics Limited, SydneyGRAPHICS BrandCultureCIVIL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEER James Taylor & Associates, Sydney, Robert Bird Group, SydneySERVICES/ESD Arup, Sydney, WSP Lincolne Scott, SydneyLIGHTING Vision DesignJOINERY Batoma Commercial InteriorsBCA Steve Watson & PartnersQUANTITY SURVEYOR Donald Cant Watts CorkeD&C BUILDER Brookfield Multiplex, Sydney

TIME TO COMPLETE 24 monthsTOTAL FLOOR AREA 6,000m2 of workspace and 5,400m2 of warehouse space

BATES SMART(61 2) 8354 5100 batessmart.com

FURNITURE In Open Plan Work Areas, Typical Office and Warehouse Office, Catifa ‘46’ sled base chairs from Stylecraft. In Open Plan Work Areas and Hot Desks, ‘Zody’ task chairs from Haworth Australia. In Share Open Meeting Area, ‘Angus’ chairs from Interstudio, custom chairs from Maxton Fox, and ‘Ivy’ lounges from Stylecraft. In Break-out areas, Arper ‘Palm’ chairs and ‘Slip’ barstools from Stylecraft. In Outdoor Break-out areas, Arper Catifa ‘53’ outdoor

chairs from Stylecraft. In Conference Room and Training Rooms, ‘Perry’ chairs from Chairbiz. Generally throughout, all tables are custom made by Maxton Fox, and furniture upholstery from Sustainable Living Fabrics, Pelle Leather and Kvadrat Maharam.

LIGHTING Nelson Bubble lamps in ‘Pear’, ‘Apple’, ‘Criss Cross’ and ‘Inverted’ from Spence & Lyda. ‘Drink’ ceiling lamp from Hub Furniture. Downlights from Zumtobel. Task lamps from Luxo. Fluorescent lights from Pierlite. T5 recessed luminaires from Austube. T5 surface mounted luminaires by Darkon, available through Light Culture. T5 suspended luminaires by Fagurhault, available through Eagle Light. Ceramic metal halide downlights and surface mounted floodlights from Reggiani, available through Euroluce. Recessed floor washlight from Erco. Control gears and guard kits from Colonial Lighting, Thorn Lighting and Wadco Lighting.

FINISHES In Conference Room, veneer cladding by Briggs Veneers. In Entry, Atrium and Ground Floor Break-out, polished concrete by Boral. In Atrium, rugs from Rugs, Carpet & Design. In General Workspace, carpet tiles from InterfaceFLOR. In Ground Floor Corridor, and Dining Room, resilient flooring by Rephouse. In Break-out Areas and General Workspace, resilient flooring by Comcork Flooring. On Atrium Stairs, treads tiled by Terrazzo Australian Marble. Generally throughout, timber wall cladding from Big River Timbers and bathroom vanities by CaesarStone.

FIXED AND FITTED WCs from Duravit. Basins from Caroma. Hydrotaps from Zip Industries. Taps and mixers from Irwell.

Austube (61 2) 9674 9122 austube.com.au Big River Timbers (61 2) 8822 5555 bigrivertimbers.com Boral (61 2) 9220 6300 boral.com Briggs Veneers (61 2) 9732 7888 briggs.com.au CaesarStone 1300 119 119 caesarstone.com.au Caroma 13 14 16 caroma.com.au Chairbiz (61 2) 8399 1300 chairbiz.com Colonial Lighting (61 2) 9477 7716 coloniallighting.com.au Comcork Flooring (61 3) 6544 2288 comcork.com.au Duravit (61 2) 8070 1889 duravit.com/au Eagle Lighting (61 2) 9420 5799 eaglelighting.com.au Erco (61 2) 9004 8801 erco.com Euroluce (61 2) 9380 6222 euroluce.com.au Haworth Australia (61 2) 8586 7777 haworth-asia.com Hub Furniture (61 2) 9217 0700 hubfurniture.com.au InterfaceFLOR (61 2) 8332 2400 interfaceflor.com.au Interstudio 1300 785 199 interstudio.com.au Irwell 13 14 16 irwell.com.au Kvadrat Maharam (61 2) 9212 4277 kvadratmaharam.com Light Culture 1300 300 904 lightculture.com.au Luxo luxo.com Maxton Fox (61 2) 9692 0033 maxtonfox.com.au Pelle Leathers (61 2) 9460 9222 pelleleathers.com.au Pierlite (61 2) 9794 9300 pierlite.com Rephouse (61 7) 3281 0088 rephouse.com Rugs Carpets & Design (61 2) 9519 8555 rc-d.com.au Spence & Lyda (61 2) 9212 6747 spenceandlyda.com.au Stylecraft (61 2) 9355 0000 stylecraft.com.au Sustainable Living Fabrics 1800 420 933 livingfabrics.com.au Terrazzo Australian Marble (61 2) 9672 1277 terrazzoaustralianmarble.com.au Thorn Lighting (61 2) 8786 6000 thornlighting.com.au Wadco Lighting (61 2) 9791 9999 wadco.com.au Zip Industries 1800 638 633 zipindustries.com Zumtobel (61 2) 8913 5100 zumtobel.com.au

So, although the Potts Hill facility has a similar quality of space – for example, the workstations are the same as those at Parramatta – it is a more relaxed environment. The robust materials, such as polished concrete terrazzo and plywood, are warm and natural yet acknowledge the industrial context. And, despite hard surfaces, the building operates well acoustically thanks to perforated plywood panelling around the atrium and acoustic room dividers in the workspaces. Graphics throughout by BrandCulture, interpret some of the historic aspects to the site, where Sydney Water has history stretching back over 100 years. Drawings adorning the meeting rooms, for example, show the old pump house, schematics of the water flow system and maps of the surrounding areas.

The historic location in Potts Hill is completely dif-ferent to the high-density context of Parramatta. This allowed Bates Smart to create a large building with 6,000m2 floor area over only two stories, which in turn gives greater connectivity, with almost everyone using the stairs at either end of the central atrium.

The atrium sits between two linear wings, housing meeting rooms and work areas. These have been slipped apart to create the entry forecourt and a staff terrace overlooking the city at the rear of the building. “It’s not a building that was designed around a strong formal expression. It was very much designed around an envi-ronmental outcome,” says Lake of the Five-Star Green Star building and fit-out that Sydney Water and devel-oper, Brookfield Multiplex are committed to.

The form allows for the building as a whole to be naturally ventilated, which is unusual for a commer-cial building of this size. Air flows through external louvres on the façade and up through the atrium roof. The roof sails over the entire building and the supporting structure, with automated horizontal louvres, functions as a sun-shading element.

The uniqueness of the new Sydney Water facility lies not in the campus office style, which has been done many times before, but in the style being adapted to this type of semi-industrial work facility. As Lake says: “I think it’s a tribute to Sydney Water trying to get equality for everyone”.

Mandi Keighran is Assistant Editor at Indesign.

LEFT The outdoor deck, where automated louvres act as sun shadingRIGHT One of the many meeting rooms that cater to concerns about privacy Photo: Philip PoynerFAR RIGHT Graphics reference the history of the site Photo: Philip Poyner