Woods Bagot's biggest Australian office design is an ode to future-focused, connected working space.
Ready Media Group has written extensively on the state of the office sector over the past few months, highlighting the rise of hybrid work, and exploring the ways leases have been affected by the industry’s latest developments. Few buildings encapsulate the shifting thematics in office design better than Property New South Wales’ (PNSW) new headquarters.
Completed by global architecture studio Woods Bagot in their largest-ever Australian office design, the new offices at 6 Parramatta Square are enabling the NSW Government to execute its ambitious hub workplace strategy, despite the disruption caused by COVID-19.
6 Parramatta Square is a 55-level twin-tower in the heart of Sydney’s second CBD, where the NSW Government is investing billions of dollars in transport infrastructure through the Sydney Metro West and Parramatta Light Rail projects. This new home for PNSW puts them at the doorstep of Sydney's western expansion.
Woods Bagot's Amanda Stanaway, Global Leader for Workplace Design, said over the past five years the studio has designed and delivered 109,000 square metres of connected workspace for the NSW Government at Parramatta: 15 levels of 6 Parramatta Square and all 33 floors of the adjoining tower at 4 Parramatta Square, which opened in late 2019.
6 Parramatta Square, Parramatta NSW 2150
For Property and Development NSW's Stace Fishwick, 4 and 6 Parramatta Square completes a “significant revolution” – bringing together around 10,000 government workers from multiple departments at a “future-focused workplace”.
“The tower at 6 Parramatta Square successfully adapted to a changing world. It was designed during the pandemic and demonstrated in real time that well-designed spaces can flexibly respond and adapt to changing tenant and user requirements,” Mr. Fishwick said.
“The strong sustainable design of 6 Parramatta Square reinforces the government’s approach to bringing people together into workplace hubs, creating efficiencies and reducing our environmental footprint, while still creating quality spaces that cater to all types of workers with a variety of work settings and a consistent and seamless user journey.”
Ms. Stanaway explained that Woods Bagot and the builder, Built, pressed ahead with construction of 6 Parramatta Square through the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, meeting the design and development challenges posed by the pandemic head-on.
“The relationship and trust formed with our partners during the 4 Parramatta Square project, coupled with a growing acceptance of a changing way of work across the NSW Government agencies, enabled us to get through what was a very challenging period,” Ms Stanaway said.
“6 Parramatta Square is an evolution of work completed for the NSW government and the continuing curation of their work model to support a more agile and hybrid workforce."
6 Parramatta Square, Parramatta NSW 2150
Project leader Leonie Weiss said Woods Bagot had no choice but to adopt an agile approach during lockdown.
“Unexpectedly, the design needed to respond to challenges arising through the pandemic with added touchless points, some rebalancing of individual and collaboration settings and reimagining how you could occupy space with a reduced workforce,” she said.
Ms. Weiss said key design elements include a dedicated podium arrival area for staff and guests and generous allocations of shared spaces for differing work patterns. Additionally, there is also an entire floor on level 11 dedicated to meeting rooms, relaxation, gathering spaces, and a touchdown workspace for visiting NSW Government employees.
“Living and working in a time of change must be attractive and suitable for a broad range of employee types – there’s no one-size fits all approach anymore,” Ms Weiss said.
When we spoke to JLL's Head of Tenant Representation, Michael Greene, he explained the changing dynamics of workplace design, and the requests being made by organisations: "It used to be that 60-to-70% of an office was made up of concentrated space, with about 40% collaborative space. That has essentially flipped." Woods Bagot's designs are keeping with the times and accommodating the needs of a wide variety of people, all the whilst giving equal amounts of thought to aesthetic presentation and practicality.
