The LendLease office uses biophilic design to provide a sense of nature. Photo by Nicole England
Having worked in office design across the globe including Asia, the Middle East and Europe, I’ve found Australia to be a decade ahead in its attitudes towards workplace design compared to the rest of the world. ‘Agile-working’ became a trend in Sydney and Melbourne in the 2000s and today around two-thirds of Australian organisations work in this way.
There are a combination of factors that contribute to Australia’s innovative approach to workplace design, some related to the built environment landscape, and others cultural. In terms of the built environment, shorter leases in Australia reduce long-term risk, and allow a more willing approach from tenants. Australian corporate businesses tend to have relatively flat hierarchies, and a direct style of communicating, whereby designers and decision makers are able to have frank conversations about the brief, make decisions that can be actioned swiftly, and, crucially, avoid getting too bogged down in bureaucratic processes.
As an island nation, I also like to think we are outward looking, early adopters, keen to see what design innovations are taking place elsewhere in the world and looking at how to make these our own. At Hassell we strive to deliver the large-scale innovations that will give an organisation an edge in the way that it operates and constantly look at ways to incorporate relevant thinking from around the world. For example, with the demand for new ways of working in the UK on the rise, we apply the combined strategic insights from projects like these with creative design to unlock the social, cultural and economic value of projects for clients in the tech, legal and finance sectors.
In Australia it’s not the tech companies or the startups necessarily leading the way in workplace design but instead Australia’s largest employers, where wellbeing plays an important role in their corporate culture. Below are two examples that demonstrate Hassell and Australia’s approach to workplace design in a corporate setting, showing what an open-minded approach to workplace design can achieve for a business and the wellbeing of its employees.