Lyons Architecture Office

Full description

RESEARCH BACKGROUND
The commission for this project was familiar yet challenging - to design for another architect a work space that would express and cultivate creativity. It was decided that the design should be at once simple and raw, that it would exploit the potential of the existing building and leave nothing to waste.

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION
The as-found condition of the space of the old department store was strong and stripped back, with four-metre high concrete ceilings, a very deep plan, and a series of large civic-scale windows overlooking Swanston and Bourke Streets. The new plan establishes an even field of workstations for the required eighty people. The aim was to clarify something about the nature of the space, and to touch as little as possible of its existing condition. Everyone is seated to be aligned with one of the large windows, which means they are also aligned with the structural bay and exposed beams above. This simple meter means that desks are a bit further apart than normal, providing many small gaps where one can walk. The field of desks is interrupted by smaller enclosed rooms, allowing project teams to naturally ebb and flow around them as projects grow and shrink. A line of drawing tables hung from existing window sills provides a private thinking surface, withdrawn from the main space of work. The tables put into focus the window itself, the scale of the window in the city, and the relationship between individual activity and the collective group of eighty.

RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE
Lyons Architecture Office won the National Award for Interior Architecture and the National Commendation for Sustainable Architecture at the Australian Institute of Architects' 2010 Awards:
http://architectureau.com/articles/lyons-architecture-office-national-1/
http://architectureau.com/articles/national-commendation-for-sustainable-architecture/