Clemenger BBDO Sydney recognised as aesthetically ‘inspiring workplace’ as their designer Hassell wins international award
The new Sydney headquarters for Clemenger BBDO has taken out a coveted prize for small office interior design at the ‘Inside Festival,’ held in Singapore this week as part of the World Architecture Awards.
Clemenger’s designers Hassell, are a long standing international design practice working in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, planning, and urban design. Hassell have been operating for 75 years and have won more than 700 awards since inception.
Clemenger BBDO’s new workplace draws creative teams out of small offices into a more inspiring workspace that encourages them to collaborate.
Says one of Hassell’s Principals, Matt Blain who led the design team for the new workplace: “Creativity and collaboration are the life blood of an advertising agency, and leading agencies like Clemenger BBDO instinctively understand that the design of their workplace is critical to fostering both collaboration and creativity.”
The new 750 sqm workplace is largely open-plan and includes mix of quiet spaces, shared work spaces and informal meeting areas. This variety of work settings and encourages the exchange of ideas as well as greater intimacy between staff.
Says Blain: “One of the best things about the design of Clemenger BBDO’s new workplace is the way it encourages openness in the creative process. When I visit Clemenger BBDO now I see work pinned up on purpose-designed walls on display for the whole office to see – rather than it being hidden away on a computer screen or on a piece of paper on someone’s desk. As designers ourselves we get how important this is to the design process – at our own studios we pin our work up on walls for comments and review every day and find it invaluable.”
The workplace uses raw industrial design features to create a workshop feel and shifts office infrastructure away from the windows to create a healthy, light-filled workspace. Comfort is also critical to designing a successful creative workplace according to Hassell Principal Scott Walker.
Says Walker: “Advertising agencies have really been at the forefront of recognising the link between providing a comfortable, fun and inspiring office and generating great ideas. If people feel comfortable in the environment that they’re in, they actually work at their best. There’s something inherently efficient and productive about being comfortable. People need private spaces, they need collaborative spaces, they need a diverse range of spaces to work at their best.”
The Inside Festival is being held in conjunction with the World Architecture Festival, where Hassell is shortlisted in three further categories.
6 Comments
Yeah but it’s in St Leonards!
The best thing is the view of the hospital and cementery out the window. Plus if you look really carefully you can see the city in the distance.
I’ve worked at Clems. Loved the offices for creatives. Ask 90% of creatives and they’ll tell you they’d prefer to have an office. Open plan means going out of the office to a cafe to work. Open plan means headphones on to block out all the distractions. Open plan means less productivity. No matter how great the open plan looks.
“If people feel comfortable in the environment that they’re in, they actually work at their best.”
Couldn’t agree more. But it’s the people around you, most importantly senior management, that make an environment comfortable and conducive to good work.
A nice office helps, but all the fancy interior design in the world won’t make for a creative environment if the joint is run by gorillas, psychopaths or arseholes.
They can re-desigh the interior, but the site has some sort of curse on it which seems to cause continual turmoil at the agency.
Fortunately it’s only a block away from the Northside Clinic, Sydney’s premier psychiatric hospital.
Those “caravans” Clems used to have made it the best office fit out in town – with real thinking space thanks to some privacy.
This new layout looks like a nightmare for the creative department – fart and the whole department will smell it.