The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (DCCEE) required new headquarters in Canberra to reflect the vision, purpose and values of the department, whose role is to deliver the Australian Government's climate change framework.
The DCCEE appointed GHDWoodhead to design the integrated 6-Star Green Star Office Interiors fit-out, based on GHDWoodhead's reputation for sustainable workplace design. We worked with the DCCEE to deliver a workplace focused on environmental sustainability, value and efficiency. Our team engaged in collaborative briefing workshops with staff to explore the vision and drivers for their new workplace, which formed the guiding principles for the project.
The planning concept for the workplace focused on three key components:
- The public - a space for public interaction and education.
- The commons - consisting of connected, shared utility and meeting areas where staff can collaborate and socialise.
- The individual - a flexible, open, light-filled, modular space, allowing for future change to occur with relative ease.
GHDWoodhead developed a design that represented the organic forms associated with nature and the authentic use of materials. The result is an environmentally-sustainable, large-scale office space that incorporates a 'campus' workplace model allowing for collaborative, productive working, featuring:
- Recycled, environmentally-friendly materials
- 'Green' walls
- Natural displacement air-conditioning and operable windows
- Reduced lighting levels, supplemented by individual task lighting
- Atria, which allow natural light penetration to the floors and natural ventilation
- Inter-tenancy stairs, providing staff quick connection throughout the office floors.
The new workplace design meets the DCCEE's brief of aligning its vision and values of environmental sustainability to its workspace, while also encouraging an intuitive way of working, driving the exchange of resources and information, to increase productivity and efficiency.
