by Kath Walters
Business Review Weekly (Australia)
15 December 2011 - 26 January 2012
pp. 46-49
The first issue of Business Review Weekly features a workplace special, presenting the pinnacle of workplace design.
The examples selected for the piece are all groundbreaking in their own way, "through the design of individual and collaborative work spaces incorporating natural light, fresh air, a sense of open space and vistas and measures to encourage the development of a healthier workforce, such as internal stairs to discourage the use of lifts and encouraging short walks to coffee stations, meal rooms and printers."
The projects were selected both as winners or shortlisted contenders of top design awards in 2011, but more importantly, based on the test given to their tenants, "the real people who inhabit them and get about their daily tasks with more ease, enthusiasm and fun."
Two HASSELL projects were featured in the article – Ecosciences Precinct in Brisbane and ANZ Centre in Melbourne.
Ecosciences Precinct brings together one thousand scientists from four state agencies and six CSIRO divisions into a single collaborative research centre. The article notes that, "an internal north-south street of staff commons, library and meeting rooms is linked vertically by atrium stairs and passenger lifts. This way of organising the office is a major innovation. Scientists are co-located by scientific outcome, not organisational boundary, and work in flexible, stimulating, light, open and transparent research areas."
ANZ Centre, meanwhile, was awarded a six-star Green Star Office Design rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. The article notes that, "despite its large scale, ANZ Centre is designed to encourage small-scale engagements between the ANZ staff. A public "common" on the ground floor of the building brings clients and the community into the heart of the organisation. This space is designed to allow daylight to penetrate deep into the building and to accommodate a variety of work styles."
The article concludes with the findings of US medical researched Esther Sternberg, who found that the best-designed workplaces have the power to heal, calm and lessen illness and stress. Productivity also increases if workers are happy and absenteeism is less likely to occur if people are happier about the space they work in.
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