Peckvonhartel reshapes working life at the Australian Communications and Media Authority

By Stephen Crafti
Updated July 26 2014 - 12:23am, first published 12:15am
Peckvonhartel’s refit for the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Photo: Simon Johanson
Peckvonhartel’s refit for the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Photo: Simon Johanson

The Australian Communications and Media Authority, a government authority responsible for monitoring media coverage, had been operating from three levels within a tower at 360 Elizabeth Street, above Melbourne Central.

While these levels provided impressive views of Melbourne, the diamond-shaped floor plates were relatively inefficient.

“The office arrangement reflected practices from decades ago,” says Joshua McAlister, senior design architect at Peckvonhartel, who worked closely with interior designer Angela Welch on this project. "There was no connectivity between the levels, except for the fire escape."

ACMA subsequently moved a few levels below its former workplace and now occupies two levels, connected by an internal staircase.

One of the main concerns with the refit of these levels was to break down the previous style of working, with a series of pod-like workstations centred on a meeting table.

“We were finding that staff working adjacent to these pods formed their own niche," says McAlister. "And at lunchtime, everyone took a lift to the cafes at ground level."

The two floor plates ACMA now occupies represent one-third less space. But what it has gained in the move is substantial. As well as breaking down the pod-like arrangement, the workstations have been located at the periphery of each floor, allowing for greater natural light, as well as sharper views of the city and surrounds.

This arrangement is combined with glass-fronted interior offices at the core of each level, occupied by more senior staff.

“We’ve lowered the amount of floor space for the staff [about 250 people], but we’ve made the spaces [3000 square metres in total] more efficient,” says McAlister.

The other significant change to the office environment has been the emotional connectivity to the interior, not merely the physical attributes.

Peckvonhartel not only researched work practices at ACMA, but also found inspiration from its colourful logo.

“We wanted to create a sense of identity, as well as devise a way-finding system without using obvious signs,” says Welch.

As a consequence, shared meeting rooms on three corners of each floor are colour coded. One glass-fronted room, for example, features tinted green glass together with green carpet. Another room on the same level is red.

And by far the greatest marks on the interior are the striking coloured walls. A multicoloured feature wall, connecting the two levels, features striations of colour found in ACMA’s logo.

“The logo clearly shows when certain colours converge,” says McAlister. “We wanted to personalise this space and make staff aware the colours are theirs."

The double-height wall containing the staircase was also ideal to express colour.

These colourful additions also appear at reception, almost as "rips" in the MDF wall behind the counter. And rather than simply adding bolts of colour to the kitchen and breakout area, located on the higher level, Peckvonhartel created a "black canvas", with black joinery and black-painted walls. Colour then appears in mural-like installations and bold-coloured furniture, and a white perforated plaster ceiling provides a strong statement against the black rubber floors.

While the area provided is significantly less, the connectivity between each level has substantially increased. Staff gravitate to the kitchen and breakout area, and there’s considerable interaction during the course of each day.

“It’s a new way of working, something that was clearly identified as needing attention from the outset,” says McAlister. “There’s also a greater sense of being part of an organisation, rather than just a work-team pod."

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

$0/

(min cost $0)

or signup to continue reading

See subscription options

Get the latest Warrnambool news in your inbox

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.

We care about the protection of your data. Read our Privacy Policy.