Jury comment
The designers have purposefully maximized natural light and ventilation within a building envelope that would not usually be considered as a potential site for sustainable practices. The North Lakes Office Fitout is an example of what can be achieved with a conventional building type and is an exemplar for the future development of similar projects.
Design statement
The North Lakes Office Fitout is an office for three tenants sharing one small warehouse in North Lakes, north of Brisbane. The warehouse itself is part of a generic industrial development and is essentially a 10 metre × 10 metre tilt-slab box standing seven metres high, with west-facing openings. The project quickly became an exercise in harnessing and manipulating daylight. The plan and section of the project hinge around three polycarbonate light wells that operate between the two levels, bringing daylight deep into the building. The aim was to create an office space that could operate with passive cooling and minimal artificial light for the majority of the year. These light wells define the various zones of the tenancy and create key moments of separation and convergence for the three tenants and their staff.
The office was designed and built within tight budget constraints and aims to challenge traditional notions of commercial office space in terms of environmental factors, materiality and enclosure.
The Award for Sustainability Advancement is supported by Dulux. The Australian Interior Design Awards are presented by the Design Institute of Australia and Artichoke magazine. For more images of this project, see the Australian Interior Design Awards gallery.
