70 George_Cox Sydney Studio

Cox Architecture’s new Sydney studio sits within 5 floors of the Metcalfe Bond Stores, 70 George Street in Tallawoladah. Sustainability, collaboration and conservation were defined as project pillars. We endeavoured to design a space that could adapt to change, suiting both the way we work now and how we work in the future. Originally built in 1912, the building is a State heritage listed former bond store and warehouse. Designed in the functionalist tradition with timber post and beam interior construction and brick load bearing exterior walls. Our starting point was a process of reduction. Intrusive bulkheads were removed revealing heritage significant fish bone timber ceiling structures and built form demolished to create clarity within the planning diagram. Careful consideration was given to the insertion of new elements to touch the space as lightly as possible from a heritage and sustainability standpoint. Fundamental to our planning approach was recognising the dual drivers of fluidity and collaboration within the practice, providing equitable access to light and maintaining cross ventilation to facilitate a mixed mode ventilation strategy. Across levels 3 and 4, workspace is positioned to the east affording views to the harbour and morning light, collaboration is centrally located with meeting rooms to the west. Anchored by a generous kitchen, a flexible forum space is positioned on Level 5. A magnet for serendipitous exchange between Cox’s own people and the wider design community. Moveable furniture enables this space to pivot from lunch mode to design workshops and collaboration spaces to a presentation space for 200. An experimental nimble workspace allows teams to reconfigure hackable areas providing staff with the autonomy to control their space, future proofing the studio as the ‘workplace’ evolves and continues to redefine itself. A mixed mode ventilation strategy combines nature with technology, allowing users to control their environment and take advantage of natural sea breezes. A weather station connected to the BMS automatically shuts down the mechanical ventilation system when temperatures sit between 19-26 degrees Celsius. A Teams alert is sent to all staff who manually open and close windows. Individually controllable ceiling fans bolster air flow movement. Using passive design principles, we have saved 74% in total air-conditioning usage due to opening the windows and taking advantage of natural cross-ventilation. We estimate that this design strategy has saved around 9090 kg of CO2-e, a 1.9% reduction in the studio’s total carbon emissions which is equal to planting 454 trees. A workstation booking system ensures computers are automatically powered down when not in use to further reduce energy consumption. Our selection of materials was curated to reduce the projects embodied energy. Workstation frames were retained, fitted with recycled worktops. Vintage meeting chairs and pendants were sourced alongside locally crafted FSC certified timber tables. Steel frames were selected over aluminium with doors and joinery designed as fully demountable pieces, clamped in place to existing structure to allow a full reuse of all components. A high level of reuse furniture.