Dexus Place 80 Collins

80 Collins North Tower in Melbourne is a 52-storey development constructed in the late 1970s. It shares its site with a new ‘south tower’ opened in 2020. Dexus Place is the signature co-working brand of the developer, Dexus, and it is located in the lower rise of the North Tower. The North Tower is a symbol of its era - a dark and heavily cloaked structure in a concrete facade, it has lower ceiling heights and lesser outlook / natural light than its shiny premium new partner in the south. Our challenge was to make the older development appealing and deliberately opposing in experience to that of the South Tower. Warren and Mahoney co-authored our creative brief with Dexus to derive six key themes which underpin the design: Universal, Intuitive, Visionary, Memorable, Hospitable and Flexible. The intent was to provide a professional and mature co-working brand to the corporate market which moves beyond that of established competitors. Dexus Place extends to the wider 80 Collins precinct community, including the newer South Tower tenants and provides high-end facilities on a flexible, as-needs basis and through memberships. Large seminar suites, boardrooms and meeting rooms takes the pressure off organisations investing and providing their own facilities on site. Dexus Place’s overall brief comprises a blend of performance and experience which culminated in the central idea of the ‘Alter Ego’ - a highly functional, ambitious, and experiential workplace with an attitude that could only occur in a shared space. Our creative strategy for the Alter Ego provides the project with a unique proposition which drives a highly experiential workspace and a rigorous commercial grounding. It behaves in a way that the newer tower cannot, more extreme, more experiential. A blend of hard spaces (exposed and raw) and soft transitions (plush and colourful) bring drama and clearly defined destinations in the environment. The choice of materials is additive to these experiences. The project team embraced the unapologetically urban existing building condition and constraints. The design takes an honest approach to retaining existing elements, achieving sustainability initiatives and cost value for the client, and embracing the unique character of the space. To address the limited natural light, a stair was introduced between the three storey’s which amplifies natural light over the volume. Dexus Place exploits a bold design language, taking risks with spatial planning and experiences. It embraces darkness, texture, and ambiance. It is ruthlessly efficient, bringing purpose to all the net usable space. A mature and sophisticated counterpoint to other co-working offers in the market, it innovates through performance and drama - a desirable reason to come to the workplace.