Head Office Building

Intended as the headquarters building for a representative body, the building establishes a distinctive presence while respecting the scale of the neighbouring buildings. Six stories in height, the building houses four office levels, a parking level and an auditorium at the topmost level.

The conceptual approach was to create a headquarters building that reflected the feel of a home. The play on a gable form as a roof and the use of exposed brick was to evoke a sense of familiarity and draw parallels with that of a home. As a reinterpretation of the gridded glazed façade of a typical office building, varying sizes of openings puncture the exposed brick shell to create a dynamic outer envelope. A handful of protruding balconies add variation and character to the façade. The uniform base with porous, vertical slits sits in stark contrast to the solid block with the random square punctures on top.

The open plan work area — open in the middle for informal workstations and flexible seating with enclosed cubicles around the perimeter on the fourth level — is efficient and compact and allows for multiple tenancies. Robust building technologies and handmade, locally sourced, low maintenance materials that possess low embodied energy were opted for, to align with the project’s overarching concept.