Online music promoters The Sound Alliance approached Environa Studio to refit a 70’s inner city office to house the expanding business.

The brief called for a design with a provocative mix of grown up sophistication and youthful playfulness, with a mid-century club lounge as the conceptual starting point.  The design model had to be married with a sustainable program and a moderate budget.

Environa worked closely with the clients and proposed minimal interventions to the existing layout so to preserve the budget for three key spaces of the plywood lined reception area, a larger corner boardroom and directors’ breakout space, and new workstation layouts with a tidy-up of existing facilities.

How to deal with the existing office was the main challenge for the architects. They tried to maintain and reuse or integrate into the new construction where possible. Many spaces had to fill more than one purpose, meaning they needed to be adaptable and able to be relocated easily.

Additionally, the previously drab wall to the toilets and service rooms became a canvas for a giant composition of colour blocks utilising the Sound Alliance brand colours.

Overall, the office fit-out produced a place that Sound Alliance will enjoy for a long time, which, all things considered, is the most sustainable outcome.

INITIATIVES

  • Sustainability has many layers, our guiding principle was environa’s dictum of 3L’s: ‘long life, loose fit, low impact’.  Everything was designed to be reversible, easily removed, relocated or replaced, by using a spanner, not a hammer”.  Refinishing of existing built fabric was chosen over demolition and rebuilding in every instance.
  • With an emphasis on low impact we focused on reuse, refurbish, rework and refinish using plywood, selected for its affordability, low wastage and relatively low carbon footprint and relied on painted finishes, all water based and low VOC to provide the drama.
  • The speed and cost efficiency of painting was used as a technique to ‘rebrand’ the space prompting an extensive paint program. Existing meeting rooms inherited from the previous tenant were given a monochromatic makeover, thematically linked with two of the client’s key brands: Red for FASTER LOUDER and blue for IN THE MIX.