The Public Trustee’s new office fitout was awarded the People’s Choice Award at the Design Institute of Australia South Australia Chapter Awards held earlier this month.

Designed by architecture and design practice Hames Sharley, four floors including two ‘front of house’ tenancies were fitted out to accommodate 180 employees while also reflecting the organisation’s services and open collaborative approach to work.

Hames Sharley director David Cooke says the design team was excited and humbled by the public’s response to the vision and final product.

“Winning the People’s Choice Award is a fantastic recognition of the work and creativity displayed by our interior design team. The fact that it was chosen by the wider community made it even better as it meant we were able to capture and inspire a collective of people Australia wide.

“The theme ‘life and its cycles’ was used to develop the design concept. Influenced largely by the services the Public Trustee provides to the Australian community, the theme represents the impact the services may have on all aspects of a persons’ life through a perpetual and continuous cycle. As the cycle has similarities to those found in nature, we chose to allocate a season to each level through the use of colours, materials and abstract graphic images of flowers, leaves, sand and wind.”

The design also incorporates numerous ESD initiatives and was designed to obtain a 5 Star Green Star rating.