Studio 55, the new Melbourne workplace for international design firm Hassell, is designed as a living laboratory for regenerative design.

Located within I. M. Pei’s landmark 55 Collins Street, the office is conceived as a ‘worklab’ - a live, ongoing experiment in how workplace design can push past net-zero.

The studio challenges traditional corporate conventions through a ‘design with less’ philosophy that the firm has dubbed ‘sustainable brutalism’: an unexpected, distinctive, and environmentally responsible design language.

The project forms part of Hassell’s journey toward Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification, recognised as the world’s most rigorous sustainability standard, set by the International Living Future Institute. While conventional net-zero design aims simply to do no harm, Studio 55 is engineered to act as a truly regenerative space that gives back more to the environment than it takes.

While the modern office has spent years trying to mimic the living room, Hassell’s Melbourne workplace takes a radically different stance. Enter the age of the ‘anti-home.’

An intentional pivot away from the quiet, slipper-clad isolation of the home office, this space thrives on the creative energy of teamwork. It features highly adaptable elements — such as custom forum tables that transform into pin-up walls — that shift the space seamlessly from collaborative workshop to bar-like event mode.

Backed by a flexible attendance policy, the studio acts as a natural magnet, proving that the workplace shouldn't compete with the home but offer exactly what the home lacks: a vibrant hub for social connection and rapid knowledge exchange.

Stripped back and rigorously planned in collaboration with MPA Construction Group and Arup – who provided engineering services and consulting advice on the LBC – the studio reuses joinery, workstations, furniture and lighting salvaged from Hassell’s former Little Collins Street office.

Every material was tracked from origin to installation, with full ingredient lists, emissions testing and chain-of-custody documentation — and every subcontractor completed dedicated LBC training to meet the brief.

As a result, the projected recorded a 41% reduction in embodied carbon compared to a conventional workplace fit out and achieved a diversion of 98% of construction and fit-out waste from landfill.

Over 90 bespoke light fittings by local designer Edward Linacre using recycled aluminium and hand-blown glass were included and various other recycled materials were used throughout. For example, new walls and ceilings were made from recycled cartons, cups and soft plastics, with acoustic insulation from recycled PET.

To offset its footprint, Hassell has partnered with Wilderlands and Cassinia Environmental to permanently protect roughly 4,000 sqm of high-biodiversity land in Alleena, New South Wales, secured in perpetuity through a Biodiversity Conservation Trust covenant.

Inside, a living planting strategy developed with Melbourne business Flora’s Daughter pairs established indoor species with Australian natives more commonly found outdoors — including the Wollemi Pine. The plants are monitored fortnightly as a working test of how resilient species adapt indoors.

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