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    Cox Architecture celebrates heritage features of its own Sydney studio

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    A brick, steel and timber structure is left exposed in this office interior in Sydney, which local firm Cox Architecture has revamped to house its own studio.

    Cox Architecture removed previous alterations to the structure, which occupies five floors of the heritage-listed Metcalfe Bond Stores warehouse in Tallawoladah, to highlight its original features and complement them with pared-back, flexible workspaces.
    Cox Architecture has designed its own studio in a Sydney warehouse”Our objective was to do more with less, balancing the poetic with the pragmatic,” explained the studio.
    “Restrained interventions allow the heritage to be the hero and minimise the project’s embodied energy,” it continued. “Our starting point was a process of reduction, removing non-heritage elements to create clarity.”
    The studio exposed its existing structureThe interior is defined by the original steel and timber structure’s columns and beams that have been painted white, and the brickwork of the outer walls that are left exposed.

    New elements such as glass doors and walls, room dividers, curtains and furniture were chosen to touch the existing structure “as lightly as possible”, and feature alongside dark-wood carpentry and gallery-style lighting tracks.
    Dark-wood carpentry features throughoutThe workspaces themselves are designed to be flexible and “hackable”, allowing areas to be reconfigured and subdivided easily by staff.
    This includes a forum space on the fifth level of the building, which has a wall lined with magnetic whiteboards and can be used as anything from a collaborative workshop space to a presentation area for 200 people.

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    Alongside it is a kitchen with a backdrop of exposed brickwork and two long counters topped with unsealed brass that will patinate over time.
    A black-steel stair leads up to a mezzanine level above containing further desk spaces. This sits at the top of the building, lit by skylights in the apex of the pitched roof.
    The workspaces are designed to be flexible”Anchored by a generous kitchen, a flexible forum space is a magnet for serendipitous exchange between Cox’s own people and the wider design community,” said the studio.
    “The majority of elements within the space are movable, creating an experimental, nimble workspace allowing teams the autonomy to control their space and future-proofing the studio as the workplace evolves,” it continued.
    The presentation space is lined with magnetic whiteboardsFacing the street, Cox Architecture created a “shopfront window”, giving staff the opportunity to populate vitrines with the studio’s work.
    Cox Sydney Studio has recently been shortlisted in the large workplace interior category of Dezeen Awards 2023. Another office interior completed by the studio is the Midtown Workplace in Brisbane, which features a large, plant-filled atrium with by a weathered-steel staircase.
    The photography is by Nicole England and Cameron Hallam.

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      Weathered-steel staircase wraps plant-filled atrium at Midtown Workplace

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      Weathered-steel balconies with cascading plants wrap the skylit atrium at the centre of this office in Brisbane, refurbished by Australian studio Cox Architecture.

      Named Midtown Workplace, the office occupies the top nine floors of a development that has been created by merging two separate towers in the Australian capital into a single building.
      The project has been shortlisted in the large workspace interior category of Dezeen Awards 2022.
      Cox Architecture has refurbished the Midtown Workplace in BrisbaneUsing the idea of connectivity between the two towers as a starting point, Cox Architecture created a stepped concrete auditorium at the base of the office called “The Pit”, with bridge links above based on the idea of an internal high street.
      “The tower is a story of two halves, two existing towers connected as one, old structures connected with new,” said the studio.

      It features an atrium with cascading plants”Our approach to the workplace celebrated this, with the void and bridge links positioned as the connecting piece between two existing towers,” it continued.
      At either side of Midtown Workplace’s central, skylit atrium, the cores of the existing towers have been used to house circulation and smaller meeting rooms, surrounded by areas of flexible workspace.
      A stepped concrete auditorium sits at the baseBanks of desks and booths are complemented by more informal seating areas at different points along the office’s “high street”, such as benches installed alongside planters and stools overlooking the atrium.
      “The new workplace explores an alternative to standard workspaces, creating a diverse and blended model that is supported by a high proportion of hackable, collaborative areas,” said Cox Architecture.

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      “Thirty per cent of the primary work points are moveable, affording teams complete autonomy and control over their workspace,” it continued.
      In The Pit, curved concrete amphitheatre-style seating dotted with planters faces a presentation space with views of the city as its backdrop. It is overlooked by all of the atrium’s balconies, creating a “magnet for cultural exchange.”
      Cox Architecture used a material palette with earthy tonesMidtown Workplace’s material palette adopts earthy tones drawn from the exposed concrete and orangey-brown weathered steel.
      The bare concrete is complemented by exposed metalwork and services across the office ceilings.
      The ceilings have exposed metalwork and servicesOther projects that have been shortlisted in the large workspace interior category of Dezeen Awards 2022 include the Design District Bureau Club in London by Roz Barr Architects, and the Dyson Global HQ in Singapore by M Moser Associates.
      Elsewhere, Cox Architecture is currently developing an airport in Sydney with Zaha Hadid Architects and recently completed The National Maritime Museum of China, which features a cluster of hull-like roofs.

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