Havas Village

Havas Group is a global communications company that moved from multiple sites across Sydney to a singular workplace becoming the anchor tenant for a historic building in the CBD. Located within the ‘Bushell’s Tea’ Building, the site forms part of ‘The Rocks’ heritage district and is of high state significance.

The workplace solution for Havas is respectful of the heritage envelope. Spanning six levels, the floorplates are planned predominately as open plan workspace. Enclosed spaces where required are designed as freestanding timber pavilions within the existing built environment. Exposed untreated timber columns, beams, joists above and exposed mechanical services, keep in line with the original industrial use of the building.

The typical floors (L1 – L5) are entered via a bridge across the atrium, entering the floor on the collaboration boulevard. A central corridor that has several open suites of varying collaborative furniture that can be used separately or connected with the hub kitchen for larger gatherings. These collaboration settings are enabled with either technology or anti-tech working walls for storyboarding. The top floor (L6) inherits the heritage pitch roof and is a shared floor facility for the agencies below.

The introduction of cobble stone flooring within the ground floor lobby is a nod to the historical function of the space as a tea loading dock and reasserts the lobby as a laneway spanning between two buildings. It is here that the Havas experience begins with a large scale ‘H’ digital totem anchored on the ground floor plane spanning vertically 5M into the atrium space. A shimmering concierge pod conceived in the same design language is located nearby. The laneway is softened by loose furniture settings that provide impromptu meeting spaces for staff and guests to the building.

Workstations are arranged in a pinwheel format to encourage organic circulation throughout the floors and are intersected by heritage tea chutes that span vertically through the levels. Focus and retreat spaces are located on alternative floors and provide respite for staff enabling more relaxed and individually focussed work styles away from the team environment. Social and collaborative spaces are supported by flexible and diverse furniture solutions that are equipped with integrated AV technology and power/USB to enable different modes of working.

Award Winner 2019, Master Builders Association: Best Restoration/Adaptive Re-use of an Historic Building

Photography by Terence Chin. © Hammond Studio