Rochester Street Office
The building we have designed for Robert Plumb Collective is positioned in what was once the edge of the city but has now become a thriving community of like-minded makers, builders, and designers.
Botany’s rather arbitrary collection of buildings in this tight industrial fringe dictated a lot of our thinking. We really wanted to feel part of the ensemble of neighbouring structures, and as much as we needed to be respectful of the locale, we had to deliver the spaces necessary for great working conditions and provide a platform for the collaborative effort that was to follow.
Considering the myriad of inputs from planners, consultants, and specialist trades, as well as working with two clients at the top of their game, our aim was to condense all this into something effortless and honest. Something that felt thoughtful and straightforward, while respectful and confident enough to project the Robert Plumb Collective and the building itself, into the future.
It goes without saying that Akin Atelier and Second Edition’s layering of interiors has resulted in a whole that we all feel has answered our client’s needs and wishes, exceeding what we could have achieved without.
Coupled with the incalculable value that a pragmatic and clear-thinking client brings to the process of making a building, we feel the resulting effort has resolved itself in a clear and concise manner.
The building is best understood as a stacked set of three long containers made up of concrete post, beam, and slab; a fairly straight forward building that did much within a set of strict economical parameters.
What this enabled was big panes of glass and enough heft in the structure to accommodate the planting of outdoor areas and edge beam planters that circle the upper floors. This sort of effort very much defines the building and underscores the integration of each, for the benefit of all - an ethos that defines our design thinking. And though this makes the most of the abundant natural light and outdoor connections, large expanses of window require careful sun protection.
We resolved this at the lower level by having the upper-level project significantly beyond the glazing line. At the upper-level fixed perpendicular screens at regular intervals, made up of local standard brick that express process of their fabrication (the extrusion holes) that regulate the light, whilst allowing for views through planting and across to the neighbouring rooftops.
CREDITS
Architecture: Allied_Office
Interior Architecture & Design: Akin Atelier
Interior Materiality & Loose Furniture Design: Second Edition
Landscape Architecture: Dangar Barin Smith
