Image Credit : Shannon McGrath
Project Overview
Compulsive Productions is a film production studio that offer motion graphic, post production and audio mixing services. The fit-out of their studio was an exercise in combining new workplace and brand evolution.
Client and Architect together actualized a business strategy to host collaborative in-house associations with advertising agencies, independent production freelancers and local creatives - a kind-of hybrid private and public work and event space - and one that is to be shared and advertised as such.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Matt Gibson Architecture + Design
Team
Project Team: Matt Gibson, Phil Burns, Angela Hopkins, Carolin Arndt
Builder: Cubed Projects
Photography: Shannon McGrath
Artwork: Flinders Lane Gallery, James Makin Gallery
Project Brief
Aligning with studies of sci-fi and film-noir genres, the concept delights in the opposition of darkness and light; and the tension of past, present and future. The futuristic pods - finely detailed, hi-tech and gleaming, enclosed and cocooning; play off the seemingly vast and infinite exposed nature of the existing warehouse - where surfaces are left rudimentary, old and industrial allowing a relaxedness and ability to personalise these left-over spaces.
Project Innovation/Need
A key requirement was to introduce a state of the art film editing suite for the primary business, with potential to dry hire to third parties. Inspired by the geometry of the clients’ tools of trade, the warehouse space was spanned by a series of open ended ply-clad acoustically lined pods - notionally emulating a camera barrel - allowing visual permeability and connectivity. Used for production reviews and colour grading these spaces need to control natural light and transform to dark spaces.
The notion of Co-working is a phenomenon on the rise and especially prevalent in an industry where short-term commissions are common. Hence the brief was to create a studio, gallery and event space with flexibility to house different workplace arrangements - more than just a shared office space, but a Co-working community that offers a network of mutually supportive business relationships.
Design Challenge
The key strategy of this project was to create a multi-faceted workplace that allows cross-pollination and diversity of event. Crafting flexible workplace arrangements that provide the owner with multiple avenues for rental revenue, allows the core business to gain increased exposure and opportunity for new work via association and collaboration with its tenants.
Budget dictated that major change was out of the question. In a cost-effective strategy that brought the newer more sophisticated elements into the foreground, the remainder of the space is finished in various shades of black-paint or bronzed-mirror conveniently recessing and camouflaging existing elements.
At night, with ability for stage sets and events, the space transforms with low-key lighting and dark reflective surfacing; to be at once sumptuous, moody and mysterious. The corporate colour red is interwoven only in detail - the company name does not appear once internally, instead red is subtlety woven through furniture, objet and neon artwork.
Sustainability
The Bureau of Statistics estimates that by 2020, 40% of the total workforce will be made up of freelancers, temps and independent contractors. The macro-sustainability of this design is that it wishes to embrace this paradigm and be at the forefront, creating something unique within the industry. Unlike traditional edit-suites which are notoriously dark and unaesthetic - risking, in the clients words, 'cabin-fever' - this design allows flexibility to retain the acoustic and well-lit qualities of a high-quality edit-suite, whilst allowing connection with other colleagues within the workspace.
It promotes a public use facility that caters for the owner and his staff within one pod, a sub-tenant in another, and a feature editing suite for dry hire. Running alongside this are a series of hot desks that cater for short, medium or long term stayers. The space most importantly had to be an authentic, comfortable and meaningful space, designed with a deep and genuine sense of ownership for its' tenants.
Other sustainable initiatives include low built intervention (minimal works to existing shell), maximise budget through innovation – making spaces feel bigger, flexibility to open/shut down pods (via curtains), maximise natural light, low embodied energy material usage.
Interior Design - Corporate
This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes, aesthetic presentation and functionality. Consideration also given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.
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