Project Overview

We wanted to create a space that had a real homely feeling, but was also impressive in its details.

We created a space with high ceilings and plenty of natural light, plus an indoor basketball court/pilates den, purpose built whisky bar, and heaps of space to store our bikes. Here, behind our glowing neon sign, we’ve got everything we need including the giant noodle desk.

Organisation

Hardhat

Team

Robert Davidov - Architect / Interior Designer
Justin Kabbani - Co-founder & MD
Louis Klein - Custom Furniture
Sergio Kacanas - Custom Furniture
Danny Browne - Electrical & Data

Project Brief

The brief was quite clear - create a space that made a huge impact, but was still intrinsically functional. It needed to be so much fun as to create an environment where creativity happened seemingly by accident, yet it needed to facilitate the varying kinds of working setups that the team needed.

Hardhat is a collaborative environment where people often pick and sit down next to each other for an hour or a month. At it's heart the space had to be so flexible, so as to allow strong growth of team numbers going forward and to cater to the changing requirements of the team.

We had think about every element and make it have the maximum impact without appearing showy. Around each corner at Hardhat there is a story of symbolism - why we chose to create the space that way, what impact it has on the people visiting and working in it and how does it reinforce a core principle of the business.

Project Innovation/Need

We have shown that existing materials and spaces can be used in fun ways to say more about the people working in them. It is critical that new visitors to the studio get a strong sense that Hardhat is not just a place where innovation and working differently is talked about, but that it is lived and breathed by the people working there.

Welcoming a visitor with a basketball and taking a few shots is a great way to get them to leave the stress of their previous meeting behind and change zone to Hardhat mode.

The inclusion of a lab or workshop allows employees who are usually creating things for the online world, to create physical things. Whether its tinkering with electronics or creating structures, the lab is a place to create something different than normal. The most exciting creation to come out of the lab has been the Swervin' Mervin arcade machine.

Design Challenge

The response was to remove as many of the existing walls that existed as part of the previous fit out – a rabbit’s warren of offices and corridors. What was left was an irregular room with excellent cross ventilation and natural light. The common spine, due to the length of space required, snakes and bends its way back and forth through the space creating different zones that lend themselves to be used as conversation areas, break out space or nooks for concentration.

Visitors and clients to the office are welcomed into a large reception space mocked up as a street style basketball court. This space doubles to facilitate regular seminars, in house training sessions and impromptu meetings where the vast walls become the canvas.

Besides the traditional boardroom and smaller meeting rooms the desire to create another idiosyncratic space was developed – whisky bar, referencing the cliché of the advertising world in which the client finds themself while also referencing the basketball court aesthetic of the reception area. The room conveniently doubles as a fully functioning meeting room and allows clients and staff to engage in a less formal environment screened from the familiar ingredients of modern commerce.

Sustainability

The use of energy efficient lights is standard these days, but the fun use of the lighting track in the office has created a lighting design that has no light wastage. To walk through the main office area, it is seemingly only natural light, but when sitting down at a desk there is plenty of light provided by the adjustable spots.

Sensor lighting and timers are used throughout the office to ensure energy efficiency.