offices

We discovered a charming garden house at the end of a garden in Brussels.

Born to Build – Today’s construction process is often reduced to its final outcomes, with more steps and intermediate forms than historically seen. For example, the process of formwork erection for a concrete project involves the erection of a dense forest of scaffolding and then the formwork for the negative form of the building supported, in steps that seem far removed from the final form. In such a process, the forms resulting from the construction process continue to emerge and are annihilated in the newly emerging forms, so that the construction process, which has no attempt on the form or on an intellectual level, becomes a continuous generator with contently emerging and withering forms, thus it undergoes the most dramatic formal changes of the site.

Disorder/Order – Scattered/Arranged – Unorganized/Organized – Not seeing/Seeing – Unseen/Seen – Shade/Light – Closed/Open – Shell/Space. These opposing concepts were central to the design challenges faced by the Sarv administrative building project. Initially referred to the design team in June 2017 for façade approval, the building posed unique architectural problems. It was a partially constructed structure with 100% plot coverage, limiting the potential for natural light and ventilation to just one side—the southern façade. This constraint heavily influenced the design team’s approach, as they sought to balance functional requirements with aesthetic and spatial considerations.

Expressing an expertise – The fit-out for leading law firm Russell Kennedy is a contemporary and inclusive workplace that supports the future aims of the business. The textural and warm interiors represent the law firm’s values. Set within the newly refurbished 500 Bourke Street tower in Melbourne’s CBD, the new workplace for Russell Kennedy is spread across four floors, with a design that reinforces and supports the law firm’s authentic and inclusive positioning in the market. Deciding that its current office no longer supported its future workplace strategy, Russell Kennedy included Carr in the building selection and analysis of suitable sites in Melbourne’s CBD. Through an assessment of factors, such as floor plate efficiency, daylight amenities, and sustainability, a detailed report was prepared with recommendations to ensure the chosen building upheld and advanced Russell Kennedy’s vision for its future workplace.

The creation of Tripolis, a trio of idiosyncratic office buildings of 11,000, 8,000, and 6,000 square meters, was inextricably linked to Van Eyck’s masterpiece, the Amsterdam Orphanage. Completed in 1960, the orphanage was one of the most important projects of the Structuralist movement, yet by 1986 it was already threatened with demolition. A successful international campaign was launched to save the orphanage, and the municipality of Amsterdam offered the adjacent land to the developer – on the condition that Aldo and Hannie van Eyck should design the new office complex. In 1994, their new design was completed, and thus Tripolis began its life as the symbolic savior of the orphanage.

Located above Moorgate station’s new ticket hall (also designed by WilkinsonEyre), the scheme brings pedestrianized streets, squares, walkways and an extended bridge to the Barbican. It is a key development for regeneration in the undervalued Moorgate area, the recent arrival of the Elizebeth Line triggering the re-evaluation of the area.