Woods Bagot has been doing fitout work for Macquarie for over a decade and continue to work with them around the world.  The Shelley Street project is the culmination of many years of gradual innovation and progression that has resulted in arguably the world’s most advanced workplaces as of 2010.  The Woods Bagot role, led by James Calder, goes right back to the initial workplace strategy, site strategy, communication, research and consultation.  Woods Bagot selected Clive Wilkinson and Philip Ross to partner with on the new workplace for the Macquarie Group at One Shelley Street, Sydney. The building (designed by James Fitzpatrick) comprises 33,000 m2 of office space, across two low scale buildings: with a central atrium, public, retail and commercial space within the base floor.

Shelley Street accommodates 3,300 people in an activity based working environment. The work concept (as developed in collaboration with Veldhoen, Clive Wilkinson, Philip Ross and Macquarie Group), aimed to change the culture of the Macquarie team from a command control model to a team of collaboration and trust, in addition to providing the bank with considerable property cost savings.  

In this new environment, no occupant has an assigned desk: rather the work space provides employees with a variety of settings that allow them to do specific tasks in tailored work settings. This design philosophy encourages increased collaboration and a more productive mode of working. An employee has an anchor point, which is allocated as their ‘home base’ and it is here that their locker and storage resides. The design embraces the changing needs of Macquarie staff (and other users) through the employment of technology (laptops, touch screens, USB ports, WiFi etc.) to enable completely mobile and flexible ‘real time’ work with colleagues.

Project Design Team: Macquarie Group Limited, Clive Wilkinson Architects and Woods Bagot

Photography by Shannon McGrath courtesy of Clive Wilkinson Architects.