Tandem Offices, South Yarra, VIC

Working in tandem receives a pop of colour

Tectvs was tasked with developing a flexible co-working office in South Yarra. With primary tenant Tandem serving as the client, the challenge lay in transforming a difficult and distressed polygonal site into an attractive work environment. What emerged was a series of conflicting, yet necessary requirements: private meeting spaces, natural break out zones, performative after-hours spaces, and, as with all co-working spaces, premium yield in maximising lettable desk space. What made the task more challenging was finding ways to allow light to reach the furthermost corner of the unorthodox office layout. 

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The response was a subtle arrangement of flexible interior zones. Movable glass and polytube walls allowed both circulation and light to maintain a distinction between private meeting rooms and more open-plan office space. Exposed brick is greeted by lightweight timber and pops of colour, with a galley of shared meeting rooms set against a fit-out that references 1970’s European modernism. After hours, the office features the ability to transition into an event space driven by a more relaxed set of encounters. A shift in the orientation reveals flexible lounges, a fusball table, media facilities, and an outdoor balcony.

The effect on the working environment is a promotion of productive encounters amongst creatives. Early on in the design process, collective decisions were taken to organise the space in a series of specific meshes. Lighting arrays, movable walls, and curation in the taxonomy of the fit-out guide the user within the carefully ordered – yet non-hierarchical – office layout. The beneficiary to this planning is the multiple ways relationships between co-workers have been organised through architecture.