2023 Winner - Commercial Architecture
2023 Shortlisted - Commercial - Constructed
2022 Finalist - Commercial Development of the Year
2022 Silver Winner - Commercial
The site is long and thin, with a laneway at the back and an individually significant single-storey brick building – a former recording studio – at the front. The design retains the heritage building in its entirety, placing a faceted glass form above it.
The southern orientation makes it ideal for office use, offering consistent diffuse light. We embraced this, treating the upper levels as a crystalline glass volume – one of few Fieldwork projects where the glazing isn’t shaded. Rather than a flat curtain wall, the façade is pleated. This breaks the building’s form down, reducing its presence on the street while gaining additional lettable area and addressing council and neighbour concerns about bulk.
Where the new building meets the old, the façade folds inward, wrapping around the corner rather than sitting flush. This pulls the upper levels back from the heritage building, giving it space to be read in the round – rather than a retained skin. Instead, it’s a three-dimensional form with its own presence. The fold creates a pocket for a tree, landscape and seating at ground level.
Adjacent to the heritage building, a small allotment with no heritage significance has been replaced with a faceted charcoal brick podium. On level one is an outdoor terrace with extensive landscaping. At the rear, the fold repeats along the laneway edge, incorporating further planting.
The northern façade houses the building’s core, clad in corrugated profile concrete with matching perforated metal panels that filter diffuse light into the bathrooms and staircase. It was important to us that all office floors have openable windows.
The rooftop is designed as a workspace, not just a leisure area. A series of booths, meeting spaces and outdoor seating are fitted with power and data points. Working with Openwork, the landscape sits below the balustrade level rather than in planter boxes so that the rooftop greenery reads as coming from the ground and allowing open views.
1-11 Gordon Street,
Cremorne | Encore
A commercial office building on a narrow Cremorne street, designed for Monno.
The southern orientation makes it ideal for office use, offering consistent diffuse light. We embraced this, treating the upper levels as a crystalline glass volume – one of the few Fieldwork projects where the glazing isn’t shaded. Rather than a flat curtain wall, the façade is pleated.
The site is long and thin, with a laneway at the back and an individually significant single-storey brick building – a former recording studio – at the front. The design retains the heritage building in its entirety, placing a faceted glass form above it.
