Creating a sense of place in commercial office design is a great way for anchoring your employees to their location and giving your workspace a sense of identity.

Increasingly, we are developing design briefs that celebrate connection to country and place through the incorporation of indigenous design elements, local landscapes, and iconic cultural locations.

Here are our top office design tips for creating a sense of place in your next office design:

Celebrate and share history

Does your location have an interesting history that could be celebrated and featured in the design?

Think about the history of the building your space is located in – did it at one point in time have a cultural reference such as an old factory, woolshed (for e.g., old factories, woolsheds or place of religious importance).

In a past project we celebrated the unique history of Brisbane’s bayside location. Meeting rooms were named and themed around islands and decals and artwork were installed showing map location markers for the islands.

Consider the surrounding landscape

Indigenous culture in particular celebrates natural textures and landscape formations.  In our recent Brisbane Office Design project, we sought to weave the history of the Brisbane river and its connection to community and place through a range of interesting design elements.

To connect with your surrounding landscape, consider how finishes and layouts can be created to make specific reference to the tones and attributes of the location.  Specifically:

• Textures
• Flora
• Waterways
• Colourways
• Pattern and art

Deep listening

Design is a powerful practice that can foster respect, innovation, and connectivity.   Could your project benefit from local Indigenous knowledge and contributions by way of storytelling, artwork and identifying avenues of historical and cultural significance?

Is the space of cultural significance to the local community and how could that importance be shared and celebrated?

The future lies in connectivity

By linking a workspace to its geographic location, clever office design can create a sense of connection and pride among employees.

We predict more workspaces will be working to celebrate their locations and create a vibrant sense of place into the future.

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