Woods Bagot

With ESG values widely discussed in markets all over the world, Germany certainly holds a world-leading position when it comes to environmentally responsible construction and building stock. The ‘S’ for ‘social’ however – while being sensibly regulated and acknowledged – appears to be less of a talking point. In cities like Berlin, even new buildings appear to be less focused on interaction with the public realm. In fact, many office buildings in the region are shutting out any form of urban life – offering small, efficient entrance points into buildings instead. In both cases, these design decisions result in a lost opportunity to celebrate the street level presence and the route that employees take from front door to desk (if they have a desk at all). More is possible – not only as a commercial necessity but as a much-needed strategy for office tenants across all sectors to better position themselves in the competition for, and retention of, talent. Read Principal Florian Frotscher's full take, featured on Architecture & Design (Australia): https://bit.ly/4dDlRqg #peoplearchitecture #woodsbagot #workplacearchitecture #workplaceinteriors #workplacedesign

Nearly 250,000 people pass through Central Station every day – a diverse mix of individuals, each with their own unique story and destination. John Prentice, Woods Bagot Principal and Global Transport Lead, explains the team's vision, "Our design approach for Central was to create an emotional connection to the place where so many people meet and travel. We achieved this through careful consideration from the macro planning down to the micro of every detail – down to the tactility and materiality of the site, to the way natural light interacts with the space, shifting and changing the experience throughout the days and seasons." “Central Station is more than just a transit hub; it's a pivotal point in countless daily journeys. We wanted to craft a space that resonates with the human experience, one that people can feel and interact with on a sensory level. The play of light throughout the day creates ever-changing atmospheres, while carefully selected materials invite touch and exploration, making each visit unique." At the heart of the design is the principle of inclusivity. "Universal access is key," Prentice emphasises. "With visitors and locals crossing paths each day, Central is truly a place for everyone. We've meticulously designed every aspect to ensure that regardless of ability or background, all users can navigate and enjoy the space with ease and dignity." Read more about Central here: https://bit.ly/38SUGHx Sydney Metro Central Station: Laing O'Rourke | Aurecon + GHD | John McAslan + Partners | Büro North | Taylor Thomson & Whitting | Atkins | Artefact | OCP | Creative Road Art Projects | Rose Nolan | Bronwyn Bancroft Videography by COCO and MAXIMILIAN. #woodsbagot #peoplearchitecture #transport #rail #SydneyMetro #CentralStation

Assemble Papers’s “Radical Renewal” series is an editorial deep dive into the built environment industry’s ongoing grappling with the tension between preservation and gentrification – an investigation into how we can revive the city’s treasured heritage assets while retaining the communities and subcultures that already exist. As part of this series, Sam Holleran discusses Woods Bagot’s renewal of the Younghusband Woolstore redevelopment, which repurposes an industrial wool store as a contemporary place to live, work and play, as housing stock and office space within the CBD grows increasingly scarce. Woods Bagot Principal Peter Miglis says the project is about the reopening the space to the communities around it. “It’s been off limits for a long time,” he says. “It’s got a beautiful laneway in it, and we wanted to open that up to everyone… to invite in the Kensington residents who have walked by it for so many years but never been able to enter.” “Younghusband can be an inspiration to similar projects around Australia, and the world, positing a way forward for cities in which industrial heritage – and the embodied carbon contained in old buildings – is retained,” writes Holleran. “The team developing Younghusband is looking at industrial heritage as more than facades, or the preservation of a few charismatic buildings. They aim to extend adaptive reuse to include structures that were once overlooked. In the future, the hope is that these projects will educate and inform newcomers to the city and the precinct about the labour that once took place there.” Read more: https://bit.ly/4cvX9qP #woodsbagot #peoplearchitecture #adaptivereuse #mixeduse

This week, Woods Bagot Graduate Interior Designer Hayley Sands will make her Paralympic debut in Paris as a member of Australia’s table tennis squad, good luck Hayley! Representing the country in three events: Women’s Class 2 singles (W2), Women’s Doubles (WW10) with Danni Di Torro, and Mixed Doubles (XR7) with Chris Addis, Hayley will bring the determination and talent we know so well in the studio onto the court. Before she left for Paris, we sat down with Hayley to hear about how her experiences have shaped her motivations as a designer, what working on projects like the New Women’s and Children’s hospital has been like and how her experiences in para-tennis translate to her career as an interior designer. More on the Wood Bagot Journal: https://bit.ly/4cDoBmG #woodsbagot #peoplearchitecture #healthcaredesign #interiordesign #paralympics2024 #paris2024

Sydney’s most celebrated architectural landmarks stand tall over the harbour: the iconic sails flanking the Jørn Utzon-designed Opera House, the sweeping steel arch of the Harbour Bridge. The latest, however, is below the city’s streets. A renovation of sprawling Central Station, the Australian city’s answer to Grand Central in New York and King’s Cross in London, was unveiled last year, a roughly A$1 billion overhaul led by Woods Bagot. The latest section - a set of sleek platforms serving the main city center section of Sydney’s Metro rail - is now open. “Typically with infrastructure-led projects, getting an architectural lens on these things is sometimes not the highest priority,” John Prentice, a principal and global transport sector leader at Woods Bagot, said during a visit to the station. Here, a key component “was really around shifting Central to not be a place of ‘through,’ but ‘to.’” Read more on Bloomberg: https://bloom.bg/3AJnCnu Sydney Metro Central Station: Laing O'Rourke | Aurecon + GHD | John McAslan + Partners | Büro North | Taylor Thomson & Whitting | Atkins | Artefact | OCP | Creative Road Art Projects | Rose Nolan | Bronwyn Bancroft #woodsbagot #peoplearchitecture #transport #rail #SydneyMetro

Our CEO Sarah Kay recently spoke with #ArchitectureLab's Anton Giuroiu to discuss all things architecture and design and shares her design and leadership style. When asked about how she approaches working with clients to understand their needs and visions, Sarah responded "My vision for our business is to be relevant and impactful in finding solutions for the world’s mega-issues. I believe a ‘Total Place Design’ approach will have the most impact on the world ahead and believe this vision resonates well with all stakeholders – uniting them together for a common purpose." "To create transformative places, we need integrated thinking beyond architecture that solves problems upstream and enables connected outcomes across the design process." Learn more about Sarah, including what inspired her to become an architect and her advice for those considering a career in design: https://bit.ly/3YNa8kK #woodsbagot #peoplearchitecture #leadership #totalplacedesign

Minthis, located in the Mediterranean, continues to gain global recognition for its understated luxury and wellness sanctuaries. Shortlisted in design et al's International Hotel & Property Awards in the Spa & Hotel category, these villas blend contemporary design with the traditional charm of the surrounding mountain villages. Thoughtfully integrated into the landscape, they offer a modern interpretation of the classic Cypriot home. Masterplanning, architecture, interior design, and branding by Woods Bagot for client, Pafilia. Explore the retreat here: https://lnkd.in/gxEezab6 #woodsbagot #peoplearchitecture #hotel #hospitality

Part of Australia’s largest infrastructure project, the Sydney Metro Chatswood to Sydenham line will officially welcome passengers Monday, 19 August. Woods Bagot is proud to have led the architectural design for two major sites – Sydney Metro Central and Sydney Metro Crows Nest stations. Both stations have been designed in direct response to the unique history and context of the sites on which they are located. Woods Bagot Principal and Transport Lead John Prentice says that for the Sydney Metro Central Station, “the design was always about respecting the rich heritage at Central Station in the transformation to accommodate a state of the art metro interchange. We wanted to customers to know they’ve arrived at Sydney’s beloved Central Station through the quality of the space and its connection to heritage through the warmth and tactility of the materials.” For Sydney Metro Crows Nest Station, the intersecting scales of community and infrastructure drove the successful design outcome. Woods Bagot Principal Lucian Gormley says, “Our design team found unique solutions that responded to the requirements of infrastructure whilst speaking to the historic, village scale, residential aspects of the surrounding community.” Gormley says that the carefully woven design elements speak directly to people, place, and typology. “The modulated brickwork façade system has successfully grounded the building within its local environment, whilst the cantilevered single brick modules create a lightness and modularity that reflects a more human scale sitting, in contrast to the exposed precast structure.” Learn more about the new metro services on the Sydney Metro website here: https://bit.ly/4fNHTZd Sydney Metro Central Station: Laing O'Rourke | Aurecon + GHD | John McAslan + Partners | Büro North | Taylor Thomson & Whitting | Atkins | Artefact | OCP | Creative Road Art Projects | Rose Nolan | Bronwyn Bancroft Sydney Metro Crows Nest Station: SMEC | Robert Bird Group | NDY | OCULUS | Surface Design Group | Büro North | Esther Stewart #WoodsBagot #PeopleArchitecture #Rail #Infrastructure

The stadium is perhaps the most likely type of civic infrastructure to attract public scrutiny. Home to a vast range of experiences, the typology hosts the highs of public life – providing the stage for performances and grounds for sporting matches. Events are formative in every city’s public psyche, so their setting – the stadium – must meet the highest of standards. But what happens when the event is over? Across the world, stadiums are only used for events approximately 10 to 20 percent of the year and are left to languish the other 80 to 90 percent. Expensive and deeply antisocial, these buildings are a lost opportunity for social and financial contribution to their communities, owners and operators. Stadiums should, and can, be useful every day of the week. Knowing this, how can we design stadiums to be better neighbours? Featured on Australian Design Review, Senior Associate Matt Reynolds' latest Insight explores this question. Read the article here: https://bit.ly/3WdHXd2 #peoplearchitecture #woodsbagot #thoughtleadership #stadiums #majorvenues #stadiumdesign

Did you spot Woods Bagot's design for the Kimpton Margot Hotel lobby in the latest blockbuster, The Fall Guy? The Sydney hotel lobby, featuring luxe Art Deco touches, served as the perfect setting for the production and scenes. Our design integrates the original 1939 building’s Art Deco forms at 339 Pitt Street, once home to the Sydney Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board. The adaptive reuse of this heritage building also includes a rooftop restaurant, bar, and pool. We are thrilled to see these features and materiality showcased on the big screen by director David Leitch, producer Kelly McCormick, and as a backdrop for actor Ryan Gosling. Explore the project here: https://lnkd.in/gnQmt2im Pictured: The Fall Guy scene from the film trailer. #woodsbagot #peoplearchitecture #film #interiordesign