Organization and its Culture
The organization being utilized in this case study is National Australia Bank (NAB). NAB exists within the banking and finance industry, noted as being one of the top industries utilizing activity-based workplaces (ABW) in Australia . Therefore, NAB followed suit by hiring the architect, Woods Bagot, to complete the transformation in 2014. Woods Bagot was involved all parts of the transformation, including workplace consultation, architecture, and interior design . NAB is located in the Melbourne Docklands and its size is approximately 75,000 m2. The building is located at 700 Bourke Street and is part of a larger NAB ‘campus,’ which comprises of 500 to 800 Bourke Street .
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"Emergence of Activity Based Workplace Design".
NAB has been consistent in providing resources that are geared towards workplace improvement for the past 15 years. One such resource is the internal staircase that creates vertical integration. This innovation exists within the office towers of NAB . Despite this, the building located at 700 Bourke Street is even more unique. This is because the business model influenced the interior architecture, which influenced the exterior architecture . This shows that the company viewed itself as being innovative and unique because the company decided it did not want to have a building that resembled conventional office buildings.
NAB has been a presence in Docklands since 2004. This is due to the first initiative being enacted that focused on pursuing the highly innovative building located at 800 Bourke Street. Afterwards, NAB was afforded the opportunity to create organizational change and increase business efficiencies through a consolidated workplace by acquiring 700 Bourke Street. Through information provided by Monica Klyscz, NAB’s head of commercial property, it was found that the plan was to consolidate the bank’s property portfolio and utilize the headquarters in order to merge the workforce as functional hubs . It was expected that this action would assist to create an integrated process-based organization. Research shows that process-based management is an approach to business that focuses on a process sequence. Thus, the organization utilized this information in order to support NAB’s planning and strategies, allowing for the allocation of sufficient resources necessary to build a business structure that would enable it to achieve success in the long term .
Project Objectives and Brief
The MLC Campus in North Sydney is a subsidiary of NAB from 2000, and is noted for being the evolution of workplace design in Australia. This was originally a BVN project, yet recently refurbished by Woods Bagot . However, Nik Karalis suggests that NAB has been altering the transformation in the workplace with different business objectives, aimed at reaching the desired outcomes . Despite this, there are four principles that are the focus in designing 700 Bourke Street:
Respond to the triangular site and do not ‘over-dress’ the interior.
Embed the workplace with a variety of meeting spaces in order to allow spontaneous virtual or physical meetings.
Provide space for the community and customers at the concourse and the sky lobby for public engagement.
Provide the use of micro-climates (a combination of a chilled-beam cooling system and the façade treatment) in order to provide climatic variety within the building.
Information obtained from Simon Pole, the idea behind the building is to facilitate the sharing of ideas that can lead to innovations. However, it is suggested that for innovation to occur, barriers must be removed and mobility must be increased in order to provide choices of workspaces. As a result, the move from fixed workstations to flexible and digital mobility inspires evolutions of new workspaces, allowing employees to be empowered to work depending on their task, mood, age, or gender. Thus, limitations are eliminated.
The building at 700 Bourke Street is a major milestone in the creation of a commercial workplace. In fact, due to wireless technology, employees have the freedom to work in many different spaces. Therefore, the highlight of this case study is the notion of customization. Furthermore, although every business is unique in some way, NAB realizes that in order to be successful, the business has to respond to a rapidly evolving business environment.
Case Study
According to James Calder (NAB’s workplace strategist and project director) and Nik Karalis (Woods Bagot Global Design Director), there was an initial struggle with the triangular site. However, both entities felt that the focus of the precinct development should be on the pedestrian. As a result, the main entry for cars was separated. This entry is located one floor down from the main entry for pedestrians. As a result, the building forms a part of a pedestrian-focused precinct linking Docklands to the CBD via Southern Cross Station.
The triangular site is responded to through the architecture utilizing the triangle as the primary shape in order to maximize sunlight through the triangular atrium. The sheer floorplate of the building requires that three vertical fissures be strategically placed in order to break the vision of scale. These fissures are also strategically placed in order to create zones for team spaces. The triangle focus is furthered by green, yellow, orange, and red colored triangular façade panels .
The floor area of the building totals to be 75,000 m2. The floorplates are 5,000 m2 each. The building is divided into eight zones, which can accommodate 50 people, allowing for a total occupancy of 400 maximum. This is important because NAB does occasionally have to provide room for 100+ drop in staff members, consultants, and members of the community. Therefore, there is a sinuous of open and enclosed spaces. Furthermore, there are formal and informal work spaces, which include meeting rooms, video conferencing rooms, quiet rooms, work booths, collaboration tables, team huddle spaces, and areas to allow for spontaneous virtual or physical meetings .
It has been found that within the work zones, a ratio of ten work spaces for every thirteen people results in fewer floors of space with higher attendant savings and efficiencies. As a result, these zones are designed to facilitate various spaces for socialization, sharing, private work, and learning environments in order to improve productivity .
Significantly, Woods Bagot saw that stakeholder engagement was critical within this project in order to achieve innovation solutions. Therefore, workshops were held in order to allow planners to understand the NAB business and work culture. As a result, James Calder noted that 700 Bourke Street is a reaction to 800 Bourke Street in that it is an evolution from an existing ABW model and refined, adjusted, and developed to involve complementarity between the building and its users.
- Cummins, C., 2012. Companies quick to embrace activity-based working plans. Sydney Morning Herald, p.9.
- Cummins, C., 2013. NAB locks in CBD lease. The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/business/nab-locks-in-cbd-lease-20130212-2eb1r.html [Accessed May 18, 2015].
- McGillick, P., Indesign. Indesign, 55, p.99.
- National Australia Bank, 2015. National Australia Bank Docklands, Melbourne, Australia. Available at: http://www.woodsbagot.com/project/national-australia-bank-docklands [Accessed May 18, 2015].
