When designing a new HQ for Melbourne-based creative agency Today Design, architects Ben Edwards and Nancy Beka of Studio Edwards set a challenge for themselves. They wanted to shape a conceptually innovative space that would elevate the office experience — while producing as little waste as possible. “Today Design were looking for a workplace that didn’t feel sterile,” says Beka. “Rather, one that fosters creativity, feels like a studio and holds sustainability as a core value.” Luckily, they were already in the right place. The setting, a 12-storey tower in the hip Collingwood neighbourhood, is home to a host of B-Corp businesses, meaning that the surrounding community already had an eye toward social impact.

Studio Edwards’ brief included incorporating a reception area, gallery, library, lounge, social kitchen and various types of meeting rooms and individual desk spaces within the 900-square-metre footprint. The intervention took the form of a series of both fixed and movable walls organized diagonally across the L shaped floor plan. “The concept reimagined and re-energized the typical office grid, where columns are spaced apart equally and naturally inform the geometry,” explains Beka. “Here, we introduced angled walls that pin from each column.” In doing so, they created a flexible layout that could easily accommodate both solo working and group collaboration, depending on how the hinged and wheeled wall sections were arranged.

The most radical aspect of the project, however, was the choice of materials. The designers fabricated the walls and doors out of pre-existing products such as translucent corrugated sheeting and standardsize OSB panels without added finishes — each of which was left at its original 2.4-metre height to avoid cutting and thus creating waste. Adaptable working modules are composed of rugged scaffolding elements, and where textiles were needed, they found them recycled. For instance, the privacy screens between modules are made from re-used sail cloth, and upcycled denim was used as upholstery and as acoustic dampening panels.

With the goal of creating a zero-waste workspace, Studio Edwards relied on elements like standard 2.4-metre-high OSB panels. Hinged walls can be easily opened or closed to maximize flexibility.

Reflecting on the project, Beka reveals that designing a zero-waste space wasn’t necessarily the most difficult part of the process. Instead, she says, “the biggest challenge was cultural change” — that is, proving to the construction team that even though they were using things like OSB and the space felt more like a workshop than a workplace, it still required the same attention to detail as more sophisticated materials would. The project also provided valuable research for the firm. “We can always increase our knowledge and experiment further with materials,” Beka adds, “[to learn how] they work and how far you can push them.”