Social and employee spaces at the forefront encourages our people to interact while demonstrating our pride in our work and the personalities within the practice
Warren and Mahoney has recently relocated to a pivotal location in the heart of Auckland Waterfront in Wynyard Quarter, placing the firm at the centre of the new innovation precinct while offering the practice a chance to evolve how we work, collaborate and communicate.
The four key workplace drivers for the new studio were visibility, collaboration, pride and agility.
Visibility provides the ability to host large gatherings via the design of the large auditorium stair offering the community a window into the world of architecture and design. Communication is at the very heart of our practice and the sharing of knowledge, passion and experience is celebrated front and centre.
Fundamental to our practice is the ability to welcome and engage our partners to partake in the socialisation of ideas. Our studio has a highly visible and permeable entrance. The intention is bring our people and our collaborations into the heart of our studio offering a sense of connection and invitation to our visitors.
At Warren and Mahoney we have a work ethic which is manifest through a strong community of relationships and personal connection to our peers. Our new studio places our social and employee spaces at the forefront of the workspace, encouraging our people to interact and enjoy both the quality of environment, while demonstrating our pride in our work and the personalities within the practice.
Our workplace brief identified through staff engagement studies that wellbeing and choice were at the heart of our daily routine. The option of sit to stand workstations alongside other types of collaboration settings provide ample opportunities for employees and collaborators to work in different ways to suit their needs.
“An opportunity to use an office relocation as a means of re-focusing an architectural practice has been seized, with the visibility and connectivity between practice and the public a key design driver. The creation of a semi-public realm in the overall building design has been extended via large sliding wall sections that expose work spaces to public view. Placing the staff kitchen area at the front door is another bold move to connect with the public, given that this typically back-room space is where the real conversations happen. The overflow from office into the internal street allows informal and semi-formal meetings to take place alongside the general lunchtime crowd. The vertical connection created by the event staircase offers views into and out from deeper office areas.”
- New Zealand Institute of Architects Local Awards Citation, 2017
