Marcus Redman

Located on the fringe of two national parks (West: Flora Hill Bushland Reserve and North: Kennington Reservoir), Strathdale Thread intertwines local flora and fauna through the mixed-use architecture, connecting the community to a preserved natural landscape. The social and interactive working precinct encourages workers to escape the boundaries of walls in their home, welcoming people back into a collaborative environment.

There are many advantages to working in a centralized location due to the collaborative nature of a workplace, where people are able to interact with all facets of the precinct: to shop, to exercise, to explore galleries, to work, to socialize, to dine in, to live! The sense of community is formed alongside with the ability for the occupant to not feel overwhelmed by the scale of the project, with shared foyers and voids through floor plans, filled with natural light, complimented by a series of garden barriers and escape routes, to allow the worker to open to the surrounding environment.

The proposal establishes new patterns of circulation and land use across the precinct, that will capture the fundamentals of a collaborative workplace design, with prioritisation of the inhbitants metal health.

Connecting the user with the natural environment and historical cultural network has driven the projects design, creating a series of moments for reflection, engagement, interaction and education.

There is an importance of organizational culture when designing an office, as opposed to technology. When designing the proposal, the valley of nature serves as the spine of the project for two reasons: access from all points of the buildings, guided by boardwalks & a way to force people to come together through creating opportunities for arbitrary collisions.