Westpac - 275 Kent Street
Ambidextrous acoustics
Home to one of Australia’s most prestigious businesses, Westpac’s 275 Kent Street HQ has become a symbol in-and-of-itself, exemplifying the levels of excellence strived for by over 6000 Westpac employees everyday.
Containing 74,000 square metres of world’s best facilities — ranging from lighting, air-quality, plants, wellness centres and 400 bike racks — architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, and interior designers Geyer designed the space with health and wellness very much front of mind.
It's no longer sufficient to design acoustics in a 'one size fits all' manner, conversation happens anywhere at any time.
45dB’s work spanning over 2 years, was to design, supply, install and calibrate multi-zonal and automatically self-adjusting adaptive sound conditioning systems to all floors. In so doing we helped Westpac’s fulfil their vision of enabling flexible working to flourish in every last space, on every last floor.
The sound solution operates automatically on each floor, monitoring activity levels throughout every working environment, automatically adjusting ambient sound levels and in doing so, providing optimal speech privacy between collaborative teams and workers in individual focus.
Activity-based working environments are demanding acoustically. Not only are the traditionally opposing acoustics of open-plan working at play — collaboration versus focus — but these become exacerbated by the highly flexible nature of the space.
— Tom Hardy
sound conditioning
Fixed acoustic element to absorb and block sound are no longer sufficient for flexible activity-based workplaces.Taking control of ambient sound has up until now been the missing piece of the acoustic jigsaw.
Where collaboration meets individual focus conversations can’t simply be contained in meeting space, the open-plan must be conditioned to enhance speech privacy too.
Having used 45dB throughout their Barangaroo tenancy to optimise acoustics for their workers it was an easy decision to duplicate the solution for the 275 refurbishment.