‘A sense of organised chaos’ is how the jury described BVN’s new studio as they gave it the John Verge Award which is the major prize for interior architecture at the Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) Awards last Friday.

It is generally accepted that the toughest prizes to win in the building and design industry are those judged by the AIA and in the last ten years, in the ‘Interior Architecture’ category alone, BVN has won 17 awards and commendations for its workplace projects.

BVN’s new studio on a single floor of 1900 square metres is described by the awards jury as ‘the ultimate anti interior, a stage set of bare concrete floors, carefully exposed (and composed) services, pin wheel arrangement of workstations… all to promote a new way of working – a design workshop.’

The jury found the design resulted in amongst other feelings ‘a sense of organised chaos, indicating flexibility and fluidity.’

They also commended the decision to create a timber floored verandah along the Pitt Street frontage because ‘People gravitate to the verandah as the replacement sun-drenched courtyard,’

In conclusion the jury said, ‘BVN is to be congratulated for thoughtfully pushing the boundaries of the workplace, and the message of the project is clear: theirs is a workplace which is empathetic and inclusive, flexible and committed, but not too serious.’

BVN’s State Director, Bill Dowzer said, ‘Designing our new studio gave us the opportunity to practice what we preach and implement many of the design ideas we have been developing with our workplace clients over recent years.’

It is remarkable to see the transformation from a typical grey carpeted and painted low ceilinged space in the photos taken when work started to the open and welcoming chaos noted by the jury.

According to Mr Dowzer what he and the BVN design team did was rework B Grade office space into an environment that encourages collaboration and improves productivity.

‘We achieved this by providing a range of different physical spaces to meet, to work out drawing details, to brief other staff and clients, and of course to work on computers,’ said Mr. Dowzer.

‘To do this we used a range of different elements from something as simple as two stools by a window,  to meeting rooms that are placed on the periphery to maximize natural light and are made of movable walls all of which can be drawn on and that also incorporate screens for video-conferencing and computer projections,’ he said.