Architects, Gray Puksand, were commissioned to bring light and space back into the Herald and Weekly Times (HWT) building and better reflect the HWT brand.
It was decided the publishing house’s head office in Southbank, Melbourne required a certain gravitas of scale and grandeur to reflect its honourable 142 years of operation. It also, however, needed to look and feel vibrantly connected to the contemporary thinking and progressive ideas of the current publications.
Prior to Gray Puksand’s redesign, the space was dominated by large sandstone columns, low-hung lights, dark wall and floor finishes, and an unmatched collection of furnishings.
The architects determined two key strategies to resolve these issues. First, the scale needed to be balanced through better use of the space. Second, the area needed to be infused with light.
Resolving the dilemma of scale was achieved through the removal of the artificial columns, leaving slender supports in their place. By diminishing the breadth, the remaining supports function as fine vertical lines that guide the eye upwards and expand vertical space.
Sadlerstone flooring teamed with low leather couches in the same caramel shade further expands the foyer’s scale. This shift in proportion has allowed the wall of windows and an outer atrium preceding the space to engage the foyer as an extension that is not only ‘stand-alone’ but also a continuation of the space.
Natural light from the atrium has been afforded much deeper penetration through the reduced columns while, within the foyer, light has been activated by a feature wall of Baresque Illume Lightblocks in White (15mm & 25mm) over a white backing board.
The selection of white as a feature colour works to solidify the foyer’s large back wall and present a unified look. It also references HWT as a newspaper publishing house: “Once we started thinking along the lines of newspapers, white seemed the natural choice,” says Gray Puksand Associate, Wayne Hay.
Baresque, Illume was chosen by Gray Puksand for its ability to transmit ambient light, while establishing a surface of variation and nuance within a single palette.
This feature also causes the wall of panels to appear as a three dimensional surface, enabling Gray Puksand to design a visual motif representing newspapers.
“We came up with this idea of how newspapers used to be printed and were running off the press, and if you see a film where the papers are being printed, there are always these white squares flipping past one another,” says Hay.
Rather than use backlighting, the effect is generated by a recessed band of LED lights placed within the shadow lines of a false ceiling and the cove of adjacent walls.
Illume’s floating edge also assisted in making this application possible, in that it requires no additional trim, thereby allowing the pattern an uninterrupted flow.
Completing the project, Grey Puksand have extended the panels of translucent Illume from the grand primary wall to the walls of the elevator waiting areas where it is interwoven with opaque panels of Corian.
