Branch Studio Architects recreated Caroline Chisholm College’s administration offices to be a cardboard-tubed piazza, titled Piazza Dell’Ufficio.
The space was formally a 1970’s, blue and “broken, cream venetian blind screened block [providing] little to no humanistic interaction for its users,” according to Brand Studio Architects.
Now, the space is rationalised a central public Piazza, linked by two primary monuments to form the basis of the project, including a clock tower and public forum.
“The working office spaces become the ancillary ‘buildings’ off the primary Piazza,” creating a formal composition of space that creates a diversity of working spaces.
Using cardboard tubes at $2.50 each to sculpt the interiors, the tubes both provide visual curve and warmth to soften the spaces throughout.
Light was another important feature of the project, considering there was no light in the previous working spaces, Branch Studio’s latest design uses light to create an extension of the internal formal curvature.
Piazza Dell’Ufficio won the 2019 Dezeen Award for Small Workplace Interior of the Year, which was among one of five projects from around the world which was shortlisted.
