Communal & Public Spaces in High Rise Buildings Sydney Off-site Program

The “Communal & Public Spaces in High-Rise Buildings“ program began in a meeting room at 8 Chifley, located in the center of Sydney. The tower is 461 ft. (140.5 m.) tall and includes several office spaces within its 21 levels. Among these levels are also outdoor terraces overlooking both the city center and the harbor in the distance.

The purpose of this tour was to discuss the benefits of creating communal and public spaces in high-rise buildings. In order to achieve communal space and interconnect levels, the design of the tower incorporates vertical “villages”. These villages allow for collaboration and connectivity, which builds a strong sense of community within the workplace. Andrew Butler, Group Executive, Office & Industrial, Mirvac Developments, discusses this in detail during his presentation. He explains that the vertical village is a “connection of multiple floors through staircases. This creates an extremely flexible working environment.”

These villages all range from about 1,800 to 2,600 square meters, and have two-, three-, and four-story workspaces connected by atriums and staircases. The concept of these villages encourages tenants and occupiers to have a wide range of flexibility in creating their workplace environment. Additionally, the architects, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, and Mirvac Developments, wanted to shy away from the traditional office space consisting of narrow hallways and an abundance of cubicles. To achieve this, mezzanines and voids were created to encourage the natural flow of sunlight, and several views of the outdoors.

Following Butler were presentations from Avtar Lotay, Managing Director, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and Andrew Johnson, Principal, Arup on the design, structure and construction of the tower. The group was then taken onto the stunning outdoor terrace, where they could appreciate 8 Chifley’s view of downtown Sydney and the harbor.

Venue: 8 Chifley
Capacity: 20 Delegates

Wednesday 1 November Schedule:

Morning	Program	Afternoon
8:30 am	Arrival & Coffee	2:00 pm
8:55 am	Welcome	2:25 pm
9:00 am	Presentation 1	2:30 pm
9:20 am	Presentation 2	2:50 pm
9:40 am	Presentation 3	3:10 pm
10:00 am	Q&A	3:30 pm
10:15 am	Coffee Break	3:45 pm
10:45 am	Tour of 8 Chifley Tower	4:15 pm
12:00 pm	Delegates depart	5:30 pm

Scenes from the Off-Site Program