Molonglo

Public Office is a new centre for creative work. As a building, it is a vessel – holding and supporting creative work in all its forms. Through an ongoing series of events, Public Office is also a space for collaboration and learning, bringing ideas emerging within to the fore.

Walk-up public halls on ground and level one bring together cultural, social and wellbeing activities. A community of creative and knowledge-based businesses will occupy the upper levels, along with a cohort of artists. On the roof, a public botanical garden provides a place of connection and respite.

The building design embraces and connects with the street. A taller structure grows from an ensemble of expressive forms along Rupert Street – a gatehouse, a warehouse and the remnant factory. A new laneway runs through the ground level, extending street life into the site. Robust architecture, carefully detailed, provides practical infrastructure.

Public Office will be a place of concentrated creativity. Tenancies include micro ‘ateliers’ for making and working opening out to a garden terrace; affordable artist studios; hard-wearing, small-footprint creative offices for tenants to evolve and grow; and open floorplates for larger creative or knowledge-based companies. Care will be taken to de-corporatise the interiors, creating environments that are more domestic, warmer and inviting.

Public Office holds a reverence for nature. More than 3,000 predominantly native plants will form part of the architecture. Semi-circular balconies run up the spine of the building, with hanging gardens warmed by the morning sun. Set within the 700 square-metre deep-soil rooftop garden is a central glasshouse pavilion providing seating and refreshments.

Molonglo has commissioned London-based 6a architects and landscape architects Dan Pearson Studio to design the project.