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This project was seeded by the requirement for a new factory and office facility to accommodate the amalgamation of ten printing related companies under one roof. The Print Park journey commenced with a comprehensive design strategy to respond to a complex set of industrial demands on a variety of site configurations and site options. The company specialises in the digital marketing and printing business, and is seen as the national market leader in their field. This project facilitated the businesses’ progressive growth and provided a new environment for the all companies within it. Factory services and functional printing spaces were analysed across companies and workshopped to optimise sharing opportunities, therefore maximising functional and spatial efficiency and simultaneously merging the many different business cultures.
The selected site was a consolidation of a number of sites in the precinct of Cornubia, a peri-urban development model that links low cost housing into a framework of employment opportunities within the industrial and retail sector. Significant engagement with the particularly active local community, developer and contractor, at the outset of the project, lead to extensive local labour employment and skills development.
The scale of the office building is designed to foil the scale of the factory to appear as a singular form, utilising perforated and folded sun control screens angled for optimum west sun protection, whilst internally promoting veiled visual connection to the landscaped exterior. The long facade is fragmented with randomly arranged, protruding, coloured ‘meeting boxes’, creating a whimsical rhythm and the identifying architectural feature.
An important architectural differentiator in this building, is the use of bold colour, deployed in the highly serviced factory internally to differentiate functional spaces and externally on the office facade, to impart an immediate legibility conveying the nature of the complex’s use. The curvilinear ends of the office form allude to the traditional printing conveyor process and the funky interior design approach promotes a staff friendly environment within the setting of a factory context. Within the factory the sophisticated digital printing equipment, being an impressive installation, called for extensive glazing panels to showcase technical capability to potential clients visiting the facility.
The building provides a broad range of facilities and functions to accommodate a large population of various employees: from humble low-skilled labour, through highly trained technicians, to intensely creative advertising professionals. Through careful design and interrogation of all facets of the business, a fresh, contemporary and vibrant workplace is offered to all occupants.
