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Is a standout client voice evident?
Every great project has great clients. The wonderful
thing about this project was Mazda had four or five people
that grabbed and owned it and worked with us as partners.
Your clients need to be with you believing and helping,
because in the end we’re doing their biography. These
are very committed individuals who aren’t dealing
with boards and bureaucracies.
Is there a response to this project you wish to transfer,
to say, your next medical suite, commercial tower –
or automotive headquarters?
Our practice focuses on two things: one is typological
evolution. In that sense, whenever we approach a project,
we’re always thinking about, “How does it match and lead
the times that we’re in?” The second thing we always do is
decide their public life. They’re places where we exchange
our contracts with each other, regardless of whether it’s a
workplace or not. That’s an ongoing story that we’re really
pushing. The Mazda project does both of those. It has
reinvented the typology of suburban workplace and
brought together an organisation culturally where they’re
engaging with each other.
At Mazda, you give glass an almost automotive presence.
The glass at the front of the building is very deliberate.
It’s the windscreen to Mazda, for want of a better expression.
It performs an environmental function of letting lots of light
into workplaces. It also says of the organisation, “We’re
open, we’re transparent. Real people are doing this. They’re
not some idea of a corporate remove.” It’s really performing
two roles — one is technical and environmental — the other
is cultural, in the way they’re perceived.
Left: Staircases provide the main ‘arterial’
connection between workshops, display
vehicle areas and administration.