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It’s a project pared back to the essentials. It appears
less about applied materials than a certain distillation.
In the end it’s the transparency and the skeleton of the
building that really provides the delight, rather than
marble and brass.
There’s certainly no decoration at Mazda. In many ways that
is what makes an ideal car – its shape, form, environmental
and technical response. There’s very little decoration,
everything has a reason for being there. It carries no more
weight than it needs to and I think it’s the same about this
building. The palette’s reduced, not as an aesthetic, it’s
because it doesn’t need any more than that. It’s doing its
job well and then we let the people become the delight
in it. When you do that, when you focus on timeless points
about light penetration and environment and the way people
connect, I think you’ve got a project. In the end it’s life span
will be much longer than something that’s fashionable
or decorative.
Did the international arm of Mazda influence or apply
any constraints to the design?
The Mazda family is throughout Japan and the world and
certainly the Australian team here went back and forth
with Mazda Japan because the whole group bought into
doing this project. Mazda’s culture is embedded in the end
project because it wasn’t just about Australia. They’re an
international brand. That’s one of the reasons that it has
been successful because it’s a world building, not simply
a building for Mazda Australia.
PROJECT
INTERIOR FIT-OUT
Mazda Australia Headquarters,
Wellington Road, Mulgrave
Cox Architecture
CLIENT
Viridian, Clayton
ARCHITECT
Viridian, Melbourne
DESIGN TEAM
Viridian ComfortPlus™ Clear
Barangaroo Delivery Authority
Cox Architecture, Melbourne
Patrick Ness, Pete Sullivan,
Andrew Tucker, Stuart Murchison,
Ryan Moroney, Christina
Prodromou, Cassie Collins
BUILDER
Frasers Pty Ltd
WINDOW INSTALLER/GLAZIER
GLASS SUPPLIER AND SPECIALIST SUPPORT
PRINCIPAL GLAZING
PROJECT SIZE
6900 sq.m.
BUDGET
Undisclosed