Transforming the Traditional Office: McMillan Shakespeare’s Journey to an Adaptive and Inspiring Workspace

The design of McMillan Shakespeare’s new office was focused on creating a space that could easily adapt to changing work environments as the future of work continues to evolve. To achieve this, the design team conducted a series of stakeholder engagement workshops over a six-week period with McMillan to understand their work processes and how they wanted to utilize their workspace.

The office features flexible floorplans, modular furniture, and adaptable working options to ensure quick adaptability for employees. Throughout the space, navigational devices break up the floor plates into quadrants, creating spaces that draw teams together and make the collaboration areas smaller and more inclusive.

Despite initial expectations of only 40% of staff returning to the office after the pandemic, McMillan saw increase of staff in the office most days. Lead Partner Heidi Smith from Gray Puksand says, “Understanding how people work in a post-pandemic environment was crucial for delivering a state-of-the-art office for our client. A driving desire for our client was to create a space that felt open, manifesting a collaborative environment for community.”

It was imperative to create a sensory experience for the staff of McMillan Shakespeare. To achieve this, the team focused on creating captivating focal points throughout the space. Arguably the most captivating is the large mural spanning across the wall of the central super kitchen across 3 separate canvases.

The mural, made in collaboration with Emily Crockford of Studio A, a Sydney-based studio that provides professional development for artists with intellectual disabilities, serves as a visual centrepiece for the central hub. The partnership with Studio A was established through THERE, a collaborative partner, as a way to align with McMillan Shakespeare’s business, which includes disability plan management.

“Emily took inspiration from our original conceptual direction and presented a series of concepts that we worked to refine. From here, she developed a piece that worked with our designs. We then collaborated to craft a space in the backend that supported her mural,” said Ben.

“It was a delight to design a special space that the McMillan Shakespeare team can come back to after working from home for so long. We wanted to give them a new home and a place where they can come back together and connect. It has been really rewarding,”  concluded Ben.