Following many years of business growth and the addition of new services, we had continually added to our office space by taking additional neighbouring tenancies. This had resulted in a ‘rabbit warren’ of offices, with limited break out spaces, separated teams, and an overall environment that didn’t foster the collaboration and teamwork necessary for us to successfully complete our clients’ projects.

As a result, the decision was made to relocate, and new office premises were secured nearby at 135 Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill.

This relocation provided our team with the opportunity to put into practice our best and most innovative building services design for our own tenancy. We undertook our own electrical, mechanical, hydraulics and fire protection service design across the design and construction phases of the office fit out.
The factors that were most important to us and influenced the tenancy design were:

• Overall comfort, encompassing environmental factors such as workstation layout, noise levels and having green plants visible.
• Maximising the use of natural light, along with having no-one more than two desks away from a window. Having a connection to the outside world, and enabling one’s eyes to view longer distances helps, at a subconscious level, get through the day.
• Having spaces of differing ambience which allows people work at their desk, in the “fish-bowl” meeting room surrounded by lots of glass, in a more concealed room with a view, or in the lounge section of the stylish new kitchen and eating area.
• End-of-trip facilities, which included dedicated bike parking spaces in the basement as well as a custom installed shower and change area within our tenancy.

This relocation provided our team with the opportunity to put into practice our best and most innovative building services design for our own tenancy. We undertook our own electrical, mechanical, hydraulics and fire protection service design across the design and construction phases of the office fit out.

The factors that were most important to us and influenced the tenancy design were:

• Overall comfort, encompassing environmental factors such as workstation layout, noise levels and having green plants visible.
• Maximising the use of natural light, along with having no-one more than two desks away from a window. Having a connection to the outside world, and enabling one’s eyes to view longer distances helps, at a subconscious level, get through the day.
• Having spaces of differing ambience which allows people work at their desk, in the “fish-bowl” meeting room surrounded by lots of glass, in a more concealed room with a view, or in the lounge section of the stylish new kitchen and eating area.
• End-of-trip facilities, which included dedicated bike parking spaces in the basement as well as a custom installed shower and change area within our tenancy.

Some of the key design features we included in our new office space included:

• Air conditioning with a control and monitoring system which our engineers can log into for both interest and learning purposes.
• The latest in low-glare LED luminaires. Every luminaire is individually computer controlled, allowing for maximum flexibility. This allows dimming to suit individual’s preferences for their area, touch screen control of lights for setting various scenes in the board room, and energy saving features in and out of hours.
• An instantaneous hot water system for our shower to ensure energy is not wasted heating water, only for it to sit in a tank if unused for several days.
• Corporate branding on show, down to our kitchen Billi tap, coloured to match “DMA red”.

The DMA team moved into our new office premises in October 2017. By creating a more open and collaborative environment, supported by design features that maximise the comfort of our team, we have seen a significant shift in both staff morale, as well as collaboration opportunities between team members.