Client: Cox Architecture
Photography by: Timothy Kaye
Writen by: Gillian Watson
Cox Architecture
“At COX, we believe in the power of community and collaboration. Our space at 57 Wyatt Street is testament to these values, offering a vibrant environment where creativity thrives.” Cox Director, Zoe King
Drawing much attention from designers, architects and creatives alike, TIRAR’s sensual and elegantly detailed collection of fine award-winning bespoke door furniture was sourced for the recent COX project for how perfectly they embody their ethos of doing more with less.
Sculpted from the finest of timbers while enhancing their natural beauty, TIRAR’s refined Type One door pull accompanies you into areas that provide space and comfort to inspire creativity in the COX award-winning Adelaide office.
Here, you find your eyes following vertical lines towards hidden spaces which have your imagination reaching beyond borders.
Strong stone surfaces appear soft to the touch with their rich creamy tones met by soothing light that ripples along the sheer stone floors imparting the feeling of one being in an illustrious wellness retreat of the kind that has a waiting list for the waiting list that gets you onto the list where you make your booking.
This is a space fashioned by designers for designers, thus, providing a perfect arena (much like a creatives’ adventure playground), where the creative mind has the freedom and inspiration to explore and expand their vision.
The COX logo appears in an eye-catching copper which is wonderfully offset by the espresso coloured plack, its exquisitely detailed letters extend from.
Carved to appear as though rising off its deep broody background, the piece adds texture to the bare space of the corridor, while bringing a delicate touch of warmth while providing a vivid and engaging contrast to the calming mono-coloured walls, as well as, becoming a brilliant 3D optical illusion of the letters floating in thin air as it is walked pass.
The entire office is a grand composite rich in angles, shapes and hidden spaces that help to add evoking chiaroscuro effect to the open places that lead into inviting yet minimal staff seating areas: that could easily be mistaken for an installation by one of Adelaide’s leading contemporary artists, where the freshness of the natural light that enters from the offices fully operable windows infuses with the magical internal light to provide a wonderfully warm and welcoming space for the arrangement of curvaceous midnight blue chairs.
Timber and stone are brought seamlessly together to provide partitions to work areas, which despite their ode to a time of grand monolithic designs associated with the great architects of past eras, their meticulously sculpted geometric shapes bring both an ethereal and cutting edge feel to the workspace and its workstations.
Actually, they work so well together that one could be forgiven for believing technology as we know it today had already existed back then.
An arrayment of cylindrical light fittings send soft effervescent pearls of light from a ceiling constructed from solid stone, metal and concrete, that together form a visually unique and alluring texture.
This is a work area that is a fabulous fusion of earth’s finest resources: air, fire, water, earth, darkness, light and metal, with the sophisticated ceramic pieces dotted throughout it evoking a bohemian feel to areas where incredible monolithic partitions have cut outs to provide plush padded seating inviting you to take a moment of reflection, or perhaps, simply, for time spent away from one’s desk.
All of these incredible elements have been brought together as part of the COX ethos “…of thoughtful design [enhances] the wellbeing and productivity of its occupants.”
And there are areas where one feels the presence of life even when they are void of people. One example of this being the fantastically secluded timber framed room with its ‘melt into’ armchair, where its long earthy ochre and stone check drape, that hangs almost from the ceiling, adds to its cosy ambience and is majestically offset by the sensual ebony images of artist Tony Wilson’s diptych that hangs on the wall opposite.
“Listen with heart, and you can speak from the heart.” – Tony Wilson.
More of his beautifully engaging Kuarna art can be seen in the executive office where his five-metre piece is a reflection of the company’s “belief in the power of community and collaboration while offering a vibrant environment where creativity thrives.”
The deep red images visible through the glass-panelled door and from the start of the corridor that leads to it, provide a visually striking and inspiring backdrop and focal point for the viewer.
Here there is also a fantastic representation of TIRAR’s stunning Type One door-pull, reassuring you with its precious and sensual pattern, meticulously etched by mother nature herself, before being lovingly and perfectly sculpted to work with every individual, texture and taste.
Each element in this award winning space, be it the fine works of art, the rich earthy tones of the ornate geometric patterned wooden and stone monoliths, or TIRAR’s sublimely smooth and seductive door furniture fall within the “blurred boundaries between interior and exterior space”: as endorsed by COX director Zoe King, while maintaining a sense of place and identity by encouraging the alliance of the best in creative and innovative thinking, local culture, and the beauty of the natural environment.
Above all, this is a project that has sustainability at its core, honours the earth’s natural beauty while never losing sight of the importance of human interconnection.
