A Domestic Familiarity – SJB Sydney Studio by SJB

Words by Bronwyn Marshall
Architecture by SJB
Photography by Anson Smart
Interior Design by SJB
Styling by SJB

Embracing the familiar, SJB Sydney Studio reworks the creative space to capture a more residential feel and sensibility. SJB utilises a layered approach in bringing elements of a more refined grain and domestic approach into the workplace, resulting in an approachable and amenable place to gather and create.

In its Surry Hills locale, the SJB Sydney Studio sits amongst a similar collection of other studios, showrooms and creative hubs, and its renovation is in response to the evolving needs of the workplace. With businesses across Australia experiencing the need to ensure the workplace is a key drawing pull for current and future employees, a movement towards spaces that in a way emulate the home while referencing other positive places to gather has taken effect. As a result, elements that hint at either a domestic or a hospitality environment have been increasingly interwoven into workplaces, altering the traditional and often sterile commercial experience to offer a variety of scenarios to gather, meet and create. SJB has followed suit, creating a space doused in saturated colour that represents the inspiring core of the business.

While timber adds additional texture and depth, iconic furniture adorns the meeting spaces, nuanced with featured accompanying lighting and artwork.

Built by Promena Projects, SJB Sydney Studio embraces the connection to natural light, making full use of its large full height glazing, connecting to the surrounds and cementing a sense of place. Joinery and furniture are deliberately held away from the façade to increase the access to natural illumination that reinforces a feeling of wellbeing within the space. The layering of domestic references sees meeting settings transformed from the traditional desk and task chair arrangement to more of a lounge setting. Other library and storage areas are then enlivened with deeply saturated hues, animating the workplace. The traditional individual desks have also been reconfigured to allow for group streaming, collaborations across teams, and an inbuilt flexibility.

Predominantly a deep burgundy colour is used throughout, softened and broken by shimmering drapery and the occasional duck egg blue accent, offering contrast and an element of the unexpected. While timber adds additional texture and depth, iconic furniture adorns the meeting spaces, nuanced with featured accompanying lighting and artwork. Plants are also dotted throughout, bringing in a living element into the spaces and purifying the air in the process. At the centre of the new space is an ingrained sense of coming together, with all of the permanent and moveable elements proposed to facilitate that.

Predominantly a deep burgundy colour is used throughout, softened and broken by shimmering drapery and the occasional duck egg blue accent, offering contrast and an element of the unexpected.

SJB Sydney Studio offers a revitalised office and studio experience through the bringing in of the familiar from both residential and hospitality settings. SJB crafts a series of inspirational spaces that are equally animated and encouraging of collaboration.