DECJUBA HQ creates a vibrant and adaptable home base for the Melbourne-based fashion brand.

The design response creates a stacked vertical campus. Extensive briefing with the DECJUBA team informed an understanding of their needs to ensure the effectiveness of the workspaces while targeting genuine performance benchmark. Linking the “campus” is a staircase that functions as a vertical street, encouraging incidental interactions between separate areas of the brand’s activities.

The design mediates the brief with the existing context with a three-level frontage to Balmain Street that is angled back to the upper levels to reduce building mass and overshadowing. This facade is draped with a small-scale metal shingle as a nod to brand’s work and mimics a residential scale from the tiled roofs to the south. The proportion of the punched windows and their shading elements further define a link to a smaller scale architecture in contrast to full height curtain wall glazing continually emerging in the area.

All levels have outdoor views and access to planted terraces providing outdoor amenity and filtered light. The floor tenancy is home to DECJUBA café where the setback footpaths are a welcome addition to the corner site on the narrow streets. The carpark, public and private bike access and services are positioned away from the pedestrian zone for safe movements.

The design meets ambitious sustainability credentials in alignment with DECJUBA’s corporate commitment to sustainable operations. The building utilises green concrete and locally sourced CLT and GLT lending a warm, natural aesthetic internally.

Energy efficiency is boosted by airtightness testing for top-tier building performance standards and indoor air quality. High-performance glazing provides daylighting to office floorplates, with natural ventilation, efficient building services and PV array to reduce energy usage. Rainwater harvesting reduces water use while cycle parking and end-of-trip facilities encourage sustainable commuting.

Photography by Peter Clarke