Product

American Cherry, Crown Cut, Mis-match 

Architect

Woods Bagot

Project

The Office Space, Paramount House

Photography

Trevor Mein

Styling

Claire Delmar

Joinery & Builder

Elan Construct

There are buildings that resist reinvention, and then there are those that seem to invite it; that hold within their bones a quality so particular, so rooted in place and era, that the right designer simply needs to listen. Paramount House in Surry Hills is one of those buildings. A 1940s Art Deco landmark of quiet grandeur, its curved shell and timber-clad interior walls have long defined one of Sydney’s most beloved and storied creative precincts.

When Woods Bagot was engaged to transform the upper ground level into a tailored shared working environment for The Office Space, the response was one of considered restraint and deep material intelligence. Twenty-two handcrafted suites; ranging from intimate one-person studies to three-person workrooms, were carved from the existing floorplate with a precision that honours both the geometry of the heritage shell and the human scale of the businesses within. Circulation was designed to encourage serendipity; the quiet corridor encounter, the unplanned conversation, the sense of belonging to something larger than one’s own suite.

Materials were drawn almost entirely from a single source – a deliberate curatorial decision that lends the interior a coherence and calm that feels almost domestic in its intimacy. Briggs Veneers’ American Cherry, crown cut and laid in a mismatch join, lines the joinery throughout; its warm, reddish-brown tones deepening the connection to the building’s original timber fabric while bringing a contemporary consistency across the full breadth of the space. The mismatch join was a considered specification: across large surface areas, it offers a continuous, flowing rhythm that avoids the visual interruption of a repeating symmetrical pattern, allowing the grain to move naturally and evenly from panel to panel – a seamless material presence that reads as effortless, though it is anything but. Contrasting accents of tan leather, stone, and brass mark the threshold between heritage and new, old fabric and fresh intervention.

The result is a workplace of discreet luxury and enduring authenticity, one that sets a new standard not through spectacle, but through the quiet confidence of materials honestly and beautifully applied.

Recognised internationally upon completion, Paramount by the Office Space was awarded the World Architecture Festival INSIDE Award for Office, the RAIA NSW Award for Interior Architecture, and the Belle Coco Republic Interior Design Award for Commercial Interior, with further shortlist recognition at the Interior Design Excellence Awards and the Australian Interior Design Awards. A project that has only grown more relevant with time.