Client
- Client
- The Challenge
- Discover
- Design
- Deliver
Client
Capital Health Network, headquartered in Canberra, is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving primary health care services across the ACT.
The Challenge
CHN faced several key operational and cultural obstacles in its previous two-floor tenancy:
- Inefficient use of space: The two-floor layout created disconnection between teams, while surplus space led to unnecessary leasing costs.
- Outdated brand reflection: The environment no longer reflected CHN’s modern brand, culture, or purpose.
- Lack of diverse settings: The traditional layout failed to support hybrid work, confidential virtual meetings, or diverse work styles, creating barriers to office attendance.
As CHN also hosts after-hours community seminars, flexibility was key to ensuring the space could seamlessly transition between work and event modes.
Discover
Spaceful conducted a comprehensive workplace strategy, to understand how CHN’s people worked and where inefficiencies lay.
Key activities included:
- Employee insights: Staff surveys, stakeholder interviews, spatial analysis, and observational studies revealed work patterns, challenges and needs.
- Spatial analysis: A full review of space utilisation highlighted opportunities to improve efficiency and consolidate teams.
- Strategic direction: Findings pointed to a need to move to a single floor, strengthen collaboration, comfort and functionality, and right-size the footprint to align cost with actual use.
- Property search support: Spaceful guided CHN through location options, ensuring each shortlisted site aligned with strategy outcomes, sustainability credentials and transport connectivity
- Cost and waste: The selected site included a repurposable spec-fit, reducing environmental impact and project expenditure.
- Future-focused vision: The final strategy centred on connection, inclusivity, and adaptability, supporting hybrid work, improving office attendance, and future-proofing the workplace for growth.
Design
Guided by the concept of a ‘summit horizon’, the design symbolises CHN’s shared journey toward peak health outcomes. Drawing inspiration from Sunrise to Sunset by Indigenous artist Sarah Richards, the space subtly weaves in themes of renewal, opportunity, and unity through materiality and spatial flow.
Key design features included:
- Single-floor layout: An optimised plan accommodates more workstations, encouraging collaboration and supporting CHN’s growth-mindset.
- Zoned planning: An efficient floorplate improves acoustics, comfort, and temperature control across the workplace.
- Hybrid-ready technology: Upgraded AV and plug-and-play systems enables seamless virtual collaboration.
- Diverse work settings: Open collaboration zones, private focus rooms, and quiet areas support varied work styles and neurodiversity.
- Flexible front-of-house: Operable walls and adaptable furniture allows the space to transform into a multi-purpose event and community space.
Deliver
Through proactive coordination and transparent communication, Spaceful delivered a workplace fit-out in Canberra that met every project objective.
Key delivery highlights include:
- Circular economy collaboration: By partnering with FF&3, 257 items were repurposed, and 56 were donated to charities, reducing landfill waste.
- Waste and cost reduction: Elements of the existing spec-fit were retained to minimise demolition waste and cost.
- Sustainable material use: A custom reception desk, designed by Spaceful and crafted by DefyDesign, is made from recycled plastic.
- Enhanced technology: Meeting rooms are fully equipped with the latest AV solutions to support CHN’s flexible work model.
- Future-ready flexibility: Lockers, quiet rooms, and acoustic upgrades support CHN’s transition to a more agile, activity-based model.
- Sustainable outcomes: 60% of total waste was diverted from landfill, reinforcing CHN’s position as a leader in environmental responsibility.
