Sculptform Design Studio named Best Small Workplace at World Architecture Festival

2022-12-01

01 Dec 22

Sculptform Design Studio named Best Small Workplace at World Architecture Festival

Woods Bagot’s immersive Melbourne studio for timber manufacturer Sculptform has won the Best Small Workplace award at the prestigious World Architecture Festival Awards.

Completed in 2021, Sculptform Design Studio blurs the lines between workplace and workshop with Woods Bagot moving Sculptform’s back-of-house to the centrepiece of the experience, in a gesture that connects the design community and industry in a process of co-creation.

The design is a celebration of the client’s own product, evoking the bespoke timber battening, craftsmanship and custom detailing that Sculptform is beloved for. The final product is an experience that is sculptural, immersive and has become a gathering space for the architecture industry.

The project was presented to the WAF jury in Lisbon by Woods Bagot CEO Nik Karalis who described a hybrid workplace/workshop that feels like the “interior of timber itself” and creates a new forum for the industry.

In their winner’s announcement the judges commended the project for its “elegant scheme” that expands the traditional procurement model of architecture and brings the forest to the city.

“It’s incredible recognition for a project that is the gift that keeps on giving,” says Woods Bagot Principal Bruno Mendes.

“For me, Sculptform set a new paradigm for the reciprocity that can exist between client and architect and showcased the limitless potential when a design team is truly immersed in materiality.”

Sculptform Managing Director Jeremy Napier added that the WAF win only enhances the incredible branding tool that the studio has become for the company.

“The studio is a coherent design that lovingly displays our product capabilities and, in fact, displays some capabilities that we didn’t know we had until we began exploring them with Woods Bagot.”

The World Architecture Festival has wrapped up day one of a three-day celebration, with Woods Bagot picking up two wins, with Meadowbank Schools also winning in the Best School category.

As category winner, Sculptform Design Studio will proceed to the World Interior of the Year presentations.

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Tili Bensley-Nettheim
Content and Communications Specialist (Australia & New Zealand)

Sculptform

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Sculptform

Sculptform produces feature wall, ceiling, and façade systems; naturally, they manufactured the undulating timber ceiling for their new city showroom. What visitors experience is a physical connection to their work – something that can’t be found online.