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Miriam van der Waal

Miriam van der Waal

Seattle, WA, US

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Urban Trans,

The philosophy of the Urban trans company is “We believe the best ideas stem from true collaboration and a focus on outcomes”. To enable them to achieve this philosophy I designed a work space completely devoid of offices. The open planned design facilitates collaboration through the use of ultra low screened workstations, where everyone can see and communicate with everyone, giving the feel of one large desk. To provide a private escape from the complete openness, I converted a shipping container into two telephone booths and utilized the unseen side as a coat rack and storage area.
The entire workspace was stripped back, removing the carpets, ceiling tiles and exposing the air conditioning ducts, pipes, electrics and beautiful concrete floor. This brings a raw-ness to the space echoing Urban Trans’ purpose as a sustainable transport company. I introduced color to the design loudly by painting the shipping container bright yellow and the workstation screens a bright sustainable green.  This raw, young and hip design is housed within an old heritage listed building at the hub of the city’s tramcar network. To link this history and the sustainable tramcar transportation mode that can be seen, heard and felt in the office every day I installed a vintage picture of the building and the tramcars across the entire entrance wall. This project has been featured on the independent website OfficeSnapShots.com http://officesnapshots.com/2011/10/07/urban-trans-offices-melbourne/

 
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Status: Built
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
My Role: Interior Designer, Decorator, Project Co-ordinator