This project sets the benchmark for how business will collaborate and innovate with their clients in the future, by placing the client at the centre of the experience. We live in a fast-moving, high-tech, uncertain, disrupted world. This ‘boardroom of the future’ helps businesses navigate the ‘new normal’.

Futurespace completed two significant client collaboration projects for PwC – one in Sydney and one in Melbourne – with overlapping programs. The building footprint for each project was vastly different, which led to a unique interior design response for each location. In Melbourne, the Riverside Quay space spans five levels with an interconnecting stair that fills a void. The stair has a series of meeting ‘pods’ suspended off it, and visitors can traverse over the top of these pods to gain new physical and philosophical viewpoints.

The brief from PwC to Futurespace was to design an extraordinary experience for their clients – one that had never been seen before. PwC wanted to take the best ‘out of industry’ aspects (i.e. hotel, retail, airline, restaurant and education spaces) to create an unexpected, purpose-led, values-driven experience for PwC’s clients that differentiated them from their competitors and set a new benchmark in client experience.

Melbourne is a thriving, creative, forward thinking city and the design is a reflection of this. The palette is bold and energetic to reflect the energy, intelligence and creativity of Melbourne’s people. After being greeted, clients invariably are taken to the ‘Yarra Café’, representing part of Melbourne’s social coffee culture. Warmth, hospitality, generosity of spirit and knowledge sharing are the currency at PwC, and the palette of finishes, materials and architectural details underpins this.

This project reimagined how an established global professional services firm could get ahead of disruption in business and work with clients in revolutionary, innovative ways. Clients now have a huge range of choice in when and how they engage and collaborate with PwC, beyond a traditional boardroom meeting.

Furniture: Cult, Living Edge, Anibou, Jardan, Zenith, Space, Ke-Zu, Schiavello, Stylecraft, Own World, Designer Rugs, Koskela, Tait. Lighting: Ke-zu, Great Dane, Cult, Living Edge, Space, Artemide, Divine Lighting, Flos. Finishes: Interface, Havwoods, Forbo Flooring, Academy Tiles, Dulux, Kvadrat, Elton Group, Laminex, Polytec. Fittings & Fixtures: Panasonic, Fisher & Paykel, Barisol, Caroma, Zip, Reece.

Photography: Nicole England