Subtlety in Spades

People are always going on about Melbourne being more sophisticated than Sydney, more fashionable, more intellectual… and all because they have a higher proportion of people who dress in all-black, and that effortlessly moody weather. People say that Sydney lacks subtlety. They want subtlety, do they? We’ll give them subtlety. Oh, yes, we’ll give it to them in spades. We’ll give them so much subtlety they won’t know where they end and the fathomless void begins. Game on.

It’s great timing, as a matter of fact, because our headquarters is due for a new interior fitout. For offices, Melbourne isn’t actually one of the best places in the world to be positioned, unlike Sydney. You can’t buy light-filled harbour views for all the architectural sophistication in the world, and at the end of the day it’s the landscape that’s going to leave the most lasting impression. Still, we’re out to beat Melbourne at their own game by bridging our prime geographic coordinates with beguiling design, punctuated by clever visual understatements. 

I don’t know what that will entail, precisely, but it can’t be rocket science. I know these Melbourne folks like to act intellectual, but it’s all a flimsy facade. When it comes to iconic office interior design projects, Melbourne has no more of them per capita than Sydney. That’s just a fact. I’m not sure where I got that from, but I read the stats… somewhere. Anyway, you don’t need to know the stats; just look at the Opera House. Okay, fine, it’s not an office. But still.  

I’m thinking something along the lines of an inside-out Opera House, actually. How’s that for sophisticated? How’s that for subtle? From the outside, it’ll look like some kind of weird industrial installation – actually an inverted theatre – and inside, you’ll find the famous white crests from Sydney’s skyline. It might be impractical, sure. Upholstered theatre seating on the outside of a building, exposed to the elements, is a daring move. But that’s what we’re all about here in Sydney.