DK Architecture Ltd was born from humble beginnings, starting out as a small family business which, until recently, had been operating from practice director Darryl Sutton’s home garage. After celebrating their 5th birthday earlier in the year, DK Architecture has moved into their newly renovated, purpose-built office space. The building was originally built in the early 1980s and housed the Sutton Family’s canvas manufacturing business for over 20 years. 

A small showroom and an office space served customers from the front of the building, while the manufacturing operations took place from an open workshop space at the rear. A major renovation and full-upgrade of the existing building now provide 65m2 of purpose-built, open-plan office space for the next generation of Sutton family enterprise to flourish in. An additional two auxiliary office spaces and an enclosable conference room provide additional space for quiet, private work or meetings when required. The rear workshop space is now tenanted out and occupied by a local joinery business. The two tenancies share an accessible bathroom and kitchen space but are separated by a full-height acoustically treated partition wall.

Conscious of delivering an end result that embodied DK Architecture’s interests and design language, a striking building which sits proudly, but sympathetically within the streetscape has been achieved.  Situated on a prominent corner site, the existing building was upgraded, with the frontage re-clad entirely. Matte black vertical aluminium tray cladding and horizontal cedar boards demarcate the front entrance and meeting spaces. A striking corten plate steel canopy tips its hat to the neighbourhood’s industrial heritage, signalling the front door and wrapping up and around two sides of the entrance vestibule, providing shelter while tying the existing gable roof form of the main factory building behind with the new parapet style frontage. 

An internal feature wall displays a peeled back Triboard external wall construction, showcasing a system that one of DK Architecture’s main clients utilise. Additional Low-E double glazed aluminium windows to the street frontage provide good levels of light and thermal comfort, while high R-Value natural fibre wall and ceiling insulation further improve internal comfort. Internally, an integrated and zoned lighting and A/V system was installed to provide simplistic officewide control over music, lighting and the conference room’s presentation equipment. The building was redesigned with flexibility and the future in mind - the existing factory could be modified to suit any future use, with the ideal outcome to maintain the positive synergy to this.