Workplace that feels like home

Designed by Warren and Mahoney

From the architects:

If, increasingly, people can from work anywhere, what is going to make them want to show up every day and perform at their best?

With this in mind, Warren and Mahoney and ANZ took a human-centred design approach to ANZ Raranga and rolled out new furniture and spaces to meet the workforce’s specific requirements. 

Implementing this ‘furniture-based fit-out’ strategy, which allowed staff to create spaces to suit their needs, putting workplace wellbeing at the heart of the design.

ANZ Raranga is a new five-and-a-half level workplace for contact centre and regional banking staff. The workplace design is based on three key principles: Connection, Community and Flexibility.

The concept for ANZ Raranga formed around a question asked in the original brief – “What is the ideal workplace of 2025?”.

With the pace of change in technology and rapid adoption of mobile and flexible working, we know that it will be different. 

What is harder to define is what exactly this difference will be. 

Acknowledging this uncertainty, we reframed the question and asked instead, “What will attract people to come to work in 2025?”

To answer this, we looked to the past for inspiration and developed a concept around the formal ancient gardens, the heart of many towns and cities around the world. 

Gardens have attracted people to them for thousands of years – whether it to be to find calm and rejuvenation, to be inspired by the beauty of nature, or to socially connect. 

In using this framework for the design of ANZ Raranga, Warren and Mahoney was able to create a workplace that would provide reprieve in a busy urban environment, instil pride and inspire people to do their best work, and also help to cultivate community and collaboration among staff.

Looking at the workplace of the near future – 2025 – the project proposes that employees need a reason to come into the office. Staff are technologically agile, mobile and have a network of contacts of their own. 

The ANZ Raranga workplace is designed to meet their needs – to feel connected to the work they produce, to belong as a community with their colleagues, and to find freedom and flexibility in the spaces they work in. 

A new internal auditorium-style stair has been introduced at entry level, completing the vertical circulation by connecting five floors of the building and providing event space for staff and external use. 

The building includes a purpose-built training facility on the remaining floor, providing a destination space for learning.

From Matthew Clark, Head of Workplace Property NZ, ANZ

If you ask me what is special about the new Raranga building, it’s that it is a direct reflection of the people who are in it. We felt a real need to celebrate what our people do, and this building is essentially for them.

The spaces are really about connection and collaboration. 

We have three buildings coming into this one South Auckland hub, and the cross-pollination of ideas of people who share a common purpose and goals across all business units was the catalyst for this significant change.

We also recognise that the Contact Centre in particular is a strong recruitment pipeline for the bank, so having it co-located here was a real opportunity to retain the best talent and give them connections they might not otherwise get. 

One aspect of this is recognising the value in having those ‘bump connections’ in the common areas that are good for all our people and that broaden their ideas and perspectives.

The other thing is that this building is deliberately designed to not reflect a traditional corporate office building – it is an operations building intended to celebrate the engine room of the bank, to be a home away from home for them. We want our people to feel comfortable and sense that this is their space, that they can change things around if they want to.

This is now much more than a place to do work: we have so much more of an opportunity in terms of how we take that approach forwards to curate the workplace.

This building is all about the detail – that’s what really makes it. 

It has a nice new fit-out, yes, but when you look at the level of detail in every element, that has been the thing that really has made it for me.

We spent months working with Warren and Mahoney to make the design speak the ANZ values, with every aspect of the design considered and resolved. 

And our people’s reaction has made all the work worth it. We had staff literally in tears at what we have created for them. 

That put the thousands of hours we have put into the space worthwhile.

See the full building story

Story by: Trendsideas

Photography by: Sam Hartnett