SIBLING: Squint/Opera

Visualisation and animation studio Squint/Opera render reality every day. SIBLING’s fit-out for their new Australian headquarters reinforces this trait: physical space and its digital doppelganger confluence in the workplace.

The new office uses the wireframe space of modelling software as real-time infrastructure through the installation of custom-steel grid-mesh.

Work spaces are carved out of this matrix to provide a sense of spatial division and privacy while retaining views across the entire studio. Each workstation can be customised by its inhabitant with a catalogue of specifically designed screens, hooks and containers for plants, stationary or personal belongings. Near the windows the grid forms an indoor verandah where staff can meet in various clusters – sitting on bitmapped bright-blue sky seating. Other stools throughout have an artificial blue and purple terrazzo surface applied.

Planting forms an important part of the space with biophilia – bringing elements of the outside in – enhancing workplace satisfaction. Planting boxes containing creepers click into the space frame, which will solidify the space as they grow. In the presentation room, an LED hydroponic system throws magenta light on the planting, referencing the Squint/Opera logo, and casting a further element of artificiality over the space. The slippages and glitches between the physical and digital world may offer new worlds to human perception. It is this point of intersection between representation and reality where meaning for the user is made.

Squint/Opera, Melbourne, Australia
Program: office
Architects: SIBLING
Completion: 2015