Multigate Medical Campus

Multigate is one of Australia and New Zealand’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of medical consumables for hospitals. It is also a carbon neutral company measuring its sustainability values across multiple areas of business: nature, energy, comfort, mobility, water, waste and wellness.

The site envelope in Yennora, Western Sydney, includes a vast mechanised manufacturing facility and offices (this building) with an allocated on-grade car park of around 1,600 m². Yennora (meaning ‘walking place’) was originally home to the Cabrogal people. A heavily industrialised district since the 19th century, the area is currently undergoing renewal as part of Western Sydney’s growth.

AJC helped redefine the brief for the office component, creating a five-storey building that includes two office levels with a central garden atrium, fostering collaboration and connections to nature. Car parking is relegated to the top three building levels behind a perforated metal veil. This leaves a significant site area for ecological restoration done with landscape architects, Realm Studios, reintroducing some of the area’s endangered Cumberland Plains Woodlands.

“Because the building envelope sits adjacent to a remnant watercourse, we advocated against the conventional office in a carpark approach, instead accommodating cars over three rooftop levels and reviving a natural ecosystem, which gives back a 10-metre regenerated bushland corridor to the streetscape,” says Jim Koopman, AJC Studio Director.

Car parks are environmentally disastrous and costly to build and repurpose. AJC’s design considers the client’s future growth, as the car park levels have potential for conversion to a further 1,500 m² of office space and 2,000 m² of rooftop gardens, as reliance on motor cars declines in a decarbonising economy.

Internally, the building follows a campus logic with a central skylit atrium infusing natural light above internal garden areas (of around 400 m²) with a reimagined watercourse meandering through. Planning and materiality draws on the Feng Shui elements of fire, earth, metal, wood and water, with the concrete and steel base structure carefully layered with tactile materials at the points of human contact.

All workspaces are within eight metres of a window, atrium or wintergarden, for access to daylight and a view of garden or sky. In Australia, best practice for premium office space is no more than six metres to a window. Fresh air is drawn into the open floorplan and out through a thermal chimney in the atrium, naturally ventilating the office.

“This is a very health-focused workplace. In among the internal gardens are meeting and breakout spaces and water stations. The outdoor terrace (500 m²) has herb gardens and beehives, there’s a staff cafeteria with healthy international food, and there are well-equipped kitchenettes for those wishing to prepare their own meals.” -Scott Norton, Studio Director, Interiors

QUICK LOOK

Site area:  4.58 hectares

Office area: 6,000 m² (over two levels)

Occupancy: 180 people

Levels: 5, including rooftop parking

Parking spaces: 372 cars (initial), reducing to 253 cars

Conversion potential adds: 1,500 m² of workspace; 2,000 m² rooftop garden

Remediated landscape: 4,800 m² total

External staff terrace: 500 m²

Internal atrium garden: 400 m²

Warehouse GFA: 16,800 m²

Production Facility: 12,000 m² (over two levels)

Occupancy: 300+ people