Workplace, built around how the floor is actually used.

Office and workplace construction and fitout for corporate, professional services and not-for-profit tenants across South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.

Group
Workplace and public
  • A completed open-plan office floor with a glazed meeting room, illustrative of the building type
  • The lobby of a completed commercial office building, illustrative of the building type
  • A completed end-of-trip facility with lockers and bike racks, illustrative of the building type
Project capacity under a single contract
$20m
States we build in: South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales
3
Years of the director’s delivery experience
15+
Every instruction priced and approved in writing
100%

The constraint

Density is the variable that moves everything else.

Almost every workplace project increases the number of people on the floor. Almost no base building was sized for the result.

A modern workplace brief usually means more people, more meeting rooms, more screens and more occupancy in the same lease area. Each of those raises a load on a system the tenant does not own, and the answer is held by the building manager rather than by the designer.

We ask those questions before pricing, because the alternative is a beautiful design that runs warm in December and a supplementary cooling variation nobody budgeted for.

  1. More people per floor

    the whole point of most workplace projects

  2. Cooling load

  3. Outside air rate

  4. Electrical and data load

  5. Amenities and egress capacity

The base building

was sized for the density it was designed for, which is not necessarily the one you want.

The four loads that rise together when occupant density rises. Every one of them is a base building question, answered in writing by the building manager, before the design is fixed.

What we build

The elements of a workplace project.

Open plan and workpoint
The straightforward part, and the part most affected by everything else. Ceiling, lighting, power, data and acoustic treatment coordinated as one system rather than four trades.
Meeting and collaboration
Acoustic separation is the specification that gets written loosely and complained about loudest. Stated as a performance requirement, tested on completion.
Comms and equipment rooms
A high-density heat load in a small room, usually needing dedicated cooling with its own condenser location. It is a services problem disguised as a cupboard.
End-of-trip
Showers, lockers and bike storage bring wet areas, drainage and ventilation into a fitout, and often a base building drainage conversation.
Front of house
Reception and client-facing areas carry the tightest finish tolerances on the project and the longest joinery lead times. Worth resolving first, not last.
Staged occupation
Where a tenant needs part of the floor before the whole floor, we price it as an option so the decision is made on the number rather than on assumption.

Who we do this for

Four buyers, with different questions about the same floor.

  • Corporate and professional services occupiers

    The brief is usually people per square metre, a lease date and a board that wants the cost fixed. The base building capacity questions get answered before pricing so the number holds.

  • Landlords and asset owners

    Speculative fitout, base building upgrades, lobby and end-of-trip works, and the sequencing of capex against lease events. Usually staged, usually while the building stays open.

  • Tenant representatives and workplace designers

    You have the strategy and the design. We price it against what the building can actually carry, and flag the items that need a landlord answer in writing.

  • Facility and property managers

    Rolling churn, floor reconfigurations, make-good and reinstatement across a portfolio, with the disruption to occupants as the measure that matters.

What decides the programme

Three things, and none of them is the drawing set.

The landlord approval and the fitout guide
Most leases require the design to be approved by the building owner before work starts, against a fitout guide that sets out permitted works, contractor requirements, insurance levels and the make-good position being created. Getting that approval running early is usually worth more to the programme than any decision made on site.
Long lead items, ordered off the plan
Workstations, joinery, specialist glazing, feature lighting and any bespoke front of house element carry lead times that do not compress. We identify them in the first fortnight and order against the design rather than against the installation date.
The building’s own rules
Lift bookings, dock windows, noisy works hours, after-hours access and induction requirements. On a tenanted building these are not negotiable and they set the shape of the programme, so we price against them rather than around them.

The design is not the constraint. The riser is.

A completed open-plan office fitout with a glass-walled meeting room, illustrative of the building type

Projects

Prior firm: the director’s contribution at a previous firm, not JCGAU-delivered work.

Questions

Can you work while we occupy the floor?

Yes, in stages, with acoustic and dust separation and noisy works scheduled outside your core hours. We will price staged and single-stage so you can see the difference.

Who talks to the landlord?

We can hold landlord approvals, building manager coordination, inductions and access bookings. They are part of the work.

Do you work with our workplace designer?

Yes. Most workplace projects arrive with a designer or strategist engaged, and that is the normal shape of the project.

What about NABERS or Green Star?

Where a rating is being pursued, the evidence has to be collected during construction. We treat it as a deliverable with a named owner and a due date, not as paperwork assembled afterwards.

Other sectors

Send us the floor plan and the head count.

Those two things, plus a call to your building manager, tell us more about your project than a concept design does.