Architect/Design
Woods Bagot

Location
Melbourne, Australia

Interior
Upholstery textiles for furniture, walls and screens: Hallingdal, Divina, Divina MD, Divina Melange, Pause and Steelcut Trio.

Project
Over 7000 metres of Kvadrat textiles have been used at the new National Australia Bank headquarters. Located in Melbourne’s Docklands, the iconic building is the result of a collaboration between the National Australia Bank and global architecture firm Woods Bagot. 

The headquarters’ architecture embraces the triangle as its primary visual motif, echoing the triangular shape of the site. A magnificent triangular atrium rises through the centre of the building and its exterior façade features red, orange, yellow and green triangulated panels. 

Designed to stimulate collaboration and provide an opportunity to affect organisational change, the 75,000 square metre interior is divided into eight zones. These act as hubs for 50 people and offer rooms for a further one hundred drop-in staff and consultants. They can also be sub-divided into smaller spaces for social, shared and learning environments.

The point of entry to 700 Bourke Street is characteristic of the radical approach that new National Australia Bank sought for the building. The pedestrian and road entrances are on separate levels, which is reminiscent of Le Corbusier’s early experiments with separating cars from people on different levels.

Solution
Kvadrat Hallingdal, Divina, Divina MD, Divina Melange, Pause and Steelcut Trio textiles are used throughout the building in a variety of colours. The fabrics are on both loose and fixed furniture, as well as on upholstered walls and screening for workstations.

’For this project, we chose to use Kvadrat textiles because of the product range and depth. We needed a kaleidoscope of colours to complement the exterior façade fissures of the architecture and no other textile brands provided the range and quality suitable for the project.

The colour range and variation also had to fit with the interior design scheme and Graphics and Wayfinding, and Kvadrat’s range was able to do that. The brand also provides reliable service and a high level of durability.' Kylie Holton, Associate at Woods Bagot, Australia