Inside the office fit-out that turned a former car dealership into a creative hub
A former car dealership is rarely associated with quiet concentration, considered materiality or collaborative work. Its architecture is usually shaped around display: broad spans, hard-wearing surfaces, generous vehicle access and a visual relationship with the street. Yet those same qualities can provide an unusually flexible starting point for a contemporary workplace.
This office fit-out treats the existing building as a resource rather than an obstacle. Instead of concealing its commercial past, the design reworks the showroom, workshop and circulation zones into a layered environment for creative practice. The result is a workplace with room for focused work, informal exchange, client meetings and events.
In Perth, where industrial and low-rise commercial buildings are increasingly being adapted for new uses, the project offers a useful model for adaptive reuse. It demonstrates how a strong interior concept can give an oversized shell a more human rhythm while preserving the character that made the original building distinctive.
Reading the building before changing it
The first move is a careful reading of the dealership’s proportions. Car showrooms tend to be deep, open and visually connected, with few structural interruptions across the main floor. That openness can easily become anonymous when filled with rows of desks, so the fit-out introduces spatial definition without relying on a maze of enclosed rooms.
A sequence of thresholds creates this definition. Reception operates as a clear point of arrival, while meeting rooms, work areas and breakout spaces are arranged as recognisable destinations beyond it. Changes in ceiling treatment, flooring and lighting help distinguish each zone while maintaining sightlines through the broader office.
The building’s original scale remains legible. Long views across the floorplate are retained, allowing daylight to travel deeper into the plan and giving the workplace a sense of generosity. Rather than treating the former showroom as a blank canvas, the designers use its volume as the project’s central spatial asset.
From showroom to working landscape
The office is organised less like a conventional corporate fit-out and more like a working landscape. A mix of shared benches, enclosed rooms, soft seating and workshop-style tables supports different modes of concentration. This variety matters in creative workplaces, where a day can move rapidly between solitary production, reviews, presentations and spontaneous discussion.
Furniture does much of the work traditionally assigned to walls. Freestanding shelving, planting, acoustic screens and storage units create visual boundaries without severing connections between teams. These elements can be adjusted as the organisation changes, making the interior more adaptable than a fixed arrangement of plasterboard partitions.
The arrangement also softens the transition from public to private. Client-facing spaces sit close to the entry, while more focused work areas occupy quieter parts of the plan. Informal meeting points appear along the circulation routes, encouraging encounters without forcing every interaction into a booked room.
This approach reflects a broader shift in Australian workplace design. Offices are increasingly expected to support culture and collaboration, yet they must still provide acoustic control and places where people can withdraw. The most successful interiors recognise that flexibility involves offering choice, not simply removing walls.
Material language with a durable edge
The material palette draws on the building’s automotive and industrial inheritance without turning the office into a themed environment. Robust finishes, expressed junctions and practical surfaces acknowledge the former dealership, while warmer timber, tactile upholstery and considered joinery bring the atmosphere closer to a studio or gallery.
Concrete, metal and resilient flooring can establish a useful visual continuity across a large floorplate. Their durability is also appropriate to a building originally designed for constant movement and heavy use. Softer details then introduce balance: textured curtains improve acoustic comfort, upholstered seating creates pause points, and timber surfaces give shared areas a more welcoming touch.
Colour is used with restraint. Rather than applying a strong brand palette everywhere, selective tones identify meeting rooms, communal areas or key moments in the circulation path. This keeps the interior visually calm while allowing particular spaces to carry energy and identity.
Lighting is equally important. Linear fittings can reinforce the building’s length, while pendant lights or wall-mounted fixtures lower the scale around tables and lounges. The contrast between broad ambient illumination and more intimate pools of light helps the office shift from daytime production to evening gatherings.
| Design move | Effect on the workplace | Connection to the original building |
|---|---|---|
| Open central floorplate | Supports collaboration and long views | Retains the showroom’s generous span |
| Freestanding storage and planting | Defines zones without permanent walls | Preserves visual permeability |
| Durable, tactile materials | Balances longevity with warmth | References workshop and retail surfaces |
| Varied lighting levels | Creates focus, comfort and atmosphere | Adds human scale to a large volume |
| Flexible furniture groupings | Allows teams and uses to change | Extends the building’s adaptable life |
Designing for exchange and concentration
A creative hub needs more than an attractive open plan. Its success depends on how well it supports the invisible work of an organisation: conversations that happen in passing, ideas tested around a table, concentrated production and the gradual formation of professional community.
The fit-out makes these activities visible without making them compulsory. Shared areas are positioned where circulation naturally gathers, with enough room for a quick exchange or an impromptu pin-up. Enclosed rooms provide acoustic separation for presentations and confidential work, while smaller nooks offer an alternative to both the desk and the boardroom.
The office can therefore operate at different intensities. During the day, it accommodates focused work and scheduled meetings. Later, the same public-facing areas can host a launch, exhibition or industry gathering without requiring the entire workplace to be dismantled. This dual use is especially valuable in a city where design studios, cultural organisations and professional networks often overlap.
That relationship between workplace and event venue is part of Perth’s evolving design culture. Platforms such as Contemporary Wine In Design create opportunities for architects, designers, makers and clients to meet beyond the conventional office setting; the event’s program of conversations reflects the value of gathering around ideas as well as projects.
A Perth response to adaptive reuse
The project sits within a wider conversation about how Perth’s commercial building stock can be renewed. As businesses seek distinctive workplaces and property owners look for alternatives to demolition, former retail, warehouse and showroom spaces are gaining new relevance. Their imperfections can offer a stronger foundation for identity than a newly built speculative interior.
Adaptive reuse also carries an environmental argument. Retaining the existing structure reduces the material and energy costs associated with starting again, while a carefully planned interior can extend the building’s useful life for decades. Reuse is most convincing when it is treated as a design opportunity rather than a compromise.
The former dealership’s large footprint presents practical questions around energy, ventilation, daylight and sound. These issues require precise technical decisions, particularly when an interior must support both quiet office work and public events. The design response is strongest where performance requirements are integrated into the visual language instead of hidden as afterthoughts.
Perth’s light and climate make passive considerations equally significant. Shading, glare control, planting and the placement of workstations all influence how comfortable the office feels across the day. A creative workplace benefits from visual connection to its surroundings, but that connection must be calibrated so screens, materials and people are not overwhelmed by heat or reflected light.
Details that give the hub its identity
Identity is built through repetition. A particular joinery profile, a recurring colour, a family of lights or a consistent approach to signage can connect spaces that serve very different purposes. In this project, those details help turn a collection of rooms into a coherent workplace.
The entry is especially important. A dealership once used the threshold to frame products and direct customers through a retail journey. The new reception reinterprets that role, presenting the organisation’s work, values and collaborators through curated objects, material samples, publications or changing displays.
This gives the office an editorial quality. Walls and shelves can become places for prototypes, archival material and local work, allowing the interior to communicate process rather than simply presenting a polished corporate image. For visitors, the workplace becomes an active expression of how ideas are developed.
The most successful details are likely to be those that withstand daily use. A well-designed table edge, durable upholstery, accessible power and clear storage may attract less attention than a dramatic feature wall, but these elements determine whether an office remains useful after the photography is complete.
A framework for future creative workplaces
The conversion suggests several principles for designers working with oversized commercial interiors:
- Preserve the building’s strongest spatial quality before adding new construction.
- Use furniture, planting and joinery to create flexible boundaries.
- Combine durable industrial finishes with materials that support comfort and belonging.
- Plan for different levels of privacy, concentration and social exchange.
- Make the workplace capable of hosting events without compromising everyday function.
These principles are relevant beyond former dealerships. Empty retail shells, light-industrial buildings and outdated offices can all become productive settings when their existing conditions are understood clearly. The aim is not to make every adaptive reuse project look industrial, but to let each building’s history inform a contemporary response.
The project also demonstrates why workplace design should be evaluated over time. A successful fit-out must accommodate changing teams, technologies and patterns of attendance. Loose furniture, accessible services and adaptable meeting areas allow the interior to evolve without losing its underlying structure.
For Perth’s architecture and design community, that capacity for change is particularly valuable. The office becomes a workplace, a presentation setting and a point of connection between disciplines. Its character comes from the combination of a distinctive existing shell and a precise new layer of use.
A former car dealership may have been built to display machines, but its next life is centred on people, ideas and exchange. The fit-out gives the building a renewed public presence while offering its occupants a practical, generous and recognisably local place to work. Explore the wider creative community through Contemporary’s invitation, and consider how the next underused commercial space might be given an equally purposeful future.
