An innovative co-working space with design by Woods Bagot, the National Australia Bank (NAB) Village Customer Innovation Centre has opened in Melbourne, as the last piece in the jigsaw of NAB’s new building at 700 Bourke Street in the Docklands.

A collaborative, creative meeting and working environment, The Village connects NAB to its community, complementing the other offerings within the NAB’s buildings along Bourke Street, and facilitating the NAB ethos of ‘helping people achieve their goals and realise their potential’. The centre provides a destination for users and NAB customers to meet, collaborate, share ideas and connect in a space that is relaxed and informal.

Woods Bagot’s design for The Village provides a catalyst for the activity and energy of entrepreneurship. The Village is a hosted space and custom built for the highly agile next generation worker. Drop-in desk spaces and casual catch-up and meeting areas, all with access to high speed wi-fi, enable a high-tech working and learning space.

Each meeting pavilion is designed to provide the user with a choice of space type – private to open – depending on task or purpose. An integral part of The Village experience is the opportunity to access the experience, knowledge and talent of community members and business specialists.

“We wanted to have fun with the design of these pop-up spaces, encouraging group collaboration and creativity for NAB’s customers and community,” says Simon Pole, Principal at Woods Bagot. “Transformable spaces, a mix of furniture, graphics and artwork were all part of the design strategy to draw people in and experience co-working.”

As part of The Village, a digital experience room was engineered to be the Customer Interaction Centre (CIC). The vision for the room is to provide a workshop environment to showcase how NAB is working with its customers to understand their online profiles in order to maximise business opportunities.

The pods and open spaces have the ability to be booked and branded by Community partners and will allow the public a direct and visual connection to NAB’s start-up incubator businesses and Community groups.

Read more on the NAB Docklands project in Indesign 55, on sale now. 

Photography: Shannon McGrath
shannonmcgrath.com

Woods Bagot
woodsbagot.com