Welcome to our new Asia Pacific headquarters located in Sydney’s artsy suburb, Chippendale. I’m Khanh Nguyen, a member of the community team with Houzz Australia, and I’m excited to share our new home with you!
This office hosts the teams supporting our communities in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, as well as our APAC operations. The space was designed to highlight the unique design aesthetic of each of the APAC countries where we’ve launched a localized platform, and to create a warm and collaborative space for our growing team.
Let’s start the quick tour, with a focus on the design, of course!
As soon as you open the door, you’ll find a bright Houzz-green chair and photos of team members with their families. You’ll find photos of employees with their families at any Houzz office you visit around the world as we want people to feel like they’re at home when they’re at Houzz.
As we have an open floor plan, our meeting rooms are always coveted spaces. Down the hall you’ll see the first and largest of our meeting rooms, the Aussie Backyard. Inspired by the Aussie’s inherent love for outdoor entertaining, this room features a floor to ceiling decal of a house designed by Aussie architect Matt Gibson Architecture + Design.
The next meeting room you’ll see is our Bollywood Movie Theatre, a homage to the launch earlier this year of our dedicated India site. This room features jewel toned cushions, draped traditional saris and retro Bollywood movie posters from the 70s and 80s.
Our bathroom meeting room is next – styled clean white with timber accents. The bathroom decal is from one of our Houzz professionals, Green Country Developments.
Another favourite space to gather is our wine cellar meeting room, which has an industrial barn door and wine barrel. This room is dedicated to our New Zealand site (fun fact: New Zealand has the second largest wine region in the world!).
As you walk through the office, you may notice the black beams in the ceiling. These get their colour from being charred in a fire 100 years ago. To offset the dark beams we have a network of exposed Houzz-green painted pipes.
On the second floor you’ll find healthy (and sweet) treats, it’s the hub of our office – the kitchen. This is where the team spends most of its time together, whether it be starting the week over breakfast on Mondays or wrapping up with lunches on Fridays. The internal exposed besser brick is offset by illuminated black shelves, white cabinetry and an L-shaped marble white Caesarstone benchtop tying into the overall industrial aesthetic.
You’ll see three more meeting rooms that we love, starting with the Japanese zen room. Lined with ‘tatami’ style carpet and Japanese zabuton cushions this room emulates traditional Japanese ‘washitsu’ rooms. Surround yourself in ‘fusuma’ – traditional sliding doors which flank the walls and channel positive thoughts.
You’ll next find yourself in the Singapore balcony room. The stylistic use of the balcony resonates with the majority (85%) of Singaporeans who live in apartments and depend on their balconies as their private outdoor space. On one wall you’ll see a floor to ceiling decal of the Singapore Skyline including the infamous Marina Bay Sands, home to the infinity pool.
And lastly the cigar room. This UK inspired room pays homage to Australia being British Commonwealth nation. Complete with a whiskey jar set and automated lights triggered when you take a seat on the quilted leather chair, this room is perfect for making those important calls.
Onwards and upwards to our sales team who occupies this space. What started off as a clean slate with house-shaped partitions, our teams have decorated with a colourful array of floral garlands and fairy lights to personalise their workspace and channel some creative energy.
To wrap up our tour, nothing screams Australia more than our open-air rooftop terrace equipped with a barbeque for afternoon sausage sangas (sausage sandwiches). Take a seat under the big umbrella on the outdoor lounge set. This is where you’ll find the team enjoying sunkissed lunches and winding down on Friday night with the skyline backdrop across neighbouring rooftops.
Thanks for stopping by – don’t forget to say bye to our office dog, Crumpet, on your way out!
All images credited to Ute Wegmann Photography.