Following on from our Fit-out work on their Rockingham Clinic, Australian Hearing asked us to work with Juo Design to develop their new Cannington Clinic to replace their existing one at the Carousel shopping Centre. Juo produced a very interesting, intricate design to meet Australian Hearing’s needs and the requirements for the shopping centre’s management, despite some conflict between those needs and requirements . One criteria that Juo had given themselves was to create a design that was less clinical and more inviting to Australian Hearing’s clients.

We started on site on 9th January 2017 and we needed to hand over to the Client in mid February. We started with an empty box, just walls, concrete slab and roof framing above. The tenancy needed to be built to exclude as much sound from surrounding tenancies and reduce sound within the clinic. The Audio rooms have double ceilings, with insulated grid ceilings above their solid plasterboard ceiling. Careful coordination was needed to ensure the services were installed when, and where they were needed. The space started to fill quickly with insulated walls:

Painting and carpet started to progress the space towards completion, but there were to major items to be installed, to give the clinic it’s very unique feel. The plasterboard ceiling has been painted black, in anticipation of the timber slat wave ceiling, and the wall paneling, matching the ceiling, has been started.

The slatted ceiling was installed in large sections. It was not terribly heavy, but it was awkward. Albec Constructions fabricated and installed it, to their always high standard or workmanship. The lights and sprinklers needed to have been installed in line with the support ribs of the ceiling before it was lifted into position and the roller door at the front needed to be in exactly the right position to run through a slot in the ceiling. It all fitted perfectly.

Once the ceiling was installed, the rest of the joinery and furniture could be brought in, with admin desks at the back, waiting chairs and product table in the centre, and the welcome desk at the front.  The entire side wall was made up of cupboards, with a TV and bench seat alcove in the middle. The cupboard doors were gloss two pack coated board, with a routed feature behind the welcome desk with the Client’s logo spread over four doors.

The shopfront, by Major Media was installed last, made up of steel light boxes with the sound wave logo and shapes all laser cut into the front. Laser cut panels were made to cover the existing fire hydrant cupboard. The overall impression of the Clinic and the facade was fantastic, standing out from the surrounding tenancies and completely achieving the effect created in the design.

After operating for a few months, it was decided that the welcome desk needed to be replaced by a larger unit, where the staff stood rather than sat, as that would work much better with the way they interacted with their clients. The new desk as fabricated by Sympari,who had done all of the original joinery, and the existing desk was put into storage and later used at the Busselton clinic.

At the same time the new desk was being done the design was done to close the front of the clinic with glazed automatic sliding doors and fixed glass panels. Sound levels in the mall were high enough to interfere with the testing in the audio rooms. Juo came up with an industrial style heavy steel frame to support the operating track and sliding doors but retained the open aspect of the clinic. On the 16th September the steel work was installed, and changes made to the air conditioning system as the tenancies all used the mall for return air movement.

The hoarding was removed the day after the steel went up.  The glazing and doors were installed two weeks later and the shopfront became this:

Fast forward to June 2019, and Australian Hearing are about to go through a Re-branding, so they asked us to remove the Blue Man logo on the cupboard doors and the Sound Wave logo from the back wall. That meant replacing the 4 doors with new and removing the slatted wall paneling from the back wall to install 4 new panels that matched the slatted ceiling. That was expected to be a more difficult process than it was and the site work was finished by lunchtime, and the painting and clean up finished by mid afternoon.  Mark Walsh Cabinet’s work was as good as the excellent original work on the slatted panels and doors.

We were unsuccessful on the tender for the fit-out for Ruah Community Services Head Office fit-out in Hay St Subiaco but circumstances changed for the successful contractor after they had completed the demolition and were were asked to step in. Immediately prior to Christmas 2017 we re-priced the work and determined how we could get the project completed by the end of February, when the Client had to vacate their current office. The project was to be done in two main stages, as the personnel who would occupy the first floor area were already in place on the ground floor. They needed to have the first floor complete as soon as possible so they could move up there, and we needed to ensure they were able to continue work on the ground floor while we worked there as well.  We had wide open spaces to work on the first floor:

The design retained the exposed roof, insulation and beams with a very modern office, meeting room and workstation layout. There was not a lot of room for air conditioning duct work and the exposed power and data cables needed to be done very neatly, as did the cable tray.

A few weeks work and it was looking like this:

The floor was occupied very shortly after these photos were taken and we steamed ahead with the work on the ground floor, which was carried out in the existing style rather than matching the first floor, as there were not a lot of changes downstairs. We completed the project on the 28th February, on time for Ruah to relocate there. This project was the first one we carried out for Ruah, despite this being one of the later posts here. Ruah Community Services were an excellent client to work with on this project, as they have been on the five other projects we have carried out for them since completing this one.

We were successful on the tender for the fit-out for Larsen Ventures in St Quentin Ave Claremont earlier this year, to enable them to relocate from a smaller office in the same complex. The new tenancy had been divided into two so there was some demolition required prior to construction. The most difficult part of the demolition was the removal of the carpet tiles from the smaller half of the tenancy. Care was taken to not damage the underlying timber floor, so that the new carpet tiles would have a smooth surface to stick to.

Juo Design produced a very open and light layout for the tenancy, using the QRK System to frame the glazed partitions, with a couple of meeting rooms and offices and an area for open plan workstations. Although direct access to the tenancy with large materials was a slight problem, the project ran very well and was completed on time for the client. Peter and Andrew Larsen were great clients to deal with and Melissa Coggan, the complex’s Facility Manager was very helpful too. Another enjoyable project completed to the satisfaction of all parties.

We were successful with the tender for the upgrade of Reddifund’s reception counter and refurbishment of the waiting area and corridor, in their office in West Perth. They needed to keep operating, including dealing with clients while the work was being carried out in that area. They set up a temporary reception desk in the space remaining in the waiting area so that we could proceed. The project included removing the old reception desk and a few walls around it, putting up new walls and doors to improve security and install the new reception desk, including full height glazing. The first pictures show the existing reception desk and corridor, the next one shows the new reception desk in place.

Once the desk was in place, the aluminium framing was constructed above it, up to the ceiling. The images on the glazed doors not only provided privacy, they were taken from photos already hanging in the reception area, showing the connection between Reddifund and the construction industry workers. This was another enjoyable job to do, dealing with the accommodating and tolerant client while we created the minimum, but necessary amount of disruption to get to a finished project that was very satisfactory to everyone.

We had previously converted part of the Ruah Centre in Northbridge from offices to open plan workstations and were asked to de-commission the commercial kitchen and turn it into an area where they could prepare the breakfasts and light meals for their clients.  They required much more storage in the kitchen but still needed the commercial dishwasher and cleaning facilities.

The combi oven, grill and deep fryer in this were removed, along with the bain marie at the back.

The centre bench in the picture below had 3 under bench fridges that were not working and a large sink on the end that wasn’t needed, but provided a lot of useful bench space. We designed a large drawer unit to go underneath it and had a stainless steel fabricator make up a new end with waste bin holes to replace the sink. Power points were provided at the back to enable mixers and other equipment to be used on the bench.

New open shelving was installed later, to the right of the bench, against the wall where the oven and grill were. New cupboards were installed in the alcove left after the removal of the bain marie. The kitchen is now far more usable and suitable for their needs.

We were asked by Ruah Community Services to refurbish their accommodation units at their Harmony Centre. They had a tight budget and wanted to get the best value they could for their expenditure. We try to achieve this for all of our clients, but as Ruah are charity, and because of the work they do, we made an extra special effort on this project. The units were in quite good condition, but tired and needed a bit more than just a spruce up. The bathrooms in particular were quite dated. We wanted to achieve a comforting, peaceful effect, a bit holiday or resort like, but not too much. We asked Tracey Pinker to select colours and tiles and she came up with the perfect combination.

The units were done one at a time, with the bathrooms demolished first. New lights were installed throughout, old ceiling fans and range hoods were removed and the walls and ceilings patched. The bathrooms all had new floor and wall tiles installed, along with new toilets, vanities, basins and shower screens. Everything was then painted and new range hoods were installed. The photos below show the before and after pictures of some bathrooms and kitchens, and the completed lounge areas.

This was a great project for me and all of my subcontractors. Working with the staff and clients there was inspirational, with the passion that the staff have for their work, and for helping everyone being so apparent and tangible. It was a pleasure, and an honour to be able to do this.

We were approached by Jeremy Gray, the Managing Director of CMS Electracom to provide some ideas and a budget to design and fit-out the office area of the warehouse unit they had recently occupied in Malaga. The existing office area was open and very basic, with exposed brickwork and display shelves, green waterproof boat carpet and had two sets of double doors opening out to the warehouse. He wanted to provide an office for the state sales manager, an area to display their products and much nicer access between the office and workshop, as most of their clientele would be entering through the workshop, to collect goods. The aim was to produce a simple but professional aesthetic in line with business concept and products.

He also asked us to improve the state of the warehouse outside the office, as the previous owner had partially constructed some framed rooms on the slab over the office and installed a rough set of stairs for access. The kitchenette was also identified as needing some attention to bring it up to a reasonable standard.

We gave Jeremy some ideas on what we could provide, and a budget for the work and he gave us approval to proceed.

We asked Juo Design to document the fit-out and we produced this result:

The improvement to the warehouse was as remarkable, when you compare these pictures to the ones above.

It took four weeks to strip and empty the old real estate office, construct the new walls, paint, carpet and furnish the Rockingham tenancy for Ruah Community Services new facility, getting it ready for occupation. From a cluttered, tired old office layout, to a large open space, ready for the wonderful Juo designed fit-out, using the new QRK suite of aluminium partition framing.

The old offices:                                                                                         The empty space:

The wall framing and sheeting underway:                                                  Ready for painting:

The new waiting area:

QRK framing on the meeting room:                                                             Open workstations:

This was a small fit-out carried out for Ruah Community Services to establish their Youth Outreach centre in Cockburn.  The existing entry area was demolished to create space for a secure entry area and a client outreach office and the rest of the area was fitted with open plan desks. The work was completed over a two week period and was in operation shortly after completion.

In March 2018 we commenced the fit-out for Australian Hearing’s Busselton clinic. They had been operating from this location for some time, sharing part of it with the Landlord. Juo Design combined the tenancies to produce a spacious, peaceful refurbishment for the clinic. It did not take long to demolish the existing panelised partitions to open the area up and proceed with the studwork. The three pictures below show the large entry/reception area progressing from standing walls, to sheeting and to painting.

This picture shows the same area completed, with carpet, joinery and furniture.

The access to the audio rooms had space for another table, with a separate client interface room adjacent to the entry. The audio rooms had acoustic panels installed to reduce sound reflection around the room, and to soften the rooms visually.

This was one of the most enjoyable projects we have carried out. While the 200km distance from Perth might have caused problems, the job ran extremely smoothly and quickly, with everyone involved happy with the result.