Cox were engaged to design a space for INCUBATE, a University of Sydney facility and Australia’s leading university-led startup program. The new interior has been designed to facilitate an intense 14-week process of learning, collaboration and private work and takes its cues from the energy generated by entrepreneurs. The space has been carved into a series of fluid areas that provide students with choice as to how they want to work; there’s space for individual work, opportunities to collaborate , areas to contemplate, a communal kitchen to nourish, and opportunities to pitch to industry.

Overall, the facility offers a contemporary environment that straddles between a co-share lab environment and a modern workplace. Perhaps the strongest visual statement is the complex system of pipework that weaves through space referencing the facility’s function as a facilitator of ideas. Over the collaborative pitch zone, the pipework appears tangled and unresolved, then as the pipes travel over workstations they untangle and provide power – a visual representation of the clarification of ideas. Robust materials such as oriented strand board and a playful approach to joinery add to the contemporary feel of the space. INCUBATE has been designed to inspire creative thought, entice collaboration and induce little bit of play.