The White Fox Global Headquarters consolidates workplace, content production, and staff amenities within a 13,000-square-metre repurposed building. Designed by PMG for the Australian fashion brand, the project treats the headquarters as both a functional workplace and an extension of White Fox’s public identity.
Rather than approaching the building as a conventional office fit-out, the intervention makes substantial modifications to the existing structure while retaining and adapting its primary fabric. The most significant is a 285-square-metre, three-storey atrium created by cutting through the existing concrete floor slabs. Four large openings, each approximately 20 by 10 metres, required extensive carbon-fibre reinforcement to redistribute loads through the retained structure.
A new roof skylight brings daylight through the resulting void to the ground-floor café. An interconnecting stair, planting, and a mature palm tree turn the atrium into the building’s primary circulation and gathering space.
A workplace organised around interaction
With staff working from the headquarters five days a week, the workplace is designed to provide different settings for individual work, collaboration, socialising, and creative production. Curved walls guide circulation through the large floor plates and connect work areas with meeting and breakout spaces. Neutral finishes dominate fashion-design work zones, providing an unobtrusive background for reviewing textiles and developing seasonal colour palettes. Meeting rooms and shared areas introduce stronger colours and more expressive forms.
The atrium helps connect departments vertically and visually. Its pink slide, interconnecting stair and open edges encourage movement between floors, while natural light reduces the sense of separation that can occur within a large multi-level workplace.
Brand identity as infrastructure
White Fox’s digital presence informed the architectural language. Individual elements—including a curved travertine reception desk, arched openings, and the pink slide—are designed as recognisable spatial moments without relying extensively on applied branding. This approach also responds to the company’s reliance on visual content. Photography studios, a podcast room, and internal event spaces allow product launches and marketing material to be produced within the headquarters rather than requiring separate external venues.
The building operates simultaneously as office, studio, and content-production infrastructure. Refurbished tennis and basketball courts similarly accommodate staff recreation while providing settings for events and photography.
Adapting the envelope
Several interventions extend the usefulness of the existing building rather than simply increasing internal accommodation. Three balconies were created by converting previously enclosed areas into outdoor spaces. This required detailed façade engineering to address weatherproofing and compliance where the original envelope had not been designed for external occupation.
Weight was also an important constraint in upgrading the façade. Instead of adding conventional brick veneer, the project uses a lightweight snap-on brick-effect cladding system, achieving the intended masonry appearance without imposing the structural load of full brick construction.
On level four, the desire for arched internal windows presented another technical challenge. With no suitable standard fire-rated system available for the required configuration, the design and fire engineering teams developed a bespoke compartmentation solution that retained the architectural form while satisfying fire-safety requirements.
Amenity and employee well-being
A substantial proportion of the headquarters is dedicated to functions beyond conventional desk-based work. Facilities include a gym and Pilates studio, saunas, a massage and treatment room, coffee and snack bars, and generous social spaces.
These amenities are particularly relevant given the headquarters’ location outside the central business district and the company’s full-time office model. Rather than treating well-being facilities as additions, the project incorporates them into the everyday operation of the workplace.
Outdoor amenity is expanded through the new balconies and refurbished sports courts, while the central atrium introduces planting and daylight into the interior. Together, these elements provide opportunities to move away from individual workstations during the day.
Adaptation for long-term use
The project’s sustainability strategy is closely tied to adaptive reuse and longevity. Retaining the existing multi-storey building and modifying its concrete structure avoids the wholesale replacement of substantial existing fabric. Structural interventions, including carbon-fibre reinforcement, enable the building to accommodate new spatial requirements while keeping much of its structure in service.
The façade strategy similarly responds to existing structural capacity through lightweight construction, while the conversion of internal areas into balconies adds usable outdoor space within the existing footprint. The skylight and large atrium improve daylight penetration into the deep floor plate.
Flexibility is equally important to the headquarters’ long-term performance. Work areas accommodate changing team structures, while meeting, social, production, and event spaces support multiple functions. Content-production facilities reduce dependence on external studios and venues, allowing the building to respond directly to the operational requirements of the business.
