LMS Energy Headquarters

LMS Energy Headquarters has relocated to Adelaide’s city fringe, merging conventional and separate offices into a hybrid workspace that reflects its innovative spirit and embraces the idea of a ‘workplace as a home.’

LMS Energy is Australia’s leading landfill biogas company and one of the most significant emissions reducers in Australia, offering a dependable source of sustainable power while reducing over 4 million tons of greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere each year. Its existing Adelaide-based head office was outdated and segregated, and split between two separate buildings it didn’t encourage interaction and teamwork between staff. Due to the limitations of the current workplace, and the company’s growth, LMS Energy acquired a base building to reimagine a flagship head office that reflects its vision and values. DesignInc consulted with staff across all levels of the business in an extensive process to provide LMS Energy with a detailed brief and workplace strategy that could be adopted nationally, starting with Adelaide as the pilot project.

The new workplace needed to be flexible and adaptable to accommodate LMS Energy’s rapid expansion and provide open-plan workstations zoned for specific functions within the business. The office would also need quiet and private areas for staff to take breaks from their desks and ease the transition to an open plan model. A spacious kitchen and breakout area would provide a retreat for staff and act as a social space for interaction across departments or large gatherings with industry partners and interstate colleagues. The goal was to create a workplace that fosters collaboration, increases employee satisfaction and supports the growth of LMS Energy.

Location: Kaurna Country
Unley, South Australia
Client: LMS Energy
Value: $3.2M
Scale: 880m²
Year: 2023
Project Contact: Freya Kuchel
Photography: Sam Noonan
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A hybrid workplace that prioritises employee satisfaction

LMS Energy Headquarters provides working accommodation for 50+ staff spanning two levels and connected by a central feature stairway and communal zones. The open plan offices support a variety of work settings, such as quiet rooms, booth seating, formal meeting and informal collaboration spaces designed with careful attention to detail to provide an enhanced user experience. The contemporary working environment promotes teamwork and, aided by technology, this model offers support for both on-site and remote employees with the flexibility to move between the two work styles. A large kitchen and breakout space on the lower level provides a multi-functional space for food preparation and dining, ‘cafe-style’ meetings, recreational activities like table tennis and gaming, and gathering people together from interstate or industry.

A central feature stairway becomes the gathering point for staff to move about the office and interact with each other. Polished floors, black steel and exposed services are softened by plants, custom joinery in warm wood and soft furnishings in pale pink. A floating platform provides a tiered seating space for staff to sit or visitors to wait near the entry of the office. A large kitchen and dining area is in the background with sheer curtains letting in light from the full height windows to the rear of the space.

The lower level kitchen and staff breakout area has polished concrete floors, built in joinery housing fridges and other appliances. Modern fittings and fixtures in matt black suit the industrial aesthetic of the building interior and exposed steel structures. An island bar in rounded pale green divides the space. Two staff play table tennis on the large dining table.

A man reads the paper while drinking a cup of coffee in the kitchen. White bar stools with warm timber tops sit under an island bench in pale green with a white top. White tile splashback and matt black tapwear feature. Appliances are hidden within the pale green joinery that separates the kitchen from the lockers and amenities. Natural light filters through privacy curtains and the full height windows that lead to the staff carpark.

Two staff with laptops sit on light pink chairs at a matt black worktop in a small meeting room. A black screen is on the wall at the end of the bench. A large custom-designed whiteboard is visible on the back wall. The warm timber joinery creates individual rooms and booths. Another staff member sits working in a quiet booth in the background.

Two staff sit in a quiet booth working on a laptop connected to a screen on the wall. A picture of solar panels in a landscape is on the screen. Another staff member sits solo in an adjoining booth working on a laptop. The booths feature warm timber joinery, sage green sound-absorbing wall lining and natural-coloured leather seat pads.

The formal boardroom style meeting space has a large matt black table at the centre. Employees sit at high-backed natural leather chairs working together on a laptop and a large display screen showing solar panels. Another staff member has come into the room and is closing a sliding glass door to the space. The outer office is visible through the full height windows and doors separating the space. White globes of light 'float' below the steel framing of the ceiling.

The new office is a home away from home for our employees and has brought many staff back to office after the pandemic.
John Falzon
Chairman, LMS Energy

Combining industrial style with biophilic design

The open floor plan incorporates rounded modern timber elements and an abundance of greenery within the brutalist aesthetic of the repurposed building. The exposed services, black metal elements and polished concrete floors pay homage to LMS Energy’s industrial enterprise and honour the building’s original central stairway and large windows facing the city parklands. The design leans into the inclusion of soft colours that provide a feeling of safety, calm and comfort to inspire office workers to return to the office post-pandemic.

The biophilic design aims to connect humans with nature by using elements like plants and natural lighting sources that reduce stress levels in the office and promote wellbeing, creativity, and productivity. The fitout includes customised signage and modular office furniture that blend seamlessly with the design, and the spatial planning accommodates tech equipment without compromising the overall aesthetic.

We could never have anticipated that the final product was even better than what we imagined. Our new office is a beautiful, practical and contemporary workspace that has everything we could ever want or need.
John Falzon
Chairman, LMS Energy

A curved reception counter leads into the open plan workspace. Full height windows wrap the building corner. Exposed ducting, black steel and concrete roof are softened by the pale sand tones and patterns of the carpet, the pale green timber joinery and planter boxes with oxygen purifying plants.

A pale green bank of storage creates a divider between a zoned open office and a semi-circular collaboration space. Black mesh screens and plants soften the space and absorb sound from each area. Screens are carefully integrated into the screening .The curved 'campfire' features pale natural leather and pinks. Black high chairs sit around a high bench that backs the seating. A group of staff sit in the seating and interact with another colleague on the screen. Curving glazing behind the office looks out to the Adelaide Parklands.

LMS Energy will attract top talent and optimise resources in its new adaptive and agile hybrid workplace. Combining the best of modern technology and physical comfort the new headquarters boosts employee productivity and overall quality of life in the work environment.