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Axolotl designs custom copper inlaid handles for Woods Bagot

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Axolotl designs custom copper inlaid handles for Woods Bagot

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Axolotl has designed customised solid timber door pull handles with inlaid raw copper for the latest workplace project from Woods Bagot.

On the site of a former hat factory, The Hayesbury is the new sustainable, integrated, flexible campus-style workplace for global property group Goodman.

A dramatic shift from the perception of the corporate headquarters, the project transforms four neglected industrial buildings into a series of Heritage pavilions that provides a highly diverse and functional workplace for staff to gather and dwell.

The project celebrates the industrial vernacular of both the Heritage warehouse and the adjacent buildings on the site.

It is the juxtaposition of the raw and unfinished shell with refined interior insertions and furniture to create a soft, light-filled interior space.

One such refined insertion is its customised solid timber door pull handles.

Woods Bagot collaborated with Axolotl and contemporary solid stone and timber door furniture brand Tirar to design the handles. Each hardwood handle features an inlaid grip in Axolotl’s Copper tarnish applied metal treatment paired with a dark timberwash in Sable, that celebrates the natural beauty of the timber grain.

“Copper has a long history of being a favoured material for its mechanical, aesthetic and antimicrobial qualities, dating back to ancient Egyptian and Roman times,” explains Axolotl.

“More recently, designers are tasked with creating spaces that are not only functional and beautiful, but are also hygienically safe. Nowhere is this more important than in the workplace.”

Goodman’s new Sydney headquarters was opened this year in a post-COVID reality.

Woods Bagot’s holistic design approach transforms a traditional corporate workplace setting into a modern working environment that is flexible, comfortable, and hygienically safe.

The design was also intended to change state over time to weather and patina, allowing the new to age with the old.  

“Unsealed copper surfaces aren’t just beautiful. They are proven to kill bacteria and viruses, including COVID-19, within a few hours of contact,” adds Axolotl.

“According to University of Southampton Professor of Environmental Healthcare Bill Keevil, copper doesn’t just kill these pathogens, but ‘destroys them, right down to the nucleic acids, or reproductive blueprints’, so there is no chance of mutation [or evolution].”

With this in mind, Axolotl now offers its applied copper in an unsealed, living finish.

The multi-disciplinary architectural products supplier can also do the same with other metals with a high copper content such as bronze, brass and gold bronze to ensure your next project is safer and more sanitary.

“With multiple case studies showing that raw copper surfaces and accessories, such as door handles and tap levers, reduce environmental infectious transmission by 50 per cent, we want to encourage everyone to consider these metals to better protect themselves, their family, their colleagues and all those around them,” concludes Axolotl.

Find out more about Axolotl’s range of authentic metal, concrete, terrazzo and terracotta surfaces on its website.

Photography of The Hayesbery: Nicole England.

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