PHOOEY Headquarters
Walk into the new city offices of PHOOEY Architects and the fit-out looks sleek and funky. White desks wrap around the perimeter of the main office, striped carpets climb halfway up the walls and huge glass windows provide a perfect view across Elizabeth Street to one of Melbourne’s great old buildings.
For prospective clients, it’s a space that says this architectural practice is young, clever, and cutting edge. What it doesn’t immediately convey, however, is that PHOOEY is committed to recycling and reusing building materials. Unless you asked, you wouldn’t know that the carpet squares on the floor are made from recycled carpet, the desk legs on the wrap-around desks have been fashioned from old CDs (as has the shading on the under bench fluorescent lights) or that the stunning sofa / sculpture in the building’s foyer was made from the original carpet ripped out of PHOOEY’s office …
Costigan, J (2008), ‘Scrap mettle’, The Sunday Age, M, 8 June, pp 18-19.