Perth High-Rise Office Reframed as a Gallery for Living Work.

A workplace where art does the heavy lifting, and the design knows when to step back.

A corporate high-rise tenancy isn’t where most people would expect to find a workplace built around an art collection. State of Kin makes the case for the unexpected. Their latest 220-square-metre Perth interior was designed for a client deeply engaged with art and design, and the studio has answered with a project that behaves less like a standard fit-out and more like a considered domestic interior — one that happens to function as an office.

Planning is the quiet move underneath it all. Rather than locking the floorplate to a single user, State of Kin has built an adaptable framework — one that supports the current occupant’s evolving modes of work while leaving the door open for whoever inherits it next. It’s a smart hedge in the lifecycle conversation, and rare to see executed with this much restraint.

Material discipline carries the rest. Timber-lined surfaces in Eveneer Spicewood wrap the workspace in a warm tonal envelope, while Porter’s Paints Rubble pulls the palette toward something moodier and more confident. Underfoot, Interface’s Speckled Ground Malachite in deep green pushes the whole composition into unexpected territory — less corporate-grey, more curated apartment. Stainless steel in the kitchen lands as the necessary edge.

The art is where the project shows its hand. Works by Abdul-Rahman Abdulla, Kartika Laili Ahmad, Elle Caampbell and Lori Pensini sit alongside collectible design moments — Cassina’s Utrecht Settee and Kangaroo armchair, a Gufram Cactus, Vitra Wiggle Stools, Santa & Cole’s Lamina pendants.

The result is a workplace with a point of view. A useful reminder that “corporate” doesn’t have to mean no character.

[Images courtesy of State of Kin. Photography by Jack Lovel.]