The Research Agency (TRA) has completed a full refurbishment of its Auckland headquarters.
“This refurbishment is about helping our people do the best work of their lives,” says TRA managing director Andrew Lewis.
“The way we collaborate, think and create has changed in the last decade and our office needed to change with it. We wanted a space that feels human, flexible and genuinely supportive of how our team works day to day. A space designed for the way work really happens.
“We redesigned the space using the same human-centred principles we apply to clients, co-designing it with our team through an internal survey and workshop,” Lewis adds.
Originally designed in 2015, the space reflected a very different moment in the business’s evolution. While the office design won awards and expressed the brand at the time, the nature of TRA’s work, its culture and its approach to collaboration have shifted significantly over the past decade.
Variety of environments
Designed to support a modern, hybrid way of working, with digitally enabled collaboration areas, the new office offers quiet spaces for focus, thinking and deep work.
Lewis adds: “Rather than a single dominant ‘hero’ space, the new layout offers a variety of environments that reflect the rhythms of a typical day at TRA, from short, impromptu online catchups to creative work in progress, to moments that require privacy and concentration.”
José Gutiérrez, founder of award-winning boutique architectural design practice José Gutiérrez Ltd, is the designer behind the new fit out.
He also created the original TRA space, designed in 2008 and its previous refurbishment in 2015.
Evolution of both business and people
Gutiérrez says the project was about responding to the evolution of both the business and its people.
“Softer materials, improved acoustics and warmer lighting replace the hard, echoing surfaces of the previous fit-out, creating a space that feels inviting, comfortable and lived-in.
“This was about creating a space that feels warm, purposeful and emotionally engaging, a space that supports focus and creativity without trying to impress for the sake of it. It’s a workplace that reflects who TRA is now.”
A studio in use
“Where the former office prioritised formal client areas, the new design invites ideas to be shared and reshaped; spaces that support small group problem-solving, and areas designed for quiet reflection all contribute to an environment that embodies TRA’s core workplace values of creativity, clarity and collaboration,” Gutiérrez adds.
“By reducing underused areas and rethinking traditional desk layouts, the refurbished office prioritises flexibility over formality. The result is a workplace that feels less like a destination to be visited, and more like a studio in constant use.”
The Auckland refurbishment sits alongside TRA’s broader growth, with their Sydney team set to move into brand new premises on Devonshire Street in Surry Hills later in February.
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