It isn’t everyday that Valmont, one of Australia’s leading commercial design and construction companies, gets to work on a project that is not only fun, but makes a real difference to the lives of young people dealing with cancer.
Valmont’s Sydney head office was united with cancer charity, CanTeen’s, national head office to work on a project that consolidates CanTeen’s three separate offices into one new space on Elizabeth Street, Sydney.
The combined office is 704sq m and will have seating for 70 people, including national staff that support the provision of programs and services to 5,000 CanTeen Members around the country. Touched by the cause, Valmont felt this was the perfect project to waiver their fees and make the new CanTeen office a truly special place.
CanTeen is an Australian charity for young people aged 12-24 years who are living with cancer. These young people could be a patient, or have a family member who has cancer or has died. CanTeen’s mission is to support, develop and empower these young people to deal with the emotional, physical and practical issues of living with cancer and take back control of their lives. CanTeen provide a place where they can simply be young people, away from the day to day pressures that come from being at hospital or at home.
CanTeen was initially just looking to relocate, but with Valmont’s expertise, they can now expect a complete office upgrade once the project is complete.
The project brief was to create an energetic, yet functional workplace for the CanTeen team, which also incorporates an area for the young people. This dedicated area will be where they can come to relax, socialise and be supported by CanTeen staff.
Valmont’s Marketing and Creative Director Jacqui Esdaile said, “We were mindful that this space needed to feel like a home away from home and look very different to the work area.”
“We’ve designed the space to meet the needs of the young people, using soft furnishings and making it very youth focused – there will be a gaming station, LCD TV, graffiti wall, bench seating, comfortable lounge chairs and a kitchen. The space will be flooded with natural light and other walls will display banners featuring inspirational stories from members – it will be a really personalised area.”
As Valmont are huge advocates for environmental and sustainable fitouts, many of the office workstations will be divided with modern planter boxes on top of storage units. These help provide a healthy working environment as well as creating a more holistic and pleasant workspace.
The wonderful thing about this collaboration is that Valmont are engaging the community to help with the project too.
“We’ve been overwhelmed by the support from other companies we work with. Our subcontractors have offered their labour for free and clients Richemont and Alinta Energy are donating furniture from their existing offices. Furniture companies Diami, Matt Blatt and Krost are also offering their assistance,” she said.
The CanTeen office is now officially open.
To offer your support to CanTeen, please visit – www.canteen.org.au
To learn more about Valmont’s services, please visit www.valmont.com.au
Source: Valmont
