Hurrairah bin Sohail explores how Sheldon Interiors approached the creation of its experience centre which championed sustainability and human wellbeing.
Sheldon Interiors is an Australia-based company delivering complete turnkey office fit-out solutions, specialising in the design and construction of high-performance workplaces. To showcase the value Sheldon Interiors provides to clients and to create a facility that provides an effective workspace for employees, Sheldon Interiors established an experience centre in Sydney’s central business district.
The project was driven by a mission to simultaneously achieve two accreditations, the five-star Green Star rating for sustainability and WELL Gold certification for wellness. The resulting space is a testament to how design, coupled with considered AV technology, can create spaces that do more.
Ben Hutchings, marketing manager at Sheldon Interiors, says: “Our experience centre in Sydney needed to accommodate our internal teams and divisions, but a big part of it was also to create a showroom to highlight our capabilities. We wanted clients to be able to see what we can help them create for their own spaces with technology, design, furniture, and all other aspects coming together into a cohesive whole.”
He continues: “Sustainability requirements are becoming common for build projects, and the reason we focused on wellness followed a similar logic. We wanted our staff to have a workplace that caters to them and that becomes a reason for people to come into the office. Our Green Star rating shows them that we are taking the right sustainability steps. Along with WELL Gold certification, it signals to clients visiting the Sheldon Interiors experience centre that we can deliver spaces that meet these high standards.”
Championing standards The conceptualisation process of what shape and form the experience centre was to take began with understanding the requirements of the users. Hutchings elaborates: “We started with the workplace strategy phase where we conducted many staff surveys, talked to the leadership team and different stakeholders, and really got into the main things that the people at Sheldon Interiors prioritised. Each team has different needs throughout the course of a workday, and it was a big process to narrow things down to arrive at actionable data. But, in the end this endeavour guided us in selecting the right size of space, making decisions that would attract users to the office, and meet their needs for meeting and collaboration spaces.”
Laying the groundwork during the workplace strategy phase meant that the design phase was made easier. Hutchings says: “It was a lot more streamlined, and we felt that we could create a lot of value for ourselves. Our internal teams were able to contribute across all aspects of design and bring different products or ideas to the table prior to execution based on the clear goals we wanted to achieve.”
The workspace at the experience centre is designed to promote agility amongst the teams, with users encouraged to find places that enable productivity based on specific requirements.
The meeting spaces at the experience centre are designed with the intent to foster collaboration and communication.
Sustainable choices
Keeping in line with the drive for sustainability, a significant portion of the technology systems deployed comprise products that were in use at the previous facility. Displays in particular have been retrofitted into the new meeting and collaboration spaces.
Sheldon Interiors made the decision to standardise its videoconferencing on Microsoft Teams and Crestron VC gateways are used where required. Logitech bars provide audio and video support for VC calls. Where required, Shure ceiling microphones are pressed into action with these specifically being deployed in the boardroom to provide effective audio pickup. Merge Technologies handled the installation for the meeting room spaces at the Sheldon Interiors experience centre.
Hutchings details: “The meeting rooms were a collaboration, and we are lucky that we have internal teams that can handle installation, partitioning, manufacturing, and services. So, even though it was a big fitout, the delivery went well, and we were able to pay a lot of attention to detail to achieve the outcomes we wanted. The boardroom is a great example because I believe everyone at the company worked on it in some capacity and contributed and left their mark.”
Soundscaping for wellness
For the open spaces and the wellness rooms, Valeo Technology was brought on board to deploy a Moodsonic generative soundscaping system that would offer ambient sound, soundscaping and sound masking.
Marcus Rose, director at Valeo Technology, says: “Sheldon Interiors had experience with sound masking in the past. After hearing about what we offer with generative soundscaping which provides the same level of privacy along with additional wellness benefits, they reached out and the conversation began. As we learned more about what they wanted to achieve in terms of wellness, we knew we could help. From an early stage, we understood what they wanted to do with audio zonally, and we knew that Moodsonic would fit perfectly with their approach.”
Generative soundscaping is emerging as the next evolution of acoustic design, combining adaptive technology with biophilic principles to create workplaces that actively support wellbeing rather than simply manage noise. The audio system at the Sheldon Interiors experience centre is centred around a Yamaha MTX3 DSP and a Moodsonic 8 Sound Generator. A variety of speakers are used across the spaces with 36 Bose FreeSpace FS2P pendant speakers, 14 Bose FreeSpace ceiling speakers, four Yamaha CXC4W pendant speakers, four Yamaha VXL18 line array speakers, and four Kgear GF82T line array speakers providing sound. Six MS POE sensors, two Yamaha XMV8140 amps, and a Bluesound B100S streamer complete the audio system.
Rose details the impact the sound system has: “With Moodsonic, the audio environment at the experience centre provides a connection to nature through sound, creating spaces that allow people to recover while also reflecting a sense of place. In the morning, visitors hear the sound of Australia’s coastal waves; in the afternoon, the ambience shifts to a mountain brook, woven with local sounds such as the didgeridoo and kookaburra.”
Each soundscape is intentionally designed to suit its setting with richer, more expressive compositions in foyers, transition, and wellness areas, and subtler, frequency-balanced profiles in focus zones where privacy and concentration are paramount. Behind the scenes, Moodsonic’s generative engine continuously adapts the sound in real time, ensuring the environment stays dynamic and responsive rather than looping or repetitive.
The system also draws on data from distributed sensors, providing live insights into how loud or quiet different zones are throughout the day. These analytics help maintain optimal acoustic conditions and give designers tangible data to refine layouts and zoning strategies across future projects.
Balancing priorities
The project’s major obstacle lay in the inherent conflict between the two accreditations being aimed for. Green Star champions sustainability, pushing for minimal material use, specifying items with low embodied carbon, and favouring efficiency. Conversely, the WELL Building Standard focuses on occupant experience, which can demand the inclusion of additional materials and technology.
This tension was particularly evident in the structural elements. For partitioning, Green Star favoured lightweight materials with specific EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) requirements, while WELL demanded thick, acoustically treated walls for high Sound Transmission Class (STC) ratings. The team had to coordinate intricate details, working with the electrical team to ensure that they did not fall foul of either standard.
A similar compromise was required for the ceilings. The open areas at the Sheldon Interiors experience centre have exposed ceilings which contribute significantly to Green Star’s goals by reducing material usage. But this design choice increased sound reverberation, which is detrimental to WELL’s acoustic comfort targets. Once again this necessitated the introduction of specialised acoustic treatment that then also had to meet Green Star’s material criteria.
The integration of adaptive soundscaping supported Green Star goals, allowing Sheldon to achieve acoustic comfort and speech privacy with less reliance on heavy material by reducing embodied carbon while enhancing overall wellness performance.
Hutchings concludes: “We set out with ambitious goals and we have been able to achieve them. The project was a huge learning experience for the team and we are delighted with the end results. We hope that the experience centre can inspire and influence our clients to look at their own spaces through a similar lens and envision what can be achieved with the technology and the tools we have at our disposal today.”
As more organisations across APAC prioritise sustainability and wellness goals, projects like the Sheldon Interiors experience centre demonstrate how data-driven sensory design is reshaping the future of workplaces, turning sound, light, and atmosphere into measurable performance tools.