Enterprise Hub, 9 Light Square

In 2020, Swanbury Penglase was engaged by UniSA to completely reinvent 9 Light Square, Adelaide as a workplace hub.

With a rich history in the west end of the city, 9 Light Square had many previous lives including a skins and hides warehouse, the ‘Dutch Club’, Le Rox Nightclub and the Night Train Theatre Restaurant.

Our disciplines of Architecture, Interior Architecture and Heritage worked in strong collaboration on this adaptive reuse project, finding the balance between discovering and celebrating the building’s unique history and modernising it to become a place of enterprise and innovation.

Across two levels, the Enterprise Hub accommodates over 100 people in a variety of dynamic working settings to support the cross-pollination of business groups and ideas, to foster connections and partnerships that may not have been obvious. Spaces are flexible and adaptable to support the changing needs of the users and include incubation suites, agile co-working hubs, workshops and open plan work areas.

The project also included a complete building analysis and services and safety upgrade to create a habitable place ready for occupation and maintain this important and historic site into the future.