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The Research Agency (TRA) has completed a full refurbishment of its Auckland headquarters, reimagining the space as a studio-style workplace designed to support how its people work today and into the future.
“This refurbishment is about helping our people do the best work of their lives,” said 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.”
Originally designed in 2015, the space reflected a very different moment in the business’s evolution. While the office design won awards and served as a bold expression of 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.
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 continued: “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.
Gutiérrez said the project was about responding to the evolution of both the business and its people. “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.”
“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.”
“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 explained.
“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,” he concluded.
The Auckland refurbishment sits alongside The Research Agency's broader growth, with their Sydney team set to move into brand new premises on Devonshire Street in Surry Hills later this month. Together, the spaces signal a clear commitment to creating workplaces that support people to do the best work of their careers.