Five stars for no air conditioning, no offices and no back wall

Lend Lease’s new corporate headquarters in Sydney stands out for what it doesn’t have – no air conditioning, no offices and no back wall. Instead this is the first use of chilled-beam technology in Sydney, with an open plan workstation layout built up against an existing sandstone cliff-wall. The building was designed in response to desires for a more sustainable, greenhouse-friendly solution, that also showed "smart design, flat hierarchies and connectivity – to light, air, transport and technology". The perimeter of the building is used for shared spaces - fresh-air winter gardens, conference rooms and lunch spaces. At fifty metres long and 4 storeys high, Elizabeth Farrelly describes the end product as "catwalk chic".

Thanks to Charlotte Fitzgerald