Rising from the ground in an eruption of colour, the vibrant, red and blue headquarters of four-storey Dulux House, in Clayton, Victoria, is an eyecatching structure.
The building utilises cantilevered floating slab construction, supported by five external trussed posts that extend diagonally outwards from the ground to the curved roof, which projects into the open space along its front facade.
Few locations showcase the beauty, durability and flexibility of paint like Dulux House, which is not only the paint company’s global head office but also plays host to its central research and development lab, featuring laboratories focused on developing next generation paints and coatings.
An extensive on site accelerated weathering facility allows coatings to be tested under a range of extreme weather conditions to support the development of more durable products.
The site also houses the company’s archive, which features colour samples and marketing material going back many decades, as well as a librarian to curate them.
With that in mind, we knew the commercial painting company appointed to repaint the landmark building would have to demonstrate the highest standards of professionalism, execution and service.
DuluxGroup would accept only the best results when it came to the paint finish, which had to both protect the building and enhance the environment. An additional challenge was knowing not only that the client had high standards, but that they would be on hand to witness the entire preparation and painting process through their very own office windows!
Higgins won the tender and brought in a team of 4-6 operatives from our Melbourne team to repaint the building in its signature striking colour scheme using Dulux products Durebild STE and Weathermax HBR over a 3-month period.
The design of the facade and the location presented significant access difficulties during the repainting process as the building is surrounded by a car park, so it was important to ensure visitors could continue to access the site safely while we completed the repaint.
Our team of experts resolved access difficulties by conducting abseil painting, as well as using access machinery. It’s a big vote of confidence when your paint partner appoints you to repaint their global headquarters, so we were honoured that DuluxGroup chose Higgins Melbourne for this challenge