Access Canberra steps outside the cubicle at the Cosmopolitan Centre in Woden

A meeting space styled as an old-fashioned diner or a breakout area filled with treadmills would be nothing out of the ordinary in a Google office.

But it’s not what you expect to find in a Canberra public service building.

Access Canberra has done away with the stuffy cubicles and injected colour, recreation and collaborative spaces into its new office fit-out.

The Cosmopolitan Centre on Bowes Place in Woden houses office space and a modern public shopfront.

The walls are adorned with funky street art, tea rooms feature foosball tables and having your own desk is a thing of the past.

The 350 staff are among the 1100 ACT public servants who relocated to Woden this year.

While the new digs, designed by peckvonhartel, appear to be a costly exercise, they’ve actually saved a lot of money.

The fit-out was delivered under budget at $5.82 million and cost about $975 per square metre.

This compares to an average modern office fit-out of between $1000 and $1200.

Access Canberra director of community, business and transport regulation Craig Simmons said the open-plan arrangement has cut 1300 square metres, or about 30 per cent of previously used floor space.

Mr Simmons said one of the biggest cost and space-saving measures was forgoing traditional executive offices.

“We avoided spending $130,000 by not putting offices in for executives,” Mr Simmons said.

“If you don’t spend that money you can provide more for staff.”

Gungahlin’s Winyu House and the Nara Centre in the city have already embraced the activity-based working model, also known as hot-desking, but the Cosmopolitan Centre is the largest example of activity-based working in the ACT Public Service.

The design is also reflected in the Access Canberra Service Centre on the lower level. Payments are electronic only, doing away with the need for tight security measures.

Simple transactions can be carried out over a tablet, but there are private spaces for more involved discussion.

Staff moved in last month, but minister for regulatory services Gordon Ramsay will officially open the new service centre on Friday.

“The service centre provides a modern and welcoming presence for the community where they can now do more than 200 transactions in one place, making it easier to do business with government,” Mr Ramsay said.

“The new staff space for Access Canberra is modern and innovative, supporting greater collaboration and therefore better service delivery for the community.

“Like everything Access Canberra does, this is a smart, innovative approach, creating a better customer experience as well as an engaged, motivated workforce.”