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C_220711_N126_print_Robert Graham

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<h3>Designed for Aria Property Group, Rivière’s distinctive sawtooth form references the striking and angular faceted shapes of Kangaroo Point Cliffs.</h3>

The form opens up views of Brisbane’s iconic river, the Botanic Gardens and the city’s rapidly changing skyline.
The tower features a unique board-marked concrete and glazed brick façade. The high quality of the architecture’s materiality scales down to the 124 apartments, which are planned to maximise spatial efficiency and views. Each apartment is entered through a perforated metal screen that encourages residents to leave their front doors open, promoting community and allowing apartments to be cross ventilated through the naturally ventilated corridor.

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The cross ventilation is further enhanced by breeze block sunscreens that allow sliding windows to be fully retracted. This, along with an optimised form and orientation help the architecture, as a whole, to leverage Brisbane’s subtropical climate and reduce the building’s overall environmental impact.
Native plants create a distinct landscape palette that stands apart from typical tropical plantings. The landscape works with the interior design to create an urban residential resort; the interiors balance elegance with warmth across all amenity areas. The result are shared spaces — such as Rivière’s stunning lobby and rooftop — that look and feel good, helping to build community across the building.
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Rivière

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<h3>Our architectural response champions the site’s rich history, offering the perfect backdrop for Ace Hotel’s inviting blend of the past with the contemporary.</h3>

The restoration of the historic Tyne House and 9-storey addition on Wentworth Avenue was the winner of a City of Sydney Design Excellence competition. Located in Surry Hills, the hotel emerges seamlessly from the site’s nine-storey ‘Federation style’ warehouse building. The Chicago style architecture of the warehouse was a driving influence behind the honest expression of the hotel’s structure and planning.
With the external brick façade retained, its internal structure was reconstructed along with a tower sympathetically integrated above it. The new glass-and-steel tower celebrates the city’s historic grit with an expressed frame that draws on the Tyne building beneath it. The tower’s frame clad in terracotta references the masonry character of the surrounding context and offers a modern interpretation of the existing façade.
Each frame is infilled with a projecting bay window and a recessed sliding sash set within metal frames. To the side boundary, the frame is infilled with copper panels with a standing seam that define a language consistent with the tower, while providing depth and resolution to the ‘party walls’.

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Featuring 257 guest rooms and suites over 17 levels, the roof level accommodates a bar and dining area with spectacular views and solar access designed by Fiona Lynch. The interior’s ground floor is a series of linked active spaces with a sophisticated lobby bar, restaurant and café designed by Flack Studio.
The hotel lobby is accessed off Wentworth Avenue, adjacent to which is a bar and restaurant with a separate street entry. A laneway with service access is activated by a café with oversize bifold doors and a vibrant public artwork by Australian artist Callum Morton. The illuminated piece which celebrates the beauty of the industrial is highly visible from multiple vantage points.

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Ace Hotel

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<h3>Yukeembruk, ANU’s newest student village, harnesses the natural beauty of its site.</h3>
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The collection of six buildings sit respectfully in their surrounds, anchored by Black Mountain, Sullivans Creek and the mature Eucalypts and understory of Acton’s bushland. They also create a new residential hub for 700 undergraduate and postgraduate students that connects the southwest corner of ANU to Kambri, its heart at the centre of campus.

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We intentionally designed the buildings to sit respectfully in the landscape. Two undergraduate halls and two smaller postgraduate halls are organised around a new community building and a central spine; two bike storage facilities, a basketball half-court and green complete the village. The undergraduate buildings vary between 5-7 storeys, while the postgraduate buildings are smaller in scale. All step in form and height to break down massing and façade repetition, and to help light reach deep into the plan. We expressed the ends in full height glazing to bring activity to the street and reduce overlooking.
Primary materials of brick, concrete, aluminium and glass are durable and require minimal maintenance. Timber has been used sparingly—on soffits and balustrades—to ensure longevity. We chose restrained colours to avoid competing with the landscape and so that the buildings are cohesive, both across the site and with the wider campus. All materials and colours are honestly expressed but create visual diversity through clever design. For example, each of the buildings has a darker brick base and lighter tone upper levels to evoke the contrast between the landscape’s understory and canopy.
The majority of the village’s communal spaces are located at ground. The undergraduate halls feature two masterchef-style kitchens and dining areas each, for resident use. The kitchens anchor the ends of the u-shaped plans; large common rooms and an outdoor BBQ terrace link the ends.

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At the site’s centre is a one-storey communal building. It is fully glazed on three sides and opens onto the village green and the central spine to make it easily accessible. Inside, it functions like a community hall, with a long-span dining room and flexible space for lectures and gatherings occupying most of its space. At night it glows from inside, creating a beacon that’s emblematic of Yukeembruk’s role as a village within ANU.

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Yukeembruk ANU

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<h3>The Maitland Mental Health Rehabilitation project establishes a new benchmark in therapeutic environments for mental health care in regional NSW.</h3>
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Located on Wonnarua Country and nestled between a rocky escarpment and a wetland, the design sensitively integrates with the landscape, transforming a former brickworks site into a calm, nature-connected healing space.
The core design driver is to provide spaces for healing, with every decision — material, spatial, and environmental — rooted in the principles of connection, dignity, and care.
The architecture and interior design work to deliberately counter institutional stereotypes: long, low-pitched roofs, a restrained material palette, and generous courtyards give the project a distinctly residential character. The buildings cascade along the natural contours of the site, reinforcing a strong sense of place and visual connection to Country. The central arrival space serves as a threshold between indoors and outdoors, linking the internal program to the bushland, and creating an immediate sense of calm upon entry.

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Designed to support recovery, the built form is composed of small-scale residential units organised around light-filled courtyards and open-plan communal areas. Each unit features a mix of social, sensory, and private spaces to suit a wide range of patient needs. Chill-out zones, sensory rooms, and therapy spaces are designed to promote self-management and de-escalation. Skylights and large windows flood interiors with daylight, while external views and access to landscaped courtyards help reduce stress and support daily routines.
The material palette draws from the site’s geology and surrounding bushland. A base of warm masonry grounds the buildings and references the site’s industrial past, while fine fenestration elements reflect the verticality of local eucalypts.
Special attention has been given to staff areas, with efficient and safe circulation, good lines of visibility, and access to outdoor areas for respite. Importantly, the gathering space adjacent to the entry is the anchor space for the project. Offering expansive views across the landscape, the main lobby is welcoming and supports family visits, community interaction, and art therapies.
On this health campus, the landscape is not just a backdrop, it&#8217;s an essential part of the healing process. Walking paths, activity and gathering spaces are placed amongst existing trees and regenerated environments. Over time, building users will plant and manage the therapeutic garden spaces.
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This project was born out of a highly collaborative, multi-disciplinary process led by Bates Smart (architecture and interior design), Turf Design Studio (landscape architecture), Studio Semaphore (wayfinding design), and Yerrabingin (Connecting with Country).
The result is a building shaped by many voices — deeply rooted in place, grounded in lived experience, and driven by a shared commitment to human-centred mental health care.
The NSW Government is investing in the Maitland Mental Health Rehabilitation Project as part of the Statewide Mental Health Infrastructure Program, which is being delivered in partnership by Health Infrastructure and Hunter New England Local Health District.

Maitland Mental Health Rehabilitation 

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<h3>50 Belmore Street responds to a growing demand from government and private sectors for contemporary, high quality office space in Western Sydney.</h3>
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As part of a broader plan to transform Penrith into a strategic centre for housing, services and employment, the project is a key contributor to Penrith’s emerging commercial core, close to retail and public transport.
Designed for Sandran Property Group and Podia, 50 Belmore Street complements the existing built context, whilst remaining adaptable to future development. In particular, the ground plane sets out connections to neighbouring sites indicated by Council as contributing to Penrith’s revitalisation. The result is a vibrant public domain activated by pedestrian laneways and a new café.

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The architecture is articulated as three distinct volumes, stepped in plan to respond to the cranked alignment of Belmore Street. The volumes also step in height as they relate to contextual datums. The western volume is setback to reveal a double height colonnade and entry lobby.
On the façade, each volume is expressed in a robust concrete grid. Angled aluminium panels provide a secondary level of articulation, plus sunshading.
Inside, campus-style floorplates are arranged around a large, central atrium lined in timber. Natural light filters through to support wellbeing, whilst circulation around the atrium perimeter encourages social interaction. At the bottom of the atrium, activity from the laneway café spills into the building’s interior.

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50 Belmore Street

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<h3>Our carefully considered interventions unlock multiple opportunities and deliver the core clinical requirements and needs of this important civic and historic health precinct.</h3>

To serve the rapidly growing population of Sydney Local Health District, the proposed redevelopment of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital will be the most significant upgrade in the hospital’s 140-year history and feature a new addition, upgraded emergency department, as well as expanded clinical services. The design unlocks multiple opportunities to establish a more cohesive and connected position for RPA within the Camperdown Health, Education and Research Precinct (CHERP), one of the largest and most comprehensive health and education precincts in Greater Sydney.
A new entry improves circulation between the northern arrival plaza and the primary hospital, while a pedestrian-friendly public drop-off is established with patient transport vehicles redirected to the side of the plaza. A two-storey vertical expansion over the existing RPA Building 89 will accommodate a new intensive care unit.
In the East Wing, a new 15-storey building connects to the existing hospital, reflecting the bend of Building 89, presenting a soft curve to the Sydney University Oval, cradling retained trees and opening up views from behind the building.
A public wayfinding network is anchored by a central courtyard which acts as a place of respite as well as an identifiable marker of the centre of the hospital. The existing volume is wrapped in a three-storey screen to create a calm and uplifting environment with light and views filtering into surrounding zones to link public spaces.

Robert Graham

Studio Director

BA Arch, BArch (Hons), FRAIA