Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria and Australia’s most populous city after Sydney, is a dynamic urban center with a rich assortment of design and architecture firms. The practices based here are regional and international in nature, producing forward-thinking housing, high-rise and commercial projects. The city itself is characterized by a range of iconic and prototypical projects completed since Melbourne’s founding as a European settlement in the mid 19th century. The 25 firms presented here have been chosen for their roles in forging Melbourne’s architecture scene today.
1. Hasell
Hassell is a leading international design practice with studios in Asia, Australia, the United States and the UK. Its purpose is to design places people love. The firm accomplishes this by combining strategic insight with creative design to unlock the social, cultural and economic value of places. Its portfolio includes projects such as the University of Western Australia EZONE student hub, built for the connection of people and the exchange of ideas. The project makes use of sophisticated technologies including PV cell glass skylights, a wind turbine, and a ‘veil’ facade designed to mitigate glare and heat by filtering sunlight using petals fixed at angles that vary with orientation.
2. Elenberg Fraser Architecture
Elenberg Fraser is an architecture firm that combines the creativity of a design studio with the outcome-orientation of a commercial firm. The studio believes that design-driven and market-driven forces are not opposing. Its portfolio presents a range of projects that deliver high design value while realizing market objectives. Its curvilinear Gem Waterline project, for example, is part of a developing master plan in Melbourne intended to bring a new generation of apartments and townhouses to a historic maritime precinct.
3. Bates Smart Architects
Bates Smart is a multidisciplinary design firm delivering architecture, interior design, urban design and strategic services across Australia, with a staff of over 250. Its award-winning projects are designed to transform the city fabric and the way people use and inhabit urban spaces. Bates Smart’s philosophy is to nurture and develop every size of project and all its elements, until the details complement and enhance the whole. Its regional projects include the $1B Royal Children’s Hospital project in Victoria, designed to provide an opportunity to deliver new models of care by incorporating natural daylight and a family-centered design approach.
4. Technē Architecture + Interior Design
Technē Architecture + Interior Design is a dynamic and experienced commercial practice lead by directors Nicholas Travers, Justin Northrop and Steve McKeag. Founded in 2002, Techné is a medium-sized practice which has built an impressive portfolio across a broad section of project types including hospitality, single and multi-residential, commercial, automotive, institutional and retail. Technē’s L’Oreal Training Academy is a flexible and cohesive space that ensures longevity and ease of use, designed with training rooms accommodating hands-on training courses as well as more traditional and digital teaching methods.
5. FMD Architects
FMD architects is an architectural practice with extensive experience in architecture and interior design of varying scales, types and budgets. The core work of the practice is boutique commercial, hospitality and residential work. The focus on specific projects enables a high level of client service as well as an intense design process with rigorous detail. A particularity of the practice is its extensive research into materials and product development, which equips it with a knowledge to develop rich and inventive architecture. Its projects include the ‘Cross-stitch’ housing project in Melbourne that makes use of timber beams to form a thread which links a new living room to an existing house and courtyard.
6. Gray Puksand
Gray Puksand’s modern, visionary designs emerge from contemporary social, cultural and technological evolutions. This Australian architecture and interior design practice has a national team consisting of accomplished and imaginative professionals who produce designs for clients worldwide. Collaboration is integral to Gray Puksand’s approach, and its goal is to understand a client's underlying values. Gray Puksand’s recently completed fit-out, 103 Lonsdale Street in Melbourne, is a modern workspace that celebrates the health and wellbeing of employees, designed using principles of biophilic design, natural materials, neutral colors and patterns reminiscent of nature.
7. DesignInc
DesignInc is an award-winning architectural and design practice. Its multidisciplinary teams are united with a common vision to make a difference to the health and happiness of people’s lives through the quality of the environments it creates. One of its recent projects, the ‘Jewish Care Anne and Eric Smorgon Active Living Centre’, in Melbourne, is a building meant to enrich the lives of its community. The building design celebrates the diversity of Jewish culture and its multifaceted identity through the use of woven patterns that are symbolic of people and nature.
8. Alexandra Buchanan Architecture
Alexandra Buchanan Architecture was founded in 2011 by architect and director Alexandra Buchanan. Its studios in Brisbane and Melbourne pursue the creation of beautiful, liveable architecture, interiors and landscapes that respond to a client’s story and how one wants to live. The practice’s portfolio includes a diverse range of typologies including residential dwellings, additions to heritage buildings, bespoke office fit-outs, off-grid eco cabins and multi-level apartment buildings. The practice’s projects manipulate space, light, form and material, to create unique environments and experiences.
9. Carr
The multidisciplinary design firm Carr is founded by Sue Carr alongside a leadership team of architects and interior designers. Carr, who marked five decades of design practice in 2021, has three core specializations across residential, hospitality and workplace. The practice’s details are thoughtfully considered, coalescing in work that forges new ground while remaining true to the practice’s philosophy and vision. Olderfleet, designed by Grimshaw Architects with Carr, was recognised by Australian Institute of Architects' Victorian Chapter by winning the interior architecture award. Set back from three heritage-listed buildings in Melbourne and designed in partnership with Grimshaw Architects, Olderfleet is a 58,000m² office tower located in the city center.
10. Hayball
Hayball is one of Australia’s largest design practices, with 180 people working from studios in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. It has a diverse practice which integrates architecture, interior design and urban design expertise, and a design culture that supports clients competitively and creatively. Over more than 30 years, the company has realized hundreds of projects across Australia, New Zealand, South-East Asia and China – from single and multi-residential buildings to schools and universities, commercial developments and urban design for entire suburbs.
11. Breathe Architecture
Founded in 2001 by Design Director Jeremy McLeod and Tamara Veltre, Breathe has remained at the forefront of sustainable design over the last 20 years. Its portfolio includes ‘Tinderbox’, the conversion of a late 1800s historic brick warehouse complex into a residence. For this project, Breathe reconfigured the mezzanine and service spaces of an existing building to promote natural daylight, ventilation and inter-level connectivity; the spatial planning increased amenity spaces while providing a greater number of bedrooms, washrooms and elongated kitchen space for a growing family.
12. March Studio
March Studio is a collective of architects, designers and creators, focused on realizing projects with ingenuity and respect for location, materials, processes and people. Its work is focused on creating functional spaces while elevating daily experiences through design and the built environment. Its designers are educated in the digital environment and embracing fundamentals to shape and realize works, hand-made objects and traditional processes. MARCH STUDIO’s project for Sneakerboy Melbourne consists of a display area and fitting room. These two areas are expressed in the facade - a large circular steel portal directs the customer to the entrance and into the viewing chamber, while obscure glass blocks create a private, fitting room bathed in natural light.
13. Archier
Archier believes in inclusive innovation through the creation of space and objects. The practice, run by Chris Gilbert, Chris Haddad, Josh FitzGerald and Jon Kaitler, strives to sculpt raw materials in an efficient and open manner. Its process is an evolving framework that enables it to work towards a client’s goals. Its portfolio includes ‘Sawmill House’ which uses 270 recycled 1-ton blocks to form perimeter walls, each block is locally produced from the by-product of concrete slabs poured in the region, creating an experiment in leveraging the thousands of tons of concrete that go to waste each year.
14. Architecton
Architecton is an architectural design studio with experience over a wide range of project types. Architecton was formed by Daniel Galtieri and Nick Lukas in 2010 and boasts a list of current projects in the residential, commercial, industrial, hospitality, health and retail sectors. Its work includes the ‘Turn House’ located in Melbourne and featuring an extension to a property originally built in 1927; the project was designed for car enthusiasts and built around a 1970 Ford XY, which is featured prominently in the design thinking.
15. Zwei Interiors Architecture
Zwei is an interiors and architectural practice that believes in the creation of authentic, sensory experiential spaces with a strong narrative and a sense of personality. Evolving from the creative partnership of Hanna Richardson and Katherine Kemp in 2006, ZWEI - which is the number two in German - is an award winning, multidisciplinary team specializing in delivering hospitality and retail spaces. Its project for Acre Eatery is conceived as an urban rooftop farm showcasing farm-to-table eating within a commercial shopping center development, and is a sophisticated and sustainably focused restaurant located in suburban Melbourne.
16. Splinter Society Architecture
Led by Asha Nicholas and Chris Stanley, Splinter Society is a Melbourne-based architecture and interior design studio committed to crafting custom human environments distinguished by diverse experiences. With an emphasis on the design process, Splinter Society works to create distinctly tactile projects, drawing on layered influences. Its projects are grounded in functionality and environmental sustainability. The office works closely with its clients to extract key elements for personal enjoyment in residential projects and fundamental brand ideas adding value to spaces for commercial businesses. Splinter Society’s portfolio encompasses residential, hospitality, workplace design, health and education projects.
17. Chan Architecture
Chan Architecture is a boutique, award-winning Melbourne-based architectural practice with a strong focus on design. Its philosophy is to create design-oriented, client-focused buildings that are both beautiful and sustainable. It sees its role as the principle project consultant, providing high quality design and documentation, while managing and coordinating all other consultants, authorities and builders to ensure the entire team works towards a successful outcome. Chan Architecture has completed a number of successful residential projects across Melbourne, including renovations and extensions, new houses and multi-unit developments.
18. k20 Architecture
k20 Architecture is a dynamic and innovative, award-winning design studio founded in 2002 by Melbourne architects Anthony Uahwatanasakul and Theodore Kerlidis. Located in South Melbourne, the practice offers fully integrated design services including master planning, architecture and interior design. k20 believes in architecture that communicates, inspires, expresses identity and encourages social interaction. It helps clients deliver sustainable architecture for the community through collaborative relationships.Its vision is ‘Beyond Zero’ - taking society’s carbon footprint beyond zero by leaving each place sustainably better than it was found.
19. Taylor Knights
Taylor Knights is a Melbourne-based architecture and interior design firm specializing in highly refined and sensitive residential and commercial design. Its projects span metropolitan and rural Victoria. The practice strives to achieve a sense of order that will deliver an architectural experience of enduring enjoyment, enthusiasm and admiration for the spaces it creates. Its work embraces the concept of the ‘architectural promenade’, referring to the journey through a built space: through careful management of flow, light and texture, Taylor Knights aims to enrich the journey by heightening the sensory experience.
20. Craig Tan Architects
Established in early 2011, Craig Tan Architects is a multidisciplinary studio practice offering architectural, interior design and urban design services. The studio approaches design as an intrinsic journey taken together with the client. In helping the client establish a brief, Craig Tan Architects aims to create environments that help engender a sense of identity and repose apart from the everyday rush of life. It embraces the role of serendipity and discovery as part of the shared energy and chemistry of the design process.
21. SJB
SJB is passionate about the possibilities of architecture, interiors, urban design and planning. The studio produces intelligent responses that engage, activate and serve those who use them. As professionals, SJB understands the value of working with others to reveal opportunities and to optimize design outcomes, via collaboration with clients, communities and user stakeholders. SJB’s projects include a 22-meter urban waterfall made entirely of Dekton, the result of a collaboration between Cosentino and the Australian design team Waterforms International.
22. Wala
Wala is an emerging architectural studio based in Melbourne. It provides architectural, interior and design services across a diverse range of projects. The studio is composed of passionate designers and individuals who share a keen focus on intuitive and sustainable design. WALA’s residential projects form the backbone of the studio, which works intimately and collaboratively with homeowners, with a particular emphasis placed on ensuring that each new home complements a client’s lifestyle and sense of individuality.
23. Kerstin Thompson Architects
Kerstin Thompson Architects (KTA) was established in 1994. The work of the practice encompasses architecture, interiors, landscape and urban design and ranges in scale and program - from art and design schools for universities, to multi-residential developments, museums, police stations, primary schools and commercial fit-outs. KTA likes to think of its projects as portraits; unique and particular to the clients, environments and purpose at hand, with a focus on an enjoyment of place, sustainability and integration with landscape and community.
24. Rob Mills Architecture & Interiors
A Rob Mills home intends to capture the essence of great living. The studio finely crafts spaces where life’s simple luxuries are captured as part of the everyday experience. Its Melbourne architecture and interior design studio specializes in creating residences with abundant air and light, quality materials and carefully considered spaces. The practice delivers on projects ranging from contemporary inner-city residences and workspaces to grand country estates, heritage restorations and world-class beach houses.
25. Ewert Leaf
Ewert Leaf is a multi-disciplinary design and architecture practice founded in 2009. Since its inception the practice has worked to build a legacy of diverse, high value outcomes and experiences founded through multi-disciplinary collaboration and innovation. Its projects include ‘Levi’, a former denim factory reworked to bring light and color to an unexpected setting - polished concrete, warm timber seating and recycled brick planters greet the customer under a fully retractable courtyard roof.
The selection curated by the Archello editorial team is based on a mixture of the amount of featured projects and the views they generated. For a more comprehensive list of Melbourne architects you can take a look here.
