fjcarchitecture
The process of making architecture is a weaving of overlaid networks made up of text, sketch, physical and digital model, discussion, collaboration, experience and precedent.
It is an evolution of concept that begins to find its own independent life and direction through testing, critique and prototype. It is a collaborative search that holds back over-determinism and wilfulness, creating a space for the concept to develop its own life, often with surprising results. But it is also a process that demands rigour, discipline and the avoidance of the peripheral distraction and inessential.
Bunjil Place
A civic and cultural centre whose name and form reflect Bunjil, the creation spirit of the Kulin Nation.
200 George Street
A city tower that grows out of its site: Yellow Block sandstone clads the core, and a kinetic timber screen adjusts to the sun, filtering a warm light deep into the workplace.
388 George Street
A new urban pavilion redefines the corner of King and George Streets, re-creating a diagonal public arcade and enabling the sustainable adaptation of John Andrews’ King George Tower.
SubStation No. 164
The transformation and extension of two heritage buildings as a light ‘anti-extension’ that floats above the articulated weight of heritage, weaving workplace, retail and events uses through new and old fabric.
Selected Projects
Project
Description
Three modular laboratories across two University of Oxford sites, delivered with Portakabin after the closure of the Tinbergen Building, providing research and teaching space for Experimental Psychology, Zoology, Biology and Biochemistry.
Oxford & Foley restores and adapts three groups of heritage buildings on Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, bringing cultural and creative space, contemporary workplace and retail back to a street long known for its culture, creativity and diversity.
The Whittlesea Aboriginal Gathering Place sits on a horseshoe-shaped ridge within Quarry Hills Park, a traditional meeting place of the Wurundjeri Willam. Timber and texture unify two pavilion buildings, linking indoor and outdoor spaces. A fluid veil facade evokes water, rock formations ground the base in the landscape, and yarning and welcoming circles extend the buildings onto Country.
Bennetts Lane is an A-grade mixed use workplace in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD. Retail, food and beverage line all three street frontages, adding to the city’s laneway network. Around 13,000 sqm of office space steps from 1,300 sqm floorplates to smaller boutique floors above, with interconnecting stairs, north-facing outdoor decks, a concierge and end-of-trip facilities.
SubStation No. 164 transforms and extends two heritage buildings in Sydney through a concept of suspension, contrast and complement. A light ‘anti-extension’ floats respectfully above the articulated weight of the heritage fabric, weaving workplace, retail and event uses through old and new. The building runs on 100 per cent fresh air and green power, with a 24 per cent reduction in embodied carbon.
At The Garrison Church in Millers Point, a light, transparent pavilion sits between the church and the parish hall. Conceived as a sheltering tree, its floating timber roof forms a canopy for gathering, set back from Lower Fort Street to keep the heritage facades and stained-glass windows primary. Full-height glazing makes the life of the parish visible from the street.
The Cutaway transforms a concrete shell beneath Barangaroo Reserve into a cultural venue for performance and events. Nature-inspired forms soften the rigid geometry of the existing structure and honour the sandstone cut of the former headland, excavated for industrial use from the mid-19th century. The architecture acknowledges this scar on Country and seeks to heal it through abstractions of original landscape elements.
At The Garrison Church in Millers Point, new work protects the hierarchy and legibility of two State Heritage listed sandstone buildings. Additions stand apart from the historic fabric with minimal connections. A recessive amenities building provides compliant facilities, and the parish hall’s timber roof and stone surfaces are freed from later partitions, with new service pods for kitchen and audiovisual functions.
Reuben College, the first new college at the University of Oxford in almost 30 years, transforms Grade II listed laboratory buildings. Additions include library facilities open to all Bodleian readers, spaces for communal dining, collaboration and events, and the Collections Teaching and Research Centre. It is one of the University’s largest decarbonisation and decontamination projects.
Korumburra Community Hub creates a new community heart for a fast-growing regional township. The welcoming, accessible multipurpose facility brings together 26 community groups, serving young families moving into the historic town as well as older residents from surrounding farming communities. New public spaces connect into the heritage streetscape on the foothills, linking the building with the life of the main street.
Yellamundie, the new library at Liverpool Civic Place, activates the southern end of Liverpool’s main street after Council’s previous building was destroyed by fire. Its curvilinear form is inspired by the gentle curve of the Georges River. As the river’s sustaining arc creates eddies both calm and dynamic, the layers and flow of the library create diverse spaces for everyone.
Charlie Parker is one of the first build to rent towers in New South Wales, at the meeting point of Harris Park and Central Parramatta. Its curvilinear form follows the bounding Parkes, Wigram and Charles Streets and the adjacent canal, bridging low-scale brick cottages and city towers, while a human-scale ground floor addresses three street frontages with a high level of amenity.
University Terraces creates an active campus housing precinct for UNSW along Kensington’s High Street, facing the entry to Royal Randwick Racecourse. Higher forms at Gate 2 and Racecourse Walk mark active hubs below, while a lower four-storey element allows glimpses between High Street and the inward-facing courts. A row of figs shades the northern boundary.
Waterfront Brisbane weaves the city grid and the river’s edge together on the site of Brisbane’s first produce markets, re-establishing lost vistas to the river at Creek and Mary Streets. Beyond its two workplace towers, designed with Arkhefield, the project creates more than 9,000 sqm of riverfront public realm, including a 280 metre riverwalk with shaded meeting places and terraced steps.
At 388 George Street, a new urban pavilion redefines the corner of King and George Streets and enables the sustainable adaptation of John Andrews’ King George Tower. The pavilion re-creates a diagonal public arcade, removing the intrusive podium to reveal the grounding of the original tower, and a repositioned entrance lobby addresses George Street with interiors that echo its curvilinear forms.
At 2 King Street in Brisbane, double-height podium walls clad in natural materials draw on the material heritage and craftsmanship of the RNA. An urban verandah along St Pauls Terrace opens sightlines into King Street and supports pedestrian flow from Fortitude Valley station, framed by sculpted V-shaped columns that reflect the RNA’s engineering heritage beneath warm timber soffits.
Grand Central is embedded in the urban fabric of Toowoomba, integrating its retail offering with the main streets and pedestrian networks of the city centre. The building ensemble draws on the materials, scales and proportions of the city’s valued buildings. Along Margaret Street, a rhythmic facade of precast frames and folded brickwork respects the two-storey scale of the existing streetscape.
Spiritus provides space, flexibility and freedom for learning at Loreto Kirribilli. Its learning environments are complemented by interwoven landscaped terraces that connect the many levels of the existing campus, an abstract interpretation of the dramatic natural topography of Kirribilli. The terraces reimagine the school, creating new opportunities for learning and connection through inclusivity and accessibility.
200 Victoria Parade is a workplace building on one of Melbourne’s key boulevards, respecting views to and from the historic Treasury Gardens. Layered glass ribbons with thin copper films provide thermal performance and glare control above clearer vision panels, with curved transitions that respond to orientation, as the gateway site moves from commercial to residential in one of Melbourne’s oldest precincts.
The Jindabyne Community Library and Innovation Hub replaces a mobile library service with a landmark for the town. It supports lifelong learning and reflects the character of the region, with quiet spaces for study, places to collaborate and multifunction spaces for events. Built with stone, timber and prefabrication, it was the first of the State Library of NSW Small Library Projects.
Fleming House brings together two Grade II listed 1860s buildings on Oxford’s High Street, within the city’s Central Conservation Area. Built as a grand banking hall with a manager’s residence, and as a music shop and warehouse with rooms above, the buildings have changed over 150 years. The project gives them a renewed life while respecting their Gothic character.
Masterplans for the University of Adelaide’s North Terrace, Waite and Roseworthy campuses set a framework for the University to 2030. At North Terrace, the plan reinforces address and identity, the pedestrian experience and high-quality connective open space, linking the campus with the city. At Waite, new vistas and avenues connect the heritage quarter with research partnership sites.
Parliament Square sits beside Tasmania’s Parliament House on Hobart’s waterfront. A new commercial building and six refurbished heritage buildings provide 15,000 sqm of office accommodation, a boutique hotel, restaurants and al fresco dining. Invasive structures are removed to open the heart of the site to a new public square with views to Constitution Dock, linking Salamanca Place to Murray Street.
Sydney Law School divides an extensive programme into podium and superstructures, creating a new sequence of lawns, terraces and plazas along Eastern Avenue, the campus’s main public artery. The library and teaching spaces sit within the podium, lit from above through skylights and clerestories, while slender superstructures above split and splinter to frame views across the campus.
Cydelia House provides high-quality, accessible postgraduate student accommodation within the University of Melbourne precinct in Carlton. For the Cybec Foundation, fjc sensitively refurbished and extended two Victorian heritage-registered terrace houses, creating generous bedrooms with natural light and ventilation, tutor accommodation and shared spaces, while protecting the character of the historic Drummond Terrace streetscape.
The interiors of the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney maximise efficiency and flexibility while encouraging collaboration across disciplines. More than 16,000 sqm of wet and dry laboratories surround a large central atrium, whose sculpted ribbons link balustrades, stairs and screen wall, creating the social heart of the building and places for informal exchange.
The UTS Reading Room within UTS Central provides quiet, focused study space at the heart of the University’s vertical campus. Set within a building that responds to the existing campus and the Broadway streetscape, it offers students a calm setting with natural light and outlook, connected to the library and learning spaces around it.
The UTS Law Faculty fitout creates a collegial and collaborative working and learning environment while keeping aspects of the faculty’s established ways of working. A Dean’s suite and enclosed offices for confidential work are surrounded by open plan areas, meeting rooms, breakout spaces and a large boardroom.
Bunjil Place is a library, performance theatre, gallery, event space and public gathering place for the City of Casey, as well as a service centre and workplace. At its centre, the fluid form of the foyer is a non-hierarchical space that unifies the complex, where these uses overlap beneath a sweeping roof that recalls the wings of Bunjil.
The Australian War Memorial competition brief for extensive additions anticipated the demolition of the highly awarded ANZAC Hall. fjc’s submission rejected this aspect of the brief, proposing instead the integration and adaptation of ANZAC Hall, and demonstrating the cultural and environmental benefits of retaining and extending a significant building rather than replacing it.
Legion House, part of Liberty Place, became Sydney’s first carbon neutral building. Retail tenancies fill the ground floor, and two new office floors and a western extension add workspace. A new lift and stair sit outside the building in a curved glass enclosure, minimising heritage impact while creating a laneway entry and preserving the original floor area.
Newcastle Museum refits a series of late 19th and early 20th century brick railway workshops in the Honeysuckle waterfront precinct with new facilities and exhibitions. A new welcoming link building interconnects the disparate areas of the museum, while the heritage workshops are carefully conserved and reused as galleries and visitor spaces.
Machine Hall is an urban cultural venue within SubStation No. 164, the former electricity substation on Clarence Street, Sydney. Revitalised after more than 30 years of dormancy by the City of Sydney and Built, its 12-metre-high hall, gantry and machinery now host cultural programs, festivals, weddings, private functions and product launches.
The redevelopment of Ballarat District Nursing and Healthcare transforms disparate facilities, originally built as a factory, into an elegant and environmentally sustainable mixed use healthcare building. The refurbishment allows the organisation to expand its nursing workforce, increase clinic output and offer training facilities, within a contemporary, flexible and energy-efficient workplace.
The Chemical Sciences Building at UNSW holds two levels of shared specialist instrumentation and analysis laboratories and three levels of research and teaching laboratories for the School of Chemistry. Designed as a low-rise building, its floorplates work as flexible, adaptable laboratory modules that provide long-term benefit to the University.
The Wolfson Building forms part of the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, extending from a constrained and sloping site beside the Old Headington Conservation Area with expansive views of the city. Supported by the Wolfson Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, it houses the UK’s first dedicated centre for stroke and dementia research.
Student Castle Oxford provides more than 500 high-quality student rooms, a mix of cluster flats, studios, double studios and two-bedroom studios, with shared support spaces. The project is conceived as a series of interconnected pavilions with carefully proportioned trabeated facades and deep reveals to complement the character of Oxpens.
338 Pitt Street is a key consolidated site in Sydney’s midtown, close to Hyde Park, George Street, the light rail and the new Pitt Street Metro Station. Two slim residential towers are composed with new laneways, public squares and fine-grain street buildings, introducing residential, hotel, commercial and retail space as a catalyst for the precinct.
111 Castlereagh Street hovers respectfully above the heritage-listed former David Jones art deco building in the heart of Sydney. A spatial ripple carves a central atrium and ribbons of continuity through the building, flooding retail and commercial levels with light, while the residences above capture views across Hyde Park to Sydney Harbour.
Inner Sydney High School accommodates 1,200 students on a tight urban site within Prince Alfred Park without overwhelming the heritage campus. The form is a series of identifiable elements scaled to their context: landscaped terraces form an open podium and entry forecourt, while elevated learning volumes sit above, with outdoor spaces and a rooftop sports court between.
The Peninsula Grammar Innovation and Learning Centre is built primarily of exposed mass timber, with timber facade shading. Drawing on the site and the identity of the campus, it creates an environment for innovation and learning that supports different teaching methods and learning styles, giving the school a strong sense of cohesion and identity.
The Foundry at South Eveleigh is a steel-framed workplace built with more than 9,000 tonnes of steel, evoking the adjacent heritage rail workshops. Open, permeable floorplates are served by expressed steel and glass lift banks and lateral bridges, while the atria roof and bridges take the red tones of industrial red oxide primer.
118 Mount Street, the Zurich Building, composes a series of curved linear forms into a distinctive workplace tower that marks the eastern edge of North Sydney. A lower street-defining form lifts visitors into a warm arrival of shared amenity, and the paired tower forms create workplace floors open to natural light and views.
Bunjil Place interprets the land in the culture of the Wurundjeri, Bunurong and Boon Wurrung peoples, the Traditional Owners. Two stories shape the design, the Meeting of Many Paths and Bunjil the Eagle, whose wings the sheltering roof recalls. Library, theatre, gallery and civic services gather around a fluid foyer and a new public plaza.
The Concourse gives Chatswood more than 5,000 sqm of accessible open space with a better northerly aspect. Hovering ribbons of polished aluminium hold the concert hall and theatre, while the library and other facilities sit within the terraces and platforms of a stone podium that interprets the ridge stretching from the city to the north.
Newcastle Museum creates a cohesive complement to the heavy brick structures of historic railway workshops through lightness of form and touch. White, cloud-like roof forms hover between the masonry, drawing in natural light, shading visitors and exhibits, and creating a new sense of entry and orientation for the museum’s circulation.
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is defined by fine tree-like canopies that cover the entry forecourt, atrium and galleries. Inspired by the adjacent Pōhutukawa trees, the Kauri ceilings are profiled into precise geometric patterns on slender, tapering shafts, hovering over stone walls and terraces that reinterpret the site’s natural topography.
The Mint transforms the vacant and almost ruinous Mint Coining Factory behind the Mint Offices on Macquarie Street into a campus-like headquarters for the Historic Houses Trust. It includes the Caroline Simpson Library and Research Centre, a specialist public library for Australia’s built heritage, along with spaces for events and public programs.
At Macarthur Memorial Park, built form is integrated with the undulating terrain through outdoor rooms, courtyards, gardens, terraces and water. The architecture grows from the ground and hovers over sensitive landscape, avoiding fashion in form, colour or material in favour of the timeless and lasting, to create places of remembrance that belong to their setting.
The Stage 1 redevelopment of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is a subtle but dramatic addition to TMAG’s highly significant heritage fabric. New contemporary and conservation works were integrated in accordance with Burra Charter principles, opening public access to all parts of the site and revealing new spaces within the historic buildings.
St Barnabas Church on Broadway balances an open courtyard, landscaped gardens and fixed and flexible spaces. Off-form concrete frames and canopies define the street edge and the steps up to the courtyard, while the curved volumes of the worship space, conceived like an open hand under the sky, focus the church’s presence in the city.
Te Ao Mārama transforms the South Atrium of Auckland War Memorial Museum on Pukekawa, the Domain hill. Working with Jasmax and designTRIBE, the project creates a new entry and a place of reflection, gathering and ceremony beneath the restored Kauri bowl, Tanoa, with gently curved gallery pathways connecting the museum’s collections.
At the Art Gallery of Western Australia, a sharply triangular lift is offset from the existing building, creating a new tension between architecture and landscape and a new experience for visitors. Read against the sky, it draws people up to a rooftop where softened edges and planting extend the greener urban landscape of the Perth Cultural Centre.
The redevelopment of Ballarat District Nursing and Healthcare transforms disparate buildings, originally a factory, into an elegant and environmentally sustainable healthcare facility. It allows the organisation to grow its nursing workforce, increase clinic output and add training facilities, providing a contemporary, flexible workplace with improved energy efficiency for the people it serves.
Te Ao Mārama creates a precinct for cultural welcome, orientation and tikanga at Auckland War Memorial Museum. Carved timber screens mark a new threshold, with integrated artworks by Graham Tipene, Chris Bailey and Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi. Beneath the restored Kauri bowl, Tanoa, a new honorific space hosts reflection, gathering, conversation and ceremony.
Nunawading Community Hub brings 26 community groups together in a single purpose-built facility, from the Nunawading Lapidary Club to the Whitehorse Arts Association. Simple forms give the public building monumentality and dignity, housing a library, a timber-lined basketball stadium, a dance hall and function spaces designed for multipurpose use by the whole community.
Axle is a premium-grade workplace at South Eveleigh, a technology precinct on the site of the former Eveleigh Railway Workshops. A central atrium, crossed by curved concrete bridges, brings daylight to every part of the floorplate, edged with meeting rooms and social hubs, while active retail and childcare enliven the ground floor.
Wonderland is the final residential stage of the Central Park village in Chippendale, completing more than 2,200 apartments across the precinct. Its layered, curvilinear form responds to the varying street and building alignments, defining a north-facing public green and creating a memorable eastern gateway to Central Park from Regent Street.
UTS Central is the largest new building on the UTS campus, completed in 2019 on the fringe of Sydney’s CBD. With no room to grow outwards, it establishes a vertical campus integrated with the city, connecting library, learning and student spaces through the building and opening to Broadway, Jones Street and the alumni green.
fjcinteriors designed the interiors of Charlie Parker, a build to rent tower in Harris Park, as a fusion of scales, geometries, community and culture. Drawing on the art deco combination of modernism with craftsmanship and rich materials, warm palettes and fine-grain materials shape the apartments, lobby and shared amenities for residents.
The Harrington Collection in The Rocks mirrors the varied scale of the area’s pubs, warehouses and workers’ cottages. Each building responds to the eclectic mix around it, with street-facing townhouses that match neighbouring cottages and a contemporary version of the stoop. Laneways and stairs follow the paths from Warrane’s shoreline to the ridge.
PCYC Northern Beaches in Dee Why is planned around a through link from the town centre, with a south entry facing the civic precinct and a north entry connected by a ceremonial stair to the suburb. Inside, the sports hall and multipurpose rooms meet at an intersection of pedestrian streets that defines the foyer.
The ANZ Tower at Liberty Place provides around 57,000 sqm of commercial space on efficient floorplates, with penthouse apartments on levels 43 and 44. A 16 metre glazed foyer marks its entry from a new public laneway. When it opened, it was the largest office building in NSW to achieve a 6 Star Green Star rating.
The Salamanca Building is the first stage of Hobart’s Parliament Square redevelopment for the Tasmanian Government. V-form columns mark its double-height entry from Salamanca Place, and terracotta and sandstone facades combine with glass, set on a new public platform that looks over Sullivan’s Cove and opens the precinct to the city.
The Port of Sale cultural hub transforms the late-modern brutalist Shire offices and gallery into civic, tourist and cultural facilities for Wellington Shire. Additions and refurbishment provide generous shared spaces and revitalised links to the historic port, giving a country town that lacked a civic and cultural focus a new community heart.
King & Phillip Residences sits within Sydney’s heritage legal precinct. A two-storey sandstone loggia with timber vaulted ceilings faces King, Elizabeth and Phillip Streets, housing retail and a residential lobby above a public corner plaza. Studio to three-bedroom apartments rise above in an efficient tower, and Eora by Jake Nash faces Queens Square.
The Tyree Energy Technologies Building stands on the gateway site of UNSW’s main campus, at the junction of the Mall and Anzac Parade. Responding to three interconnected urban zones, it houses energy research and teaching, and achieved 6 Star Green Star under Green Star Education v1.
The Frank Bartlett Library and Moe Service Centre gives the Gippsland town of Moe a new civic heart on a former car park beside the railway. A gently curved, stepped platform of landscape and concrete follows the rail line and shields the noise, while two timber portals above hold the library and council services.
Melton Library and Learning Hub replaces an outdated 1970s library and hall in the old township of Melton. A double-height reading space, community meeting rooms, a theatrette and multipurpose training spaces sit within a building with a high environmental agenda, Australia’s first 5 Star Green Star public library, creating a new civic space for Melton.
Stamford American International School in Singapore accommodates around 2,700 students aged two to eighteen. Built in two phases either side of an elevated playing field, the campus includes science labs, an innovation centre, cafeterias, two gymnasiums with a climbing wall, swimming pools and performance spaces, shaped by the brief and a constrained site.
200 George Street grows out of its site. Yellow Block sandstone quarried from the city clads the core, carved with an artwork by Judy Watson that interprets the cultural history of the place. A kinetic timber screen adjusts to the sun, filtering warm light into the workplace, and the tower was Australia’s first WELL Gold building.
Wilam Hall is a University of Melbourne residential college spread across four buildings, three with heritage overlays and one an unsympathetic 1970s addition. fjc refurbished the State Heritage listed buildings to improve amenity, adding student lounges, conference facilities, residential rooms, a gymnasium and staff facilities while sensitively restoring the historic fabric.
Anadara at Barangaroo is defined by The Cloud, curved forms of fixed and operable perforated screens that slide along gentle curves and close to a flush skin. The pattern softens the material and allows harbour views while keeping a private outdoor realm for apartments, and active ground-floor retail reinforces the public realm.
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart is of national significance as one of the oldest museums and galleries in Australia. Its site holds the earliest surviving European structures in Tasmania and the most intact pre-1850s Bond Store in Australia. The redevelopment treats these buildings as artefacts and opens them to the public.
The Tinbergen Chemistry Teaching Laboratory at the University of Oxford adapts the 1970 Tinbergen Building by Sir Leslie Martin, a leading advocate of the international style and architect of the Royal Festival Hall. Contemporary teaching laboratories are integrated into a building of poured concrete and pre-cast elements typical of its period.
Darling Quarter integrates urban design, architecture and landscape where the western edge of Sydney’s city meets Tumbalong Park. Above restaurants, cafes and a promenade, workplace floors centre on day-lit atria edged with stairs, bridges, breakout areas and glazed lifts, creating a collaborative campus. It was Australia’s first 6 Star Green Star As Built building.
The Ben Chifley Building in Canberra embraces a complex, highly technical brief to create a building and landscape that are integrated and present. Its form addresses Constitution Avenue and shifts internally towards Commonwealth Place in the National Triangle. A central atrium connects the levels, anchored at its base by a large staff cafe.
The School of Information Technologies at the University of Sydney is wrapped in an acoustic screen that provides the right conditions inside while presenting an image of transparency and interaction. The facade breaks at the Engineering Walk axis, connecting the precinct with its neighbours, reinterpreting the former line of Rose Street and announcing the entry.
The Chancellery and Business School is made like two giant plants, their branches fanning out and rising from the ground to almost touch at the centre. The rising forms, assembled from Jarrah struts that fold up and out, frame a vista to the lake and open towards Grand Drive in a gesture of welcome to the city.
The Charles Perkins Centre is a six-storey research and education building on the University of Sydney’s Camperdown campus, designed to foster trans-disciplinary collaboration. More than 16,000 sqm of its 50,000 sqm are laboratories, arranged around a large central atrium whose sculpted ribbons link balustrades, stairs and screen wall to form the social heart.
The John Niland Scientia Building sits on a gentle hill at the end of the Mall, the centrepiece of a major regeneration of the UNSW campus. Its ceremonial hall anchors the new University Square precinct, with a pedestrian mall, landscaped terraces, lighting and reconfigured access ways that give the campus a new heart.
Darlington Public School is a small school on the fringe of the city near Redfern and Newtown. A sequence of linear brick forms reflects the masonry of the surrounding streets, housing flexible learning spaces, a hall and support areas, while a curvilinear perforated metal screen defines movement and gathering spaces around the gardens and play areas.
Surry Hills Library and Community Centre provides a library, community centre and childcare centre for an urban community in the City of Sydney, won through Council’s competitive process. On a prominent site in the heart of Surry Hills, it combines tailored local services with a sustainable design that has become a landmark for the neighbourhood.
The Waterfront Pavilion sits on a narrow wharf at the Australian National Maritime Museum, between a submarine and a destroyer on Darling Harbour. A suspended tube hovers between the two vessels, shaped by their conning tower and bridge, creating a hardy, adaptable space that brings stories of naval service to life.
The Red Centre at UNSW is defined by a planar wall of terracotta tile stretching across new and existing buildings, cut and folded to define two public squares. Openings for offices form continuous linear slots, while entries, exhibition and public spaces are expressed through large openings and folded planes, with glass and metal volumes beyond.
The Concourse is an organic, sculptural public place in Chatswood, raised on a stone platform. Ribbons of polished aluminium wrap the timber-lined concert hall and theatre, creating calm surfaces amid the retail centre and opening the foyers to the street and square through plywood brise-soleils, while the library sits within the stone podium below.
Little Bay Apartments form an entrance to the former Prince Henry Hospital site. Their sinuous forms compress and then open out, reinforcing the corners of Pine Avenue and Anzac Parade before stepping down to reveal a new public space, the historic Flowers Wards and coastal views, with apartments oriented east to the bay.
Bayside Police Station supports Victoria Police’s vision of a more open and interactive approach to policing, within strict security requirements and tight cost constraints. Its public elements are composed as a welcoming face to the community, while workspaces, meeting rooms and a gymnasium gather around a central top-lit atrium lined in timber.
The Owen G. Glenn Business School at the University of Auckland is a new centre for learning, innovation and collaboration. Organic, flowing forms are suspended above a solid podium that anchors the building and reinterprets the natural topography of the sloping site, creating a welcoming place of knowledge exchange for future leaders.
Max Webber Library serves Blacktown, the largest local government area in NSW by population, with a diverse community. Designed for the changing role of the 21st century library, it creates a dynamic, innovative and adaptable place that keeps options open for future change, with spaces for learning, study, gathering and community programs.
The Bankstown Library and Knowledge Centre sets a benchmark in sustainable design through the adaptive reuse, salvage and recycling of the existing Bankstown Town Hall. It brings a library over three levels, a 300-seat theatre, IT labs, meeting rooms, a scented reading garden and a cafe into one community hub in the heart of Bankstown.
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki restores and adapts its heritage buildings and adds a new extension that opens the gallery to Albert Park. Fine tree-like canopies, inspired by the adjacent Pōhutukawa trees, cover the forecourt, atrium and galleries, their Kauri ceilings hovering over stone walls and terraces that reinterpret the site’s topography.
Craigieburn Library gives a fast-growing community north of Melbourne a library, learning centre and gathering space as the focus of public life. Built in part from local earth, it connects the architecture with a landscape being rapidly transformed by residential expansion, creating a civic place that is grounded in its setting.
Industry Recognition
fjcstudio has received national and international architecture awards, reflecting its ongoing commitment to design excellence. Architecture awards include:
| Project | Name | Year | Organisation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reuben College | Australian Award for International Architecture | 2025 | Australian Institute of Architects |
| Reuben College | Hugh O’Neil Award for Heritage | 2025 | Australian Institute of Architects (International Chapter) |
| Darlington Public School | World Building of the Year | 2024 | World Architecture Festival |
| Bunjil Place | William Wardell Award for Public Architecture | 2018 | Australian Institute of Architects (Victorian Chapter) |
| 200 George Street | Harry Seidler Award for Commercial Architecture | 2017 | Australian Institute of Architects |
| The Frank Bartlett Library & Moe Service Centre | Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design | 2017 | Australian Institute of Architects |
| The Waterfront Pavilion | Completed Buildings: Display | 2016 | World Architecture Festival |
| Liberty Place | Completed Buildings: Office | 2014 | World Architecture Festival |
| Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki | World Building of the Year | 2013 | World Architecture Festival |
| Darling Quarter | Harry Seidler Award for Commercial Architecture | 2013 | Australian Institute of Architects |
| Darling Quarter | Completed Buildings: Office | 2012 | World Architecture Festival |
| Surry Hills Library and Community Centre | National Award for Public Architecture | 2010 | Australian Institute of Architects |
Sean McPeake leads the architecture discipline at fjcstudio. For further information about our architecture capability, please enquire by email.