Helping people navigate and understand how a place works involves careful consideration and planning to improve accessibility, orientation and connectivity, along with those intangible moments of magic that lift a space to cultural icon status visited the world over.

As designers, we create retail centres that deeply consider site, context and sustainability to deliver a return on investment for our stakeholders. But many retailers, especially online retailers, are experiencing a fresh challenge – waste around returnable goods – and with it, new opportunities across the retail economy to refine what we do and how we work to bring us closer to zero waste. One solution is to optimise ‘reverse logistics’.

Australia is an urban coastal nation – we love the water and our well-known fascination with the beach and water is part of our cultural DNA. But despite the strong culture around water, recent figures reveal that drowning deaths are increasing. The infrastructure of public swimming pools is also fast approaching its use-by-date, meaning we’re falling short in meeting the contemporary and anticipated future needs of our communities. However, we believe design can help.

As a young child, Sarah experienced housing insecurity first-hand. She moved constantly with her loving family from a baby to young adulthood, moving into 15 different homes growing up in Adelaide. Every time she moved, Sarah would sit and draw the floorplan of her new home so she knew where to go and could start to feel at ease in her new surrounds. This started her path towards architecture, having experienced the criticality of a secure home, our sense of ‘place’ and the importance of our mental health as part of our life experiences.

Our wellbeing in the workplace is impacted by whether the built environment anticipates and meets our sensory needs.

We recently caught up with Associate Denise Harper from our Brisbane studio who shares her passion for social justice and her role in advocating for everybody to access safe and inclusive spaces.

Generally, there are three elements to modern-day life – personal life, work life and lifestyle. Retail takes place firmly within the lifestyle element, becoming our ‘third space’ commodified as an experience rather than a product transaction.

As design facilitators, we draw inspiration from the world around us. We believe that design outcomes are stronger when we all work together, giving everyone a voice rather than designing in isolation. By applying this thinking to the public realm, the outcomes can be better than anyone expected – fresh spaces for people to find, discover, nurture, take care of and grow. What can we learn from our experiences and how can our industry do this better?

The key is starting with our understanding of the unique behavioural, cultural and psychological drivers we’re experiencing right now and how this may evolve in the future.

As Australia ramps up to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane, new and existing multi-city sports infrastructure will cater for athletes competing and millions of spectators watching on the world stage. But what will happen to these spaces afterwards? And how can we learn from them to create healthy and thriving communities for the future?

Our Research & Development team recently applied Gehl’s Twelve Quality Criteria approach to the modern-day challenge of activating laneways. In fact, to one in particular, near 92 William Street in Perth.

Hames Sharley’s Research team recently discovered a potential link between aggressive behaviour in Emergency Departments and spatial design, paving the way for a re-think of how these spaces are designed for clinicians, patients, visitors and the broader community.

Researchers have recently completed a ground-breaking study that links Intensive Care Unit (ICU) noise levels and the potential for improved patient recovery and reduced post-care trauma.

By the time the design and construction of a new hospital is completed in Australia, it may already be outdated due to a lack of flexibility and the rapid development of technologies and services. Design and construction limitations were highlighted during the pandemic, with a pronounced shift from face-to-face services to remote telehealth services. While telehealth services continue to grow as important tools for providing care to our growing population, who knows what’s coming next?

What are the current, and possible future initiatives food retailers in Australia have enacted to respond to the expectations of their consumers to be socially and environmentally proactive?

Without immediate action, people, the planet, and infrastructure will suffer the consequences of dying biodiversity, loss of habitat, rising global temperatures, rising sea levels, food shortages, catastrophic natural disasters (droughts, floods, bushfires, etc.), and we will see a new phenomenon in our modern world: climate refugees. Architecture and design firms can play a critical role in adapting our communities to climate change.

The number of EVs linked into the grid will grow significantly over the next decade, which presents several key global challenges including meeting overall energy and power demands, developing ‘smart charging’ or vehicle-to-grid service from linked cars, and for designers; developing spaces designed with sufficient forethought surrounding flexibility and systems integration.

Mental health issues can hit you out of nowhere. It could be an ordinary day, doing something you’ve done a million times before and then… WHAM. Out of nowhere, a panic attack comes and knocks the wind right out of you. Rendering you unable to move. Unable to breathe. And you have no idea what’s happening, let alone why.

The city laneway is often viewed as narrow, dark, lined with rubbish bins and vehicles parked on the verge, tagged with graffiti, and used only for transitionary foot traffic. They are characterised as potentially unsafe areas, especially at night and if the laneway has inefficient lighting.

There is potential in reactivating existing laneway infrastructure to create vibrant, active spaces that promote increased foot traffic to the buildings that back or open onto the laneway, as well as facilities and services on the streets at either end of the laneway.

Accessibility is a common theme when talking about design. This article states unequivocally that designers have an obligation to raise awareness of accessible design. Diversity in our community is an increasingly relevant factor in design matters in our centres.

To cultivate a ‘sense of place’, communities must plan for physical environments that are uplifting and memorable, and that generate a unique sense of belonging. A community also fosters a ‘sense of place’ by recognising and valuing its natural surroundings, views, landmarks, and traditions.

By thinking of a city as a living organism, as something that grows, consumes, produces, and nourishes, we can study and learn from its ‘heart and soul’, behavioural patterns, and complex functions for opportunities that will best support the city’s communities. This could involve reinvigorating dead city zones, creating inviting spaces, focusing on sustainable solutions, and providing facilities and amenities that benefit the needs of the public.

Archives are valuable repositories of information to us at Hames Sharley, but you won’t think of it at first when the next batch of boxes are brought out: crumbling cardboard boxes with dusty files filled with yellowed papers held together by rusty staples and paperclips that crumble into bits as they are pried off. But take the time to go through each individual project file and decades of hard work and the character of a business begins to gleam from beneath 50 years of dust.

Do we rely too much on ‘peak trading times’ – Christmas, Mother’s Day, Easter and so on? Are ‘quiet times’ simply unavoidable and just part of everyday shopping habits? What if those ‘quiet times’ could become busier? How can design and tenant mix change trading patterns?

Purposeful design elements in an urban or residential area that encourage community interaction and engagement can lead to a symbolic ‘sense of place’. The community takes pride and care in their environment and so wish to see it protected.