Hames Sharley identifies and manages the key issues and tasks required to undertake the requirements of the brief of each project. This process is based on a successful architectural methodology utilised on previous or similar projects and applied uniquely to each new project.
Hames Sharley specialises in research and design-led strategy. Our knowledge-based organisation takes pride in ensuring our employees are constantly at the forefront of their areas of expertise.
We sat down with Hames Sharley’s newest director, Rachel Seal to chat about her career so far and some of the people and projects that have inspired her along the way.
Our annual guide for last minute gift ideas with an design and architectural angle…
Built form controls alone don’t deliver vibrancy and good coffee…
What qualities do you need to become a respected judge of design awards? An eye for aesthetics is only the start…
Design for aged-care requires a very specific skill set. We take a look at the architectural, interior and urban design elements that need to be considered for a successful project.
Brisbane Open House includes talks and seminars on all manner of architecture and design topics. As part of this year’s event Hames Sharley’s Queensland studio opened its doors to the public and hosted a panel event that covered the subject of urban hubs. We asked one of our recent Architectural Graduates to report on the proceedings, while broadening her own knowledge.
Hames Sharley’s National Design Forum Leader, Derek Hays, considers why the three fundamentals of architecture have remained unchanged for 2,000 years.
BIM – or Building Information Modelling – has been one of the most significant technological advances in our industry in the past twenty years. But how much BIM do projects actually need?
The appalling misjudgment in allowing commercial advertising on the ‘sails’ of the Sydney Opera House calls into question the special custodial role of our public buildings, major public artworks and iconic infrastructure as symbols of shared community and cultural values.
Created in 2005 by the Union International des Architects, World Architecture Day is a day to show appreciation for the work architects do and to celebrate some of the great global architectural works. This year the event takes place on October 1st with a series of events and publications.
Wayfinding in the architectural realm has evolved to encompass a combination of elements including visual graphics, tactility and materiality, interactivity, and animated and audio-visual installations. With technology advancing apace, how best should major wayfinding and signage projects be approached and what does the future hold in store…
Attracting retail tenants with virtual reality tours in South Australia.
Fancy an adventure exploring your city? Open House is an event in which buildings across a city throw open their doors to the public for one weekend each year, to enjoy the best architecture on offer.
Architects and engineers rate worryingly high for risk of suicide. As part of RU OK Day on 13 September, we look at the factors behind this trend and what can be done to mitigate them.
September 3rd marks World Skyscraper Day, a day to recognise the architectural and engineering feat that encompass some of the worlds tallest and most magnificent buildings.
Many building designers have started prioritising LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification in their projects over the past decade, as the industry has caught up with the need for better long-term design solutions. As a result, the reuse of building materials has increased.
In August each year, the nation celebrates Science Week. It’s a government initiative to fuel society’s interest and understanding of
Will touchable holograms signal the next evolution in retail? Virtual reality and augmented reality have limitless applications. They are common knowledge these days and commonly used. But what if you could showcase your product in a manner different from both of these methods – one that has not been seen before?
NAIDOC Week is a week for Australia to come together to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This year, it runs from the 9th to the 15th of
Five Western Australian artists express their support for medical research by decorating lab coats for the Harry Perkins Institute.
Fusing the worlds of construction and manufacturing is a process known as
Reverse innovation in Australian healthcare can bring valuable lessons into hospital design and patient care from developing countries.
The Australian child-care industry is thriving, creating opportunities for centres to invest in designs that enrich the childcare experience and contribute to a better built environment.
The Walt Disney Company made Australian headlines this month when it picked up the naming rights for The Etihad Stadium. But such naming rights are by no means a new thing; similar deals have been taking place for more than a century…
Managing Director, Caillin Howard met with BrandSA this month to discuss the latest developments on one of Hames Sharley’s most exciting current projects; Adelaide’s Rundle Mall Plaza.
For today’s developers, urban planners and governments, development around transit areas requires extremely careful planning. Here we explore the key principles that will allow projects to truly serve and support their surrounding communities.
The way we fund and build apartments in Australia is just one of the factors contributing to the country’s housing-affordability crisis, however, an emerging financial model known as Baugruppen might help to solve the problem.
There is obviously a considerable difference in how Asian and Australian retail developments are shaped by the culture within which they sit, along with, at times, some surprising similarities. David McCarroll investigates…
War memorials are an essential part of the Australian landscape – their beauty, symbolism and the quality of materials and craftsmanship illustrates the respect that communities have towards those who have paid the ultimate price.
To mark the ANZAC day commemorations this month, we look at the story behind three examples from around the country.
Building infrastructure for global events can make or break a city – so what’s the best strategy for using these structures once the show’s over?
Architects and designers can learn a lot from Mother Nature – Peter Schwerzel looks at biomimetics and how taking cues from the world around us can produce outstanding results.
An essay about creativity, architecture, cultural innovation and coffee.
With the 21st century well underway, the way in which students receive education nowadays is vastly different from the pre-internet age.
They’re the traditional locations for shops, banks and other businesses, but high streets could be facing new disruption from an unexpected area.
How department stores played a vital role in the empowerment of women.
With a recent article naming five cities that rank among the best-designed in the world, we look at what links these destinations, and what lessons others can learn from them.
In the last decade, roughly 40 percent of all architecture graduates have been women – but when it comes to representation in the industry, there’s still a gender bias towards men.
They’ve been influential in the history of Australian architecture but chances are you don’t know their names. We look at twelve women whose work has made a difference to the way our country was built.
Cities are centres of population, commerce and culture, yet it is not widely known how this way of life came about. Looking to the past, however, enables us not only to decipher how cities came to be but also how they are defined and what they mean for the future of our societies.
It’s Chinese New Year, and 2018 is the year of the dog. To recognise the focus on man’s best friend, we’ve delved into the weird wide web to bring you designs from leading architects, made especially for dogs.
In recent years we’ve found great benefits in using 3D printers and virtual reality hardware, but it’s our investment in a time machine that’s really allowed us to experience what life is like for communities in the future.
Here we follow the Mancio family as they set out for a day at their local library…
In light of an online retail giant’s decision to open physical stores, Former Managing Director of Hames Sharley, Paul Drechsler looks to the past to discuss the new direction of the retail revolution.
By connecting devices to the internet – and to each other – The Internet of Things has the potential to revolutionise the way we live and do business. And the architecture industry is no exception.
No matter the size of the project, over the past twelve months we have applied the same set of guidelines in our approach to designing buildings and spaces in the public & culture sector. Here we present our 12 key considerations when designing for museums and galleries.
During the mid 20th-century Australian shopping centres were developed within a retail hierarchy that was based on modern suburban family life. Today people live in apartments in the city and inner urban areas and seek their daily needs and convenience goods and services in the city.
Activity-based working has revolutionised the open-plan office, but the pressure is on to keep up innovation and deliver on the promises of flexibility and freedom at work.
Hames Sharley’s collaborative initiative to educate Year 7 students about Transport Oriented Developments (TOD) and interconnected communities.
For some people, it’s a dream, for others a nightmare – the vision of a future in which you won’t have to work because a robot will exist that can do the job for you…
In the 21st century, automation is a fact of life, with robots having a metallic hand in the production of everything from cars to toys, but when it comes to the construction industry, the automated workforce is conspicuous by its absence. In a recent address to Consult Australia, Valentina Sansbury asked why construction has been so slow to build on automated assistance, and offered a vision of how robotics can be an asset to increase productivity within the industry.
At Hames Sharley, we like to invest in the latest technology, which allows us to provide a better service for our clients and partners. In recent years we’ve found great benefits in using 3D printers and virtual reality hardware, but it’s our investment in a time machine that’s really allowed us to experience what life is like for communities in the future. Here we follow the Mancio family as they set out for a day at their local shopping centre…
This month we discovered the ultimate gift for architecture and chess aficionados - who may also want to invest in what looks like becoming a best selling board game.
To mark this month’s World Animal Day, we point you in the direction of some of Federico Babina’s digital artistry that reimagines animals as icons of architecture.
Hosting a major world event is in many ways seen as a coming of age for host countries. Seen as a way of putting a city on the map, World Expo organisers attempt to showcase their city to the world in an extravaganza of cutting edge technology, sustainability, design and architecture. But what happens when the fair leaves town?
Hames Sharley has known for some time that VR technology would become a real game-changer within our sector, but since we initially invested in the hardware we’ve been surprised by some of the advantages that augmented reality can offer our designers and clients.
Architectural character is created by the aesthetic components of the building, such as unity, composition, contract and scale. But what gives it soul? And how do buildings retain their soul throughout decades of use and multiple refurbishments?
As Mexico recovers from the devastating effects of its recent earthquake, The Malay Mail has reported on a Japanese innovation that looks to add protective functionality to buildings while introducing an aesthetically pleasing, sleek design motif.
In the concluding part of his essay, David McCarroll looks at some of the reasons that consumers make their choices and why this will always keep the retail centre relevant.
All buildings age and what was once an A grade building is eventually downgraded until its inevitable slide into obsolescence. That is unless it is retrofitted, refurbished and repositioned back to its former glory - and that’s where Building Upgrade Finance comes in…
Catalogues didn’t kill the shopping centre. The rise of online retail hasn’t seen the end of bricks and mortar. In a two-part observational piece, David McCarroll looks at the real problems facing retailers… complacency, and the struggle to remain relevant.
Fancy an adventure exploring your city? Open House is an event in which buildings across a city throw open their doors to the public for one weekend each year, to enjoy the best architecture on offer.
Each of the most biodiverse countries around the globe shares a common trait – rapid urbanisation. In a recent piece, The Guardian have attempted to calculate which city is the world’s most biodiverse and found some interesting results…
It’s common knowledge that if you want to rediscover your calm you head back to nature. But could it be that we’re too narrow in our view of what we experience as uplifting, and could architecture have the same effect on our mood as parkland?
Creating ‘buildings that breathe’ is an ideal for designing in the subtropics – but it’s also a worthwhile goal in any climate.
It would appear that sustainability in architecture and great design are still largely mutually exclusive, according to a recent stoush between the American Institute of Architects and Aaron Bestky…
When selecting an office, after questioning the size and cost the next biggest issue often relates to concerns around commuting.
People have been talking about the demise of the office for years now. Since telecommuting became an everyday phenomenon, opinion-makers have been queuing up to tell us how the traditional workplace is on the verge of extinction.
You can’t ever underestimate the value of face-to-face interaction. The benefits are many: you can bounce ideas off others, unlocking creativity that might not otherwise be accessed via email or text; you can gain more information when negotiating a deal, or you can simply gauge whether someone really likes that idea you floated.
Following a year of Hames Sharley’s 40th-anniversary celebrations, we investigate a handful of methods on how best to use the lessons of the past to influence future projects…
Writing about language is not for the faint of heart. However, I will attempt to articulate how the language of architecture is ‘designed’...
Mental disorders are something that will affect most of us at some point in our lives and Spanish-based, digital artist Federico Babina has created a new project which attempts to illustrate a number of conditions through architecture.
It is proven that cultural diversity adds to the bottom line. The benefits of cultural diversity are many: improved decision-making, increased collaboration, better problem-solving, enhanced well-being and knowledge sharing, to name a few. But what does it look like in a real workplace?
We are a nation obsessed with food. We’re also getting more particular about it. We talk about whether it’s organic or home-grown, whether it’s slow cooked or triple smoked, whether it was inspired by Jamie or Bill. That’s right, Oliver and Grainger. We’re on a first name basis these days. What does this mean for the food court?
When was the last time you went to a beautifully designed building and felt drawn to your surroundings in a way that made you feel better? Because the space spoke to you, ushered in relief, engaged your senses, enhanced within you a sense of… wellness? We investigate ‘The Architecture of Happiness’...
Architects and aged care providers are taking inspiration from villages, farm and hotels for aged care facilities.
Next week sees all eyes on the great and the good of Hollywood as Tinsel Town brings us the 89th Academy Awards. But as this multi-billion dollar industry gets together to pat itself on the back I have a bone to pick.
The Trump wall triggered intense debate during the US presidential election race late last year, and while divisive architecture is nothing new, civil societies need spaces which allow people to come together rather than walls keeping them apart.
Donald Trump moves into the White House on Friday, January 20, leaving behind his $100 million penthouse condo in Trump Tower. Monocle’s New York bureau chief Ed Stocker shares his opinion on the NYC skyscraper.