Spurway Lane warehouse conversion, Brunswick
completed 2000

2001 AIA award


If there is any common thread or distinctive quality about our work, it is that initial planning is in itself rigorously considered and manipulated. Corridors are avoided and the devices necessary to define space are worked and re-worked to minimise extraneous physical intrusion, unless expressly called for to direct movement or enhance privacy.

in refurbishing our own small warehouse development a series of planar elements were used to define the ground floor plan enclosing the carport, supporting the mezzanine level and screening the first two stairwells. In elevation these spatial divisions slice through the overall volume as a series of veils with varying degrees of transparency, referencing the factory’s prior use as a laundry attached to a shirt factory.

Screens and sliding wall planes hover off a central spine, loosely defining more intimate areas rather than enclosing them. It is this flexibility of shifting planes and the changing play of light which creates a dynamic interior, on the one hand easily read and understood, while unfolding in complexity at different levels, as one investigates further the layering of detail.

Expressed contrast between light and dark, solid and translucent, matt and reflective materials and the manner in which these changes of surface texture play against one another heightens the sense of arrival and engenders a freshness to each level of experience. The space becomes a secure haven away from external pressures, ordered and minimal in form and plan – relaxed not jarring, bathed in diffuse natural light and signalling the passage of time via six original skylights, now reglazed in opaque glass. The internal environment is enriched by this spatial play as the new built forms juxtapose against the solid original warehouse shell.

project design team
tim o’sullivan architect
sioux clark interior designer

structural engineer
bruce adams

photographer
shania shegedyn