Building on a legacy of enabling communities to flourish across Australia, Hames Sharley opens its seventh studio in the nation’s capital.
The move supports the interdisciplinary design practice’s ongoing growth and work in the region and enables the team to amplify their capacity to co-create meaningful design solutions with their Canberra-based clients for the communities they serve together.
“Collectively, our team has decades of experience in the ACT and has made significant contributions to community-oriented environments and city-shaping developments,” says Hames Sharley Managing Director Caillin Howard.
“We’re well-positioned to continue our work in Canberra, aligned with the Territory’s investment in developing the city to support a growing and diverse population.”
Led by Hames Sharley Director Dustin Brade, the expansion is bolstered by the support of fellow Directors Janine Graves and Gavin Kain, Associate Director Grace Stokes, and respected advisor Marcia Bowden.
Their presence in Canberra strengthens the local capability to undertake transformative projects, with expertise across all typologies including complex mixed-use, office and industrial, workplace, education, residential, retail, health, urban design and master planning.
“We have an incredible breadth and depth of expertise across Australia, and to continue our journey here with such a diverse and established team gives our clients and collaborators immediate access to this specialised expertise and knowledge,” Brade says.
Janine Graves, who leads the Office & Industrial portfolio (including workplace, justice and emergency services, defence, data centres, major infrastructure and secure environments), says the Canberra market offers a wealth of opportunity.
“With the complex nature and relationship between the public and private sectors in ACT being more diverse than any other state, the opportunity to help shape the constant shuffling and repositioning of departments and associated developments through Urban Design, Architecture and Interior Design forms a solid basis for us to help our clients create transformational change,” she says.
“We are currently seeing the regeneration of government office environments through base building upgrades and asset repositioning opportunities, as government agencies seek to meet modern workplace standards and facilitate a more flexible work approach.”
According to Graves, the broader strength of Hames Sharley is its ability to bring diverse thinking and fresh, contextually appropriate ideas to the market.
“We work with our clients to design for their needs and for the specific context, which goes back to our first principles as a practice essentially born of demographers, geographers and urban designers. Everything we do comes back to the community and creating an outcome that celebrates what makes them unique,” she says.
