Donovan Hill team up with Small Australian Projects
March 31st, 2009
Brisbane architects, Donovan Hill, are the first to design a range of furniture as part of Small Australian Projects – a new company producing furniture designed by Australian architects which opened its new showroom in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley last week.
Donovan Hill’s architectural practice includes a range of projects, from commercial, institutional and civic buildings, to cutting edge residential projects, precinctual/master planning, interior fitout, landscape and furniture commissions.
Established by Brian Donovan and Timothy Hill in 1992, the studio was keen to be involved in a project that would allow their furniture design to be available to a wider audience.
“When we were approached, we realised we have many likely designs floating around that had come into being to serve previous commissions,” says Brian Donovan and Timothy Hill.
“The idea was to imagine very simple ways that seemingly reticent furniture might be delightful and useful in the way it can reconfigure for different scenarios.”
The new range includes a stool, desk, table, bed base and bed head – all of which are in Australian timber, with some also featuring panels in red. All of these products, as well as a light, have the negative space of a small piece – like an irregular puzzle piece – somewhere in the design.
Following Donovan Hill’s range, Small Australian Projects will work with other renowned Australian architects, such as m3 architecture, John Wardle Architects and Durbach Block, to create subsequent ranges.
This concept allows architects to produce furniture that may have been created for a particular architectural project for a wider audience, promoting Australian architecture and design in the process.
Small Australian Projects
306 Wickham Street,
Fortitude Valley, 4006
1300 000 727


INDESIGN is on instagram
Follow @indesignlive
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
The Geelong College’s Sport and Wellbeing Centre ‘Belerren’ designed by Wardle is designed around bringing in natural light. But Shade Factor’s job was to help modulate and precisely control it for the most important competitive moments.
In the first instalment of our three-part series exploring what it means to sit your best, we pose the question to Gray Puksand’s Dale O’Brien, who discusses the importance of ease and majority rule when it comes to sitting and reveals why specifying a task chair is not unlike choosing a Volvo.
In the second instalment of our performance seating three-parter, we turn to DKO’s Michael Drescher and Jacob Olsen to peek behind Sayl’s confident architectural form and explore the ideas of inclusivity, adaptability and freedom to move as hallmarks of what sitting your best actually means.
Stepping into Intuit’s Sydney workplace certainly doesn’t feel like walking into an office. Why? In this film, we discover that, when joy takes precedence as a design driver, even a high-performing commercial CBD headquarters can feel like an intuitive wonderland that invites employees to choose their own adventure.
A star of the 2025 INDE Awards is Jenchieh Hung + Kulthida Songkittipakdee / HAS design and research, a practice that made quite the impression on the jury and in the awards.
The absolutely hottest spot in Kuala Lumpur, Lane 23 by K2LD is all about having fun.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
Presented by Shade Factor
Melbourne-based architect and object maker Adam Markowitz blurs the line between design and craft, bringing a deeply considered, material-led approach to his work. As both a practising architect and furniture designer, Markowitz explores how objects can respond to space, light and human use.
Just as Australian cuisine serves up a rich infusion of global flavours, architectural design for contemporary kitchens can dip into a myriad of aesthetics and influences.
Recently in Australia as plans for the first new cathedral in over a century in Sydney were announced, Níall McLaughlin met Timothy Alouani-Roby during his visit to discuss community, tradition, inspiration and the history of architecture.