From its industrial origins, to a hub of productivity for modern day workers, Locomotive Workshop in Sydney combines the best of heritage with the needs of today’s workforce.
September 1st, 2023
Locomotive Workshop has been named as the winner of the The Work Space category at the 2023 INDE.Awards. Designed by Sissons Architects in collaboration with Curio Projects, Buchan and Mirvac Design, this adaptive reuse project combines old with new and sets the agenda for exemplary work spaces that support people today.
Partner of The Work Space category is MillerKnoll, a company that understands the workplace environment and provides solutions that sustain, support and enhance the day-to-day life of working. As Locomotive Workshop has been thoughtfully and sensitively conceived, so too does MillerKnoll respond to the many needs of those in the office, creating products that aid health and wellbeing and contribute to best practice.
The 2023 INDE.Awards jury described Locomotive Workshop as, “This extensive project of adaptive reuse establishes a renewed connection with the local neighbourhood by providing service retail and vibrant social spaces. Within the vast Locomotive Workshop, the subtle insertion of commercial office space is foregrounded by intimate settings, communal spaces and heritage artefacts, creating a unique workplace.”
Related: Catch up on the highlights at the INDE.Awards Gala 2023
As a project that combines the best of the past with the future, the Locomotive Workshop began its life manufacturing and servicing locomotive and rolling stock in the Australian railway network in 1871.
The project has been reintegrated into the South Eveleigh Precinct by Mirvac, revitalised as a new workplace that preserves and highlights the cultural and heritage elements of the original building.
Including the Blacksmith and heritage interpretation space in Bays One and Two, the new design helps to preserve the history of the building and update it. Adding a restaurant enhances the heritage experience and provides a story of history for those who visit.
The project has used the existing embodied carbon of the original building, as well as the original cooling and ventilation strategy. With thick perimeter masonry walls and saw tooth roofs, there was also the possibility to integrate ESD initiatives into the project.
Congratulations to Sissons Architects in collaboration with Curio Projects, Buchan and Mirvac Design for developing this adaptive reuse project that pays tribute to heritage but is state-of -the-art for the workers of today.
Missed the INDE.Awards gala or just want to relive the highlights? Simply follow this link and sit back and enjoy the only regional celebration of architecture and design excellence.
Scroll through the INDE.Awards Gala photo highlights here.
Photography
Simon Whitbread, Brett Boardman
We think you might like this article about 3 ways our cities can adopt adaptive reuse.
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!
In this candid interview, the culinary mastermind behind Singapore’s Nouri and Appetite talks about food as an act of human connection that transcends borders and accolades, the crucial role of technology in preserving its unifying power, and finding a kindred spirit in Gaggenau’s reverence for tradition and relentless pursuit of innovation.
BLANCOCULINA-S II Sensor promotes water efficiency and reduces waste, representing a leap forward in faucet technology.
How can design empower the individual in a workplace transforming from a place to an activity? Here, Design Director Joel Sampson reveals how prioritising human needs – including agency, privacy, pause and connection – and leveraging responsive spatial solutions like the Herman Miller Bay Work Pod is key to crafting engaging and radically inclusive hybrid environments.
Gaggenau’s understated appliance fuses a carefully calibrated aesthetic of deliberate subtraction with an intuitive dynamism of culinary fluidity, unveiling a delightfully unrestricted spectrum of high-performing creativity.
The Melbourne-based artist works at the intersection of art and architecture. In a new exhibition at MAGMA Galleries, he turns his focus on urban space and agency to a smaller scale.
Hayley Mitchell and Samantha Eades are creating some of today’s best restaurants, most exciting cafés and bars, and extraordinary hotels and resorts.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
A major urban renewal project has been proposed for Sydney’s inner harbour, with developer Landream revealing plans for Pyrmont Place precinct designed by BVN.
The Altro Neurodiversity Forum 2025 gathered leading architects, designers, thought-leaders and advocates in March at the Manly Pacific Hotel in Sydney.
Leading through design with culture at the fore, Andrew Tu’inukuafe and Barrington Gohns as Luminaries in 2025 are making change that benefits people and place throughout our region.
The fourth edition of the First Nations Writers Festival took place in May 2025, and we spoke to Baka Barakove Bina about the importance of place and home in his writing, as well as the things that make the Pacific region so distinctive.