Bates Smart
Events
Indesign x Wilkhahn: Melbourne, where are you working?
Our latest collaboration saw a range of designers come together at Wilkhahn’s Melbourne showroom for a discussion on the workplace dynamics specific to the Victorian capital.
Events
Celebrating ten years of Indo-Pacific design: 2026 INDE.Award winners revealed
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the 2026 INDE.Awards recognised the outstanding people, projects and products shaping design across the Indo-Pacific.
Project
A vertical hospital shaped by Country and community
At Peninsula University Hospital, a people-centric design approach brings together healthcare, culture and landscape — redefining the experience of care on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.
Project
CBRE Sydney workplace by Bates Smart reimagines the office experience
CBRE’s new Sydney workplace elevates the working life and celebrates design that is all style and sophistication.
Project
Omnicom’s Melbourne headquarters revitalises a heritage icon on Bourke Street
The new headquarters for Omnicom in Melbourne’s CBD sees heritage re-invigorated with style and finesse.
News
Australian Institute of Architects 2025 National Architecture Awards
The Australian Institute of Architects has unveiled 43 projects representing the pinnacle of contemporary design, with winners addressing housing, climate and affordability crises through innovative solutions.
News
Product Aware x Milliken: shaping a transparent future together
In a landscape clouded by data and greenwash, Product Aware offers architects and designers a common language for sustainability. Embraced by suppliers – including Milliken – it is setting a new benchmark for trust and bringing clarity and accountability to material specification.
Workplace
Civic activation at 55 Collins Street
Grimshaw has completed a revitalisation of Collins Place, adding new layers to an already historically and architecturally rich site in Melbourne’s CBD.
News
Future force on show at Bates Smart exhibition
An exhibition titled ‘Synthetic Spaces’ by Maycon Sedrez and Gregory Pitts from Deakin University is taking place at the Bates Smart Gallery in Melbourne.
News
The 2025 NSW Architecture Awards shortlist has been revealed
The 2025 NSW Architecture Awards shortlist is out, spotlighting standout projects from across New South Wales. Winners will be announced Friday 20th June at ILUMINA Sydney.
Events
Winners from the 2024 World Architecture Festival
Another Sydney project has taken out the top prize this year in Singapore, with a wide range of other winnings works from around the world.
Articles
“A space that affects all the senses:” Bates Smart and MillerKnoll create a holistic workplace in Melbourne
A new holistic workplace design typology is achieved thanks to collaboration and customisation.
Project
Prefecture 48 is the place to be
Sydney has a new hospitality destination that ticks all the boxes for great design and showcases Japanese cuisine and culture at its best.
Project
Halls of power
Open, light-filled and speaking directly to contemporary Australian culture, the new Bates Smart-designed Australian Embassy in Washington DC is positioning Australia at the forefront of contemporary design.
Project
A first-hand account of the new Embassy of Australia in Washington D.C.
Having attended the inauguration of the Bates Smart-designed Embassy in Washington D.C., we hear exclusively from Kristen Whittle on his own personal journey and reflections on the design.
Events
Live & Learn: Indesign 92 is here!
The latest print magazine is about to arrive! With Guest Editor William Smart in the hot seat, we are delighted to share some of the highlights.
Project
Bates Smart-designed luxury retirement living apartments deliver hotel experience
Leading Australian retirement company Keyton announces the completion of their first high-end Ardency retirement living project in Victoria.
News
Queensland State Architecture Awards: Projects that think beyond the walls and prioritise user engagement
The Queensland State Architecture Awards celebrated projects designed to cater to diverse households and communities, showcasing how thoughtful design can improve our lives.
Ideas
A collection of opinions and takes on the build-to-rent model
The build-to-rent model stands out as one of the most prominent discussions in design and development circles, so we’ve engaged with various perspectives and case studies from industry leaders and shifters. From citymaking design practices to entrepreneurial viewpoints, these stories provide a nuanced understanding of this increasingly prevalent model.
Events
The Architecture Ball 2024 sets the scene for Sydney Mardi Gras
Architecture with Pride (AWP) 2024 has kicked off with style! The Architecture Ball just took place in Sydney, with more events to follow soon.
Events
Architecture with Pride is back for 2024!
Architecture with Pride (AWP), bringing together the LGBTQI+ design community, is back again with events coming very soon – tickets are on sale now.
Events
On The Move: A bumper round of career news to finish 2023
It’s the final round of career moves for 2023. Stretching back to November, it’s a bumper list full of diverse and exciting appointments.
Ideas
Kristen Whittle and the quest for soulful density
Building on a profound depth of experience, Kristen Whittle is orchestrating his very own studio with a humanistic design philosophy based on care.
Project
Inner city oasis: We visit Rivière by Aria Property and Bates Smart
Alice Blackwood visits Rivière by Aria Property and Bates Smart, pausing for an overnight stay, to explore the sustainability principles and design innovations underpinning Rivière’s unique lifestyle proposition.
Project
Putting the spark back into CBD life: Bates Smart re-imagines The Metropolitan Hotel
The Metropolitan Hotel is breathing new life into the west end of Melbourne’s CBD, making William Street – a precinct often overlooked by restaurant-goers – actually sparkle.
Ideas
Bates Smart comment: Can city-making inform hospital design?
From third spaces to connections with the urban realm, Alison Huynh shares her vision for healthy hospital design.
Events
Meet the speakers that you’ll be hearing from at Saturday Indesign
Get ready to hear from design’s best and brightest.
Events
The full speaker lineup for the 2023 INDE.Summit is here!
Discover who you’ll be hearing from at the region’s leading architecture and design symposium.
VIC
Bates Smart and the build-to-rent model for city living
That’s it. It’s a no-brainer. Move to central Melbourne and rent at LIV Munro where the apartments are beautifully conceived and the amenities are beyond outstanding. Build-to-rent is making waves and, through excellent design, the lifestyle of this new way of living is elevated to another dimension.
Project
Ace Hotel Sydney rises from within the historic Tyne House warehouse
Bates Smart director Guy Lake walks us through the architectural aspects involved in transforming a heritage 1915 brick factory into the Ace Hotel Sydney.
Project
6 staircases that have us spiralling out of control
In the hands of commercial architects, spiral staircases have never been so beautifully resolved. Gillian Serisier shares 6 eye-popping commercial spiral staircases.
Workplace
A hub of flexibility: Bates Smart designs Hub Australia’s newest co-working space
With a new emphasis on luxury, Hub Wynyard in Sydney accommodates hybrid working in a fit out that strongly connects with the city.
Events
Building our future: The Building shortlist
This year’s INDE.Awards – The Building shortlist recognises projects that mark new direction in the future of architecture.
Articles
A ‘home away from home’ for this mobile workforce
‘Sense of place’ makes a workplace feel uniquely welcoming and familiar. In its fit-out for Boston Consulting Group, Bates Smart with Schiavello conjure a ‘home away from home’ for its mobile workforce.
Project
Indesignlive’s top hospitality projects of 2021
We couldn’t pick all of our favourites, but here’s a small sample of the best hospitality projects produced this year.
Project
7 therapeutic interiors designed with mental health in mind
To celebrate Mental Health Week this year, we explore 7 artfully therapeutic environments that have been designed with mental health front of mind.
Project
Bates Smart raises the creative bar at Teahouse Crown Sydney
Designed as an exquisite Chinoiserie jewel box, stepping into the Teahouse at Crown Sydney, by Bates Smart, is a luxurious experiential journey like no other.
Project
Technology meets wellness in Charter Hall x Cox Architecture’s 130 Lonsdale Street
As questions around the meaning of a 9-to-5 workplace continue to arise, Charter Hall and Cox look towards technology and wellbeing for the solution.
News
On the move: shifts made in leadership teams across industry
As June bumps into July, in 2021, GroupGSA’s founding director moves on; meanwhile, Architectus, Bates Smart and more ordain newly appointed leaders.
Workplace
What ever will coerce people out of home and back to the CBD?
The pandemic saw unprecedented freedoms given to employees in an effort to keep the ball rolling. But as we move away from it, what does the ideal office look like in a post-pandemic world, and what will it take to bring employees back to the office in a full time capacity?
Project
Bates Smart puts the jewel in the Hilton crown
It’s beautiful, hidden away and oh so Melbourne. Hilton Little Queen Street is open for business and is sparkling like a diamond.
Magazine
Our ‘Workplace Progress’ issue is now online
For those yet to experience Indesign #83, our ‘Workplace Progress’ issue in full, here’s news that ought to please you.
Project
10 creative and agile spaces for activity based work
The following ten design projects represent the most inimitable offices we’ve seen of late, in which space goes above and beyond in its role as a facilitator of ABW.
Project
When design brings workplace culture to life
Inspired initially by the groundbreaking Google HQ, workplace culture has risen steadily as a priority on the agenda of businesses since the beginning of the internet age.
Ideas
The workplace strategists’ guide to responding to change
Now is the time for strategy and action, say Kellie Payne, director, Bates Smart, and Dr Caroline Burns, founder, Workplace Revolution. And it all begins with asking the right questions.
Ideas
Inside Indesign #83, the ‘Workplace Progress’ issue
Our ‘Workplace Progress’ issue—on sale from 25 March 2021—examines the shifting goal posts of workplace design, and shares the most notable contemporary insights, perspectives and projects in the space today.
Project
The Lounge at UNSW by Bates Smart will give you lounge envy
At the vanguard of design, The Lounge by Bates Smart is sophisticated and stylish. However, it offers so much more than just aesthetic benefit to the staff of the University of New South Wales.
News
On the Move: New year, new appointments for DesignInc, SB Architects and Bates Smart
DesignInc, SB Architects and Bates Smart kicked off the new year with a number of new appointments and promotions, strengthening each studios’ leadership for whatever lays ahead.
Ideas
As designers, what can we bring to the table?
Jeff Copolov, the esteemed interior designer and longstanding director for Bates Smart, confronts the big questions re. hospitality design post Covid-19.
Articles
Well, Designed: Health and Wellbeing in Post-Pandemic Times
By Porta
Magazine
Indesign Issue #82 Coming to YOU, Online and Free
Available now for online readers, the 82nd issue of Indesign largely focuses on hospitable design, it’s trends and it’s importance.
News
Meet your Super Design 2020 Ambassadors!
Super Design is an event unlike any other, so we needed a group of Ambassadors who have a penchant for the unexpected and an eye for the magic of design…
News
It’s official: the 2020 Sustainability Awards shortlist is here
The 2020 Sustainability Awards shortlist has been announced and this year, there have been quite a few very pleasant surprises.
Project
The many faces of wellness at work
In recent years, wellness and workplace culture have skyrocketed to become all the rage for office fitouts and commercial design.
Project
Breaking away from the break-out space
Banco Chambers by Bates Smart is an office fitout quite contrary to the hybrid, open-plan spaces definitive of the contemporary workplace design cliché.
Edit
The Indesign Edit On Healthcare Environments
Welcome to The Indesign Edit: Health Check. In this issue, we explore three of the best health and aged care projects and the outstanding products that contribute to achiever the overall design.
People
On the Move: June/July 2020
Who’s who and who’s on the move within the architecture and design industry? Bates Smart, Carr and ClarkeHopkinsClarke announce their latest senior appointments.
People
Kendra Pinkus, Design Maverick
When is the best time to go it alone and establish your own practice? Well it’s always a huge professional and personal step but even more challenging at this particular time – that is unless you are Kendra Pinkus.
News
Bates Smart’s $32m design of The Foundry
Bates Smart has designed The Foundry, its site located on 592-600 Smith Street in Clifton Hill, Melbourne for $32m.
Project
A case of 20/20 vision
Four villages, two towers, multiple connecting stairs and an entirely new working model that’s been four years in the making. How did Bates Smart combat a “long runway” to future proof its design for Australian Unity?
News
Bates Smart’s Richie Healy on the future of workplaces
Saturday Indesign is fast approaching and we couldn’t be more excited! Working with us is a group of industry Ambassadors, each of which we’ll be profiling in the lead up to the big day – set for Saturday 20 June, 2020. Up first is Richie Healy, Associate at Bates Smart.
News
Leaders of the pack, Living Edge, opens in Melbourne
Thursday 27th February was a big night in Melbourne for the architecture and design community, not least because Living Edge Melbourne threw open its doors to their long-awaited new showroom in Richmond.
News
On The Move
We cover the latest moves, promotions and celebrations across the architecture and design industry, including Bates Smart, Gray Puksand, The Design Institute of Australia, Assemble and more.
Project
Green is the new black
Hotel Chadstone Melbourne is a new five-star hotel by dwp and Bates Smart that puts fashion – and sustainability – first
Ideas
Healing with dignity
“We must continue to focus on delivering human-centred solutions that encourage a patient’s sense of worth.” Studio director at Bates Smart, Mark Healy on the challenges and responsibilities of healthcare models in the contemporary context.
Project
Anything but clinical
The architects of Cabrini Malvern’s new Gandel Wing have envisaged wards that feel both polished and hotel-like in quality. But it’s the focus on safety requirements and functional needs of patients and staff that really shines through.
News
Meet Our Saturday Indesign 2020 Ambassadors
These are the movers and shakers of the design industry and they’re here to make the most anticipated event on the calendar the best it can be. Introducing our Saturday Indesign Ambassadors…
Project
Not your ordinary university bar
UNSW is upping the ante on university hospitality venues, employing design to attract and retain talent. The Lounge, designed by Bates Smart, is UNSW’s new hybrid space for academics
Ideas
Tune In: Talking Architecture podcast with Bates Smart’s Philip Vivian
What are the greatest challenges facing architecture? Where are the latest innovations happening in design? How are CLT structures changing the face of our built environment? Tune in to hear Bates Smart director Philip Vivian’s thoughts on these hard-hitting industry questions.
Ideas
Knowledge capital: Workplaces for creativity and thinking
Idea generation, creativity and mental stamina: this is the currency of the modern-day knowledge worker. What sort of environment is required for the people who innovate through ideation?
Project
Evolving workplaces: Hub Australia’s new Melbourne office by Bates Smart
Award-winning architecture studio Bates Smart has designed a new-generation co-working space in Melbourne for Hub Australia.
Project
Marvellous Melbourne inspires BCG’s new workplace
Bates Smart looked to the characteristic attributes of Melbourne to bring the vitality of the city into a high-performance working environment.
News
On the Move: The latest promotions and updates from the industry
As the end of 2018 draws near, many practices have announced new leadership and promotions. What a time to cap off the year with a well-earned pat on the back.
People
Bates Smart’s Mark Healey on normalising the clinical environment
Bates Smart studio director Mark Healey has carved out a unique CV having worked on some of Australia’s best healthcare projects, alongside multi-res and commercial work. Here he opens up about the latest design thinking behind our changing healthcare landscape.
People
Searching for more meaning in hospitality: Bates Smart’s Brenton Smith
Sustainability and meaningful experiences are key drivers in the hospitality sector today, as Bates Smart’s Brenton Smith shares with the studio’s latest regional hotel offering.
Project
Bates Smart does old-school hotel sophistication
A fresh and modern interior is in keeping with the Novotel brand and revitalised Darling Harbour area.
News
To preserve or progress? Bates Smart debated the pros and cons
As Bates Smart’s Melbourne studio celebrated 165 years of architecture, the idea of heritage came up for debate.
News
The Institute’s 2018 National Architecture Awards shortlist revealed
Take a look at the outstanding work that made the cut in the Australian Institute of Architects’ national awards program.
Project
First look: Bates Smart’s Victorian Racing Club via drone
Watch Bates Smart’s brand new Victorian Racing Club from the sky as the building’s shell is completed ahead of the Spring Racing season.
Articles
From the ground up: How Tappeti believes we can transform the design industry, one rug at a time
Luxury rug brand and FRONT exhibitor Tappeti prove that sometimes, finding outstanding design is simply a question of looking down.
News
INDE.Awards 2018 Gala: The night that brought APAC A&D together
‘Community’ was the dominant theme at the INDE.Awards 2018 Gala in Singapore. It was a celebration of outstanding design, architecture, material and culture as well as an opportunity to knit together a stronger fabric for our regional industry.
News
Here’s why we’re leading wellbeing in design: Asia Pacific’s best wellness spaces
Wellness continues to be a central driver in contemporary design. Here are the region’s best wellness spaces according to the INDE jury this year.
Project
Who came out on top? Presenting your INDE.Awards Winners for 2018
The wait is over! Couldn’t make it to INDE.Awards Gala on 22 June in Singapore? Don’t fret! Here are your official 2018 winners …
Articles
Designing for the new hotel experience: Pier One Sydney
From lighting, to vacuums, hand dryers and more, Pier One Sydney Harbour is definitely P.O.S.H with Dyson’s entire product suite.
News
Two cities, two events – both honouring women in the industry
As one of Australia’s oldest and most respected architecture practices, Bates Smart opened up some debate on design ahead of International Women’s Day with not one, but two events.
Project
Australian healthcare design: Just what the Doctor ordered
The transformative potential of design is particularly evident in the context of healthcare design, where it is now being used to create vibrant, uplifting spaces that positively impact patient health and mental states.
Dissections
Bendigo Hospital by Bates Smart & Silver Thomas Hanley
The oft-opposing principles of medical-based thinking and evidence-based design have long been a sticking point for healthcare designers. The new Bendigo Hospital by Bates Smart and Silver Thomas Hanley shows us they need not be mutually exclusive. There is a sweet-spot to be found. It just takes an intelligent and intuitive design touch.
Articles
Announcing The Return Of Boilingpoint ̊ Magazine!
Since 2002, Boilingpoint Magazine by Zip Water has celebrated the global architecture and design community. In 2017, it returns again to investigate today’s A+D.
Articles
Australian Design Taking Home The Top Prizes On The World Stage!
Design can change the world. As a member of the architecture and design community, you are the visionary—the creative problem solver who is constantly redefining the way we work, play, and organise our lives.
Articles
It’s unanimous: Australian design is among the best in the world!
If the 2017 global Shaw Contract Design Awards revealed anything, it’s that Australian designers really know how to embrace change and take a risk.
Articles
5 Mins With… Bates Smart’s Brenton Smith
On the eve of his promotion, Bates Smart Director Brenton Smith speaks on the recipe for creative intelligence that keeps the practice at the top of its game.
Project
Aged-care can be beautiful: Gandel House at Emmy Monash Aged-Care by Bates Smart
What is interior design’s responsibility in revolutionising aged-care environments? The new Emmy Monash Aged-Care facility in Melbourne’s Caufield has all the luxury commodities of a contemporary multi-residential complex. From thoughtfully considered finishes through to superior shared facilities, no expense has been spared on residents’ comfort and quality of life.
Project
The Salvation Army Sydney HQ, By Bates Smart
If mindfulness is next to godliness, wellbeing is the holy grail. So how and why is design investing in the R&D of wellbeing?
Dissections
Gandel House at Emmy Monash Aged-Care by Bates Smart
What is interior design’s responsibility in revolutionising aged-care environments? The new Emmy Monash Aged-Care facility in Melbourne’s Caufield has all the luxury commodities of a contemporary multi-residential complex. From thoughtfully considered finishes through to superior shared facilities, no expense has been spared on residents’ comfort and quality of life.
Project
Inside the Glimmering Prima Pearl Tower
This attention to detail permeates every element of the Prima Pearl Tower, creating a cultivated environment designed to emulate the grandeur of luxury hotels.
Ideas
Who won what at the 2015 NSW Architecture Awards
The 2015 winners of the Australian Institute of Architects’ NSW Architecture Awards were announced at Sydney Town Hall last night.
News
Introducing the Indesign Webinar Series
The Indesign Webinars are a series of free, open, collaborative conversations between key players in the industry researched and facilitated by Indesign Media.