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About BKK Architects

About BKK Architects

We create places for humans and communities to thrive.

We’re a Melbourne-based practice established in 2000.

We deliver projects that are public, infrastructural, residential, cultural, and educational. They range in size from major infrastructure to individual homes.

Our work includes:

  • Precinct masterplans and urban design
  • Infrastructure including railway stations, bridges and roads
  • Interior fitouts of existing buildings
  • Exhibition and performance spaces
  • Highly technological fitouts
  • Residential and multi-residential projects
  • Teaching and learning spaces

For us, architecture isn’t about designing objects.

It’s about the spaces in between, and it’s about people.

It’s about places for humans and communities to thrive. Places to live and work effectively. Places to learn, play, socialise, and be your culture. Places that are stimulating, invigorating, healthy and safe. Places that look after the environment.

Great design doesn’t have to make some bold statement or strive to be unique or provocative.

And it doesn’t have to cost more. We believe that great design means tailoring a project to a site, budget, timeline and proposed usage, and the identity of the client. Truly great design opens up a world of functionality, it’s enjoyable, and it lasts.

Our Sustainability Action Plan is a roadmap to fulfilling our Australian Architects Declare pledges.

Read it here

Sustainability is urgent.

The built environment is a major contributor to carbon emissions and we, as designers, have urgent responsibilities to make buildings and communities sustainable. Better still, regenerative.

The BKK Architects Environment Management System is now certified to the standard of ISO 14001.

We are certified carbon neutral under the NoCo2 program and we are signatories to Australian Architects Declare. Our office runs on 100% green energy and we purchase carbon credits to offset our business’s carbon footprint. Passive design is a given in all our new projects.

Our Sustainability Action Plan is a roadmap to fulfilling our Australian Architects Declare pledges, and we’re well on our way. In developing it, we’ve researched certified suppliers, consultants and materials and grown our knowledge substantially.

Our research continues.

“The jury was impressed by 17 Union Street for…supporting the idea of community and precinct as a form of social sustainability. It champions longevity and the importance of thinking about sustainability in regards to long-term building use rather than short-term compliance…an excellent example to which developers can realistically aspire.”

– Jury citation, 2022 Sustainability Advancement Award, Australian Interior Design Awards

ACMI Renewal, Melbourne, VIC

Your project isn’t a blank canvas for our architectural ideas.

It’s the combination of a clear brief that we negotiate with you, plus a complex set of requirements.

We bring no preconceived ideas. You are the expert on what you want to do in and with your project.

Our job is to listen to what you want – all of your stakeholders – and solve the puzzle that is addressing their requirements on time and on budget.

The outcome is the product of this process.

“BKK were excellent to work with. They understood and extended the brief well and collaborated successfully with our other co-design partners.”

– Chris Harris, Former Director of Exhibitions and Touring, ACMI

Doing our bit for Reconciliation

We are very proud to have launched our Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), joining thousands of corporate, government and not-for-profit organisations now formally endorsed by Reconciliation Australia.

Our RAP work continues, and we’re proud to have come together with Reconciliation Australia to start the Architecture and Design Reconciliation Industry Network Group. In it, we’re working with other practices towards implementing our RAP’s, and we’re pooling knowledge, insights and relationships that will inform Reconciliation.

What we’re learning on our RAP journey relates to working with Indigenous consultants and advisors on projects anywhere in the world.

Our Reconciliation Action Plan has been endorsed by Reconciliation Australia.

Read it here

“All openness and no ego. Words and actions purely in service to making the work better. This was my experience with the BKK team…There is an elevated cohesion in work that is born of a relationship like this and you feel it in a visceral way when you experience the ACMI Renewal.”

– Joel Krieger, former Chief Creative Officer, Second Story (Publicis Sapient)

We prefer to collaborate.

We consider ourselves members of a community of architects, rather than a field of competitors, and we like to collaborate with a large pool of colleagues.

In fact, we actively seek out projects that bring opportunities to team up. Over 50 per cent of our projects have been collaborations. This benefits clients because a team with diverse experience and contributions produces better outcomes. It means we tailor a team to suit the demands and specifics of a project.

As well, we like to work with other experts such as exhibition designers, landscape architects, visual artists, and digital/user experience designers.

Our senior people are always there.

Complex or difficult projects take constant design application from people who are adept at working with builders, who understand the work of consultants of many disciplines, and who are responsible for client relationships.

Therefore, all our projects are led by a principal, senior associate or associate. We allocate their time generously and flexibly during consultation activities and onsite during construction.

The role of principals and other senior staff is running the highest-value parts of the project: design advocacy, design, client relationships and stakeholder engagement. They are your day-to-day contact at BKK.

Selected Clients

City of Melbourne
ACMI
Monash University
Laing O’Rourke
RMIT University
Department of Social Housing
The University of Melbourne
Neometro
Victorian School Building Authority
Decmil Southern
BMD Constructions
Major Road Projects Victoria
City of Port Phillip
City of Greater Dandenong
VicTrack
Level Crossing Removal Authority
FourSq
Whitehorse City Council
Assemble Communities
Conrad Gargett
SMEC
Brimbank City Council
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria

Selected Collaborators

Kerstin Thompson Architects
Peter Elliott Architecture
Clare Cousins Architects
Aspect Studios
Callum Morton
Sibling Architecture
Louise Paramor
Hassell
Warren and Mahoney
McGregor Coxall
Global South
T.C.L
Buro North
Greenshoot Consulting
Kyriacou Architects
Michael McKenna
Jordan Rowe
Sandpit
Grumpy Sailor
Monash Art Projects
Second Story
Fieldwork Projects
Greenaway Architects

Selected Awards
Wild Design Awards, Silver, Architecture (Multi-Residential), 17 Union Street
2023
World Architecture Festival, Winner, WAFX, North East Link
2022
Melbourne Design Awards, Silver, Architecture (Multi-Residential), 17 Union Street
2022
DrivenxDesign Melbourne Design Awards, Gold, Interior, ACMI
2021
Good Design Awards Australia, Winner, Urban Design and Public Space, ACMI
2021
AIA Victorian Architecture Awards, Winner, Interior Design, ACMI
2021
Shaw Contract Awards, Education category, Finalist, Monash Business School Alumni Centre
2020
AIA Victorian Architecture Awards, Commendation, Residential Alterations & Additions, Garden House
2020
DrivenxDesign Melbourne Design Awards, Gold, Interiors – Public or Institutional, Monash Business School Alumni Centre
2020
DrivenxDesign Melbourne Design Awards, Silver, Multi-Residential – Constructed, [TOWER]homes
2020
DrivenxDesign Melbourne Design Awards, Gold, Landscape, Garden House
2020
AIA Victorian Architecture Awards, Shortlisted, Residential Additions and Extensions, Garden House
2020
Houses Award, Shortlisted, Sustainability, Garden House
2020
IDEA Awards, Shortlisted, Single Residential, Shrouded House
2019
Australian Urban Design Awards, Built Projects, Swan St Bridge
2019
Melbourne Design Awards, Shortlist, Urban Design, Swan St Bridge
2019
AIA Victorian Architecture Awards, Shortlist, Urban Design, Swan St Bridge
2019
Architizer A+ Award, Popular Choice and Jury Winner, Multi Unit Housing - Low Rise (1-4 Floors), Cirqua Apartments
2018
AIA Victorian Architecture Awards, Shortlisted, Residential New, Shrouded House
2018
Premier’s Design Awards, Finalist, Cirqua Apartments
2017
Great Place Category, Victorian Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) Awards, Commendation, Acland Street, St Kilda
2017
Houses Awards, House Alterations and Additions, Shortlisted Doll’s House
2015
Interior Design Awards, Shortlisted, Doll’s House
2015
AIA Victorian Architecture Awards, Award for Small Project Architecture, Geelong Ring Road Truck Stop Rest Areas
2014
Interior Design Awards, Shortlisted Residential Design, Holiday House
2014
AIA National Architecture Awards, Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design, Lonsdale Street Redesign
2013
Selected Press
The Business of Architecture BKK Architects, Architectural Review, Issue 168, September
2021
Monash Business School Alumni Centre, Artichoke, Issue 72, September
2020
Garden House, Houses Magazine, Issue 134, June
2020
Over The Moon, Fitzroy North House, Green Magazine, Issue 69, September
2019
Lifeblood, Cirqua Apartments, Green Magazine, Issue 66, March
2019
Made by hand and from the heart, Dolls House, Domain, November
2017
Cirqua Apartments, Architecture and Culture Magazine, South Korea, Issue 438, November
2017
Baby Boomers looking for space, Cirqua Apartments, The Age, October
2017
Cirqua Apartments, Architecture Australia Magazine, Issue 106, September
2017
Playing House, Doll’s House, Inside Out Magazine, Issue 141, November
2016
Living in the Landscape, Thames and Hudson, October
2016
Tender Writing, Architecture Review, Issue 146, September
2016
Good Apartment Design, Open Journal, Issue 2, August
2016
Split House, Houses Magazine, Issue 111, July
2016
Bespoke Harmony, Baxter House, Houses Kitchens and Bathrooms, Issue 11, June
2016
Design comes full circle, Cirqua, The Weekly Review, May
2015
Geelong Ring Road Rest Areas, Steel Profile Magazine, Issue 120, May
2015
Opening acts, Doll’s House, Australian Financial Review, May
2015
Doll’s House, Houses Magazine, Issue 103, April
2015
Playtime in the doll’s house, Doll’s House, The Age, March 28
2015
Geelong Ring Road Rest Areas, Architecture Australia Magazine, January
2015
Country calm, Great Wall of Warburton, The Sunday Age Home Style Magazine, September
2014
Enclave House, Chic Haus Magazine Mexico, Issue 183, August
2014
Selected Exhibitions
BKK 100 Models, Craft Victoria
2019
Occupied, RMIT Design Hub, Melbourne
2016
LightCycle, Electrolight Second Storey Studios, Melbourne
2014
Melbourne Now National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2014
Peculiar Places Exhibition Taylor Cullity Lethlean, Melbourne
2012
Venice Biennale, Now and When Object Gallery, Sydney
2011
The Housing Project, Pin-up The Compound Interest, Melbourne
2011
LightCycle, Electrolight Donkey Wheel House, Melbourne
2011
Abundant Highlights, Venice Biennale AIA, Canberra
2010
Abundant Highlights, Venice Biennale AIA, Kuala Lumpur
2010
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