The world has changed and architecture must change with it, that’s why we resolve issues, not briefs. We are a design-led practice guided by an ethical imperative: every element of the built environment must be viewed through the lens of a climate crisis.
Drawing on a long track record of built work, depth of experience and specialist expertise we seek to design architecture that makes a positive contribution to communities, cities and the environment.
Philosophy
Fraser & Partners was born of a desire to address the challenges presented by our environment with a process that is slower, deeper and fundamentally driven by discovery. We are interested not only in thinking about solutions to global problems, but doing something about them.
Regeneration comes by addressing our process, production and consumption, and investing in nature and ecology. This means going beyond minimising negative impact to making positive contributions. It means putting architecture back in the service of the city, and communities. It means design that gives new life to landscapes – revitalising local species of flora and fauna. Our legacy is built not just on big ideas, but meaningful action.
Methodology
We’re animated by the desire to reimagine and reconstruct environments worth inhabiting. We address the demands of our times by integrating wellness at all scales: materials, people, buildings, communities and cities. Drawing on the modernists who have always inspired us, we intervene at the point that nature and technology converge, harnessing both as tools to design architecture as a user interface.
Each project is driven by a bespoke platform, this forms a series of non-negotiables and ambitions defined in partnership with our clients to help realise the best triple bottom line outcomes. Navigating multiple sectors, the platform centres around 8 core pillars that guide us along the pathway to regenerative practice.
Capability
We aim to approach each project from the position of our client and the perspective of future inhabitants, creating architecture that responds to the unique constraints presented by each brief.
Our portfolio is testament to the success of this approach: we have over $4B AUD of constructed work and a further $3B AUD in planning or development. We work across diverse typologies – from multi-residential buildings and master plans, hospitality spaces and hotels, commercial offices, and interior architecture. Our design philosophy, people, experience and process allows us to create original design solutions that not only look good but work for all stakeholders of the built environment: the client, the community and the end users.
Fraser & Partners has the unique ability to adapt to changing project demands, expanding and contracting resources seamlessly in response to project requirements, through an established pool of experiences resources. Our core design team have the innate ability to undertake work across offices efficiently and effectively, adapting to varying degrees of output and meeting the short term increase in demand in an expedient manner.
Working through our internal procedures and processes, we are rewarded with a flexibility to transcend across each project and effectively manage our time to achieve our strategic objectives.
Hotels and Hospitality
We’re known for designing luxury resorts, distinctive hotels and sensory restaurants. We create experiential architecture and interior design, and our research and projects have given us applied knowledge of current trends in hospitality design and new tourism models. Our hospitality expertise has been recognised through industry awards for projects such QT Resort (Hotel & Accommodation Awards - Alpine Accommodation Winner); Huski (Victorian Architecture Awards - Regional Prize); and Vue de Monde (Australian Interior Design Awards - Hospitality Design).
We understand that today’s businesses’ operate in an experience economy. When designing hospitality environments we view the world through the visitor’s eyes, examining the crucial moments
of their experience to create sensory relationships beyond just the visual – how do your surroundings make you feel? Our hospitality spaces are memorable, both evocative and provocative.
The natural world is an important part in our projects, in fact, environments and gardens are frequently integrated into both private and shared areas in our buildings. Our track record in delivering hospitality and hotel projects that are both design-driven and marketdriven stems from our ability to create solutions that address not only the financial constraints of the hospitality market but also the desires of guests.
We consider our buildings total environments where ecology, technology, and people converge and landscapes and species are regenerated in concert with the built form. Architecture is a user experience and there are no borders between design, technology and community in our spaces.
Our projects have demonstrated potential to improve returns, work within strict floorplan and cost considerations. They provide truly inhabitable environments that excite and engage their owners and tenants.
Marina Mirage
Marina Mirage is set to be a world leading tourism and residential precinct that sets a new direction for regenerative design. Its living facades fuse architecture and landscape; a hybrid where buildings literally breathe.
This is a model community, deeply sustainable with zero carbon homes, hotel and restaurants set into the wondrous gardens of a littoral rainforest. Through a series of dramatic arrival experiences, Marina Mirage envelopes guests, residents and visitors alike. Arriving via Seaworld Drive reinforces the master planned vision for the Spit.
An extraordinary public realm expands out across the Broadwater. People not cars are prioritised in this urban context. The front door opens into a 3-storey internal rainforest while visually connecting guests to the marina beyond. Public spaces wrap the site as vaulted arches, forming a connecting navigation system that acts as intuitive and experience-driven wayfinding from front door to marina boardwalk.
Inspiration for the vaulted arches is derived from European waterfront cities; aqueduct architecture creating future-focused infrastructure. A series of graduated residences share the values of a progressive and dynamic new community where collectivism is celebrated. A new architecture evocative on the Byzantine era delivers material rich modernism while celebrating Australian design culture and craft.
74 Seaworld Drive, Main Beach, QLD
Project cost
$500M AUD
Area 54,000 sqm
Typology Resort, Mixed-use precinct
Hotel keys 110
Operator Confidential
Completion 2026
Waterfront Place
Recalling visions of cliff faces eroded by the waves and shaped by the sea, Waterfront Place’s stepped building form creates a sanctuary of sculpted stone situated amongst lush landscaping.These curved elements, alongside an extend slab edge serve as performative architectural features reducing heat gain.
With the idea of “Traditional architectural tropes” Waterfront Place uses classical constructs such as the public colonnade to promote permeable public spaces and define the ground plane. The activated ground floor serves as the vibrant heart of the building, catalyzing social engagement, enhancing accessibility, and fostering a sense of community vitality.
The focus on wellness and thoughtful integration of landscaping, the building aims to cultivate an environment that fosters a deep connection with nature, promoting overall well-being.
Residence’s focus on human-lead design to define its apartment living. This process begins by first imagining the very best apartments possible. The result is a new format of building that does away with convention in favour of individual preferences.This is a framework that pushes the limitations of a building can nurture and support its residents.
1 Waterfront Place, Port Melbourne VIC
Project costArea -
Completion -
Seaworld Drive
Accentuating design and sensitive landscaping, Seaworld Drive takes a responsible approach to luxury accommodation. Situated alongside the Spit, large-scale hotels, retail destinations and the Marina, the nuances of the site required an ambitious design that would boost connectivity, cultural engagement and protect surrounding biodiversity.
Structurally, the architectural forms take a light-touch to the landscape, hovering on stilts. This design sees nature free of the buildings — leaving the ecosystems of the foreshore to thrive unimpeded below.
The project transforms the harsh traffic-ridden streets of Seaworld Drive into a walkable public piazza that hosts world-class dining experiences inspired by local Indigenous seafood dishes. Pedestrian paths have been integrated to connect the piazza with Main Beach and the proposed Aboriginal Cultural Centre. The gateway to the Spit, Seaworld Drive is a beacon of respectful design.
The vision drives an enduring appreciation of natural rejuvenation and recognition of rightful land owners. Beyond simply a place to stay, this innovative take on luxury accommodation gives visitors an utterly immersive experience that sees them truly cherish place.
Seaworld Drive, Main Beach, QLD
Project cost
Area
Typology
Hotel keys
$400M AUD
40,000 sqm
Resort
200
Operator Confidential
Completion TBC
Winn Street
Since time immemorial, the relationship between people, plants and animals has been one of dependence and content coexistence. However, since colonisation, humans have become increasingly isolated from plants and animals in their natural habitat, while flora and fauna have been pushed out of urban settings.
Winn Street’s design re-establishes the local ecosystem as a cohesive, holistic environment for plants, animals and insects. This enables people to live once again within the native landscape, co-existing in harmony.
Winn Street’s proposed twin towers are perched above a three-storey podium, creating a new destination for work, life and play in the heart of Brisbane’s vibrant Fortitude Valley. Filled with residential and public offerings, the towers incorporate nearly 400 light-filled build to rent apartments, a work club, leisure & wellness, retail and hospitality.
With frontages to Winn, Ann & McLachlan Streets, the ground plane crafts a welcoming and inviting experience. The site is pedestrianised through careful planning and an abundance of dining and shopping, challenging Winn Street’s existing prioritisation of cars and other traffic. Public art activates the ground level, with a unique precast concrete waffle grid on the exterior complementing the reclaimed timber grid and integrated planting inside.
The first level houses a work club and communal spaces designed to support flexible, post-pandemic working. A permeable podium top allows the city to breathe with its native gardens and pool terrace providing vital urban access to greenery and outdoor space.Private residential rooftop spaces feature a display of Australian native planting, pet friendly outdoor areas and fresh produce gardens.
The architectural form responds to its surrounding context through controlled passive design and integrated technology. The architecture combines a high tech / low maintenance approach to design and performance which minimises its environmental impact through reduced reliance on energy consumption.
725 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley QLD
Project cost
Area
Typology
$200M AUD
49,000 SQM
Build-to-Rent
Completion 2025
City Harbour, Docklands
In the aftermath of a global pandemic that profoundly reshaped societal norms regarding work and lifestyle, people have become more aware of their health and surroundings than ever. We’ve all realised the true importance of quality spaces, connection to nature and personal wellbeing.
And as a result of this, there is a growing population of health minded people that are placing a greater value on their longevity and vitality. These people actively seek out experiences and lifestyle offerings that optimise both physical and mental health. In the wake of this shift, the built environment must keep pace – evolving in order to provide holistic environments that are good for their people, good for their neighbourhoods and good for their cities.
City Harbour, Docklands is an innovative development that harmoniously integrates living, breathing buildings within a 22,000 sqm regenerative landscape. The development presents an opportunity to define a thoughtful blend of architecture, landscape, and functionality, contributing to the vitality of the urban environment.
City Harbour seeks to become a Total Environmental Design - a holistic environmental design response that embeds wellness driven initiatives in the architectural, interior and landscape propositions. Ultimately providing the framework for a new community to thrive.
208-226 Harbour Esplanade, Melbourne VIC
Project cost $120M AUD (T01)
Area
159,779
Operator Veriu
Hotel keys
Typology
280
Hotel, Multi Residential
We’re creating a road-map to regenerative design. Each project is driven by a bespoke platform, with a series of non-negotiables and ambitions defined in partnership with our clients to realise the best triple bottom line outcomes.
Navigating multiple sectors, the platform centres around eight core pillars that guide us along the pathway to regenerative practice.
01 Climate positive
Our buildings make positive contribution through negative carbon, achieved through intervention at all stages. Each one must achieve carbon neutral status during construction. This is a non-negotiable action taken in partnership with our clients and collaborators.
Emphasising renewable, local materials and embedding considered landscape elements turns our buildings into carbon sinks: climate positive outcomes and lower ongoing operating costs.
We embed technology within our developments to monitor and improve energy consumption throughout their life-cycle. We also take an active role in negotiating long-term renewable energy supply agreements, expanding the capacity of local providers.
02 Performative architecture
How we design healthy environments has shifted dramatically since the onset of the pandemic. Twenty years of development has been compressed into two, forever changing the ways in which we work, live and play.
Our architectural approach explores a raft of passive design principles such as thermal performance and heat control, access to fresh air, high performance building envelopes, views and vistas, and lighting. These proven considerations are combined with the latest thinking around ventilation, technological integration, healthy materials and contactless mechanisms.
Salutogenesis
True well-being is not about cure, but prevention. Fraser & Partners creates salutogenetic environments that promote collective and individual physical and mental health. Salutogenetic environments offer people what they need in order to feel good, not just feel better. They foster creative expression, access to nature, social connection, movement and activity, and rest.
We understand these needs change depending on the demographics of users, and we actively consider how to make our buildings inter-generational and inclusive, remaining attentive to the diverse needs of different groups.
04
Regenerative landscapes
Regenerating landscapes requires an understanding of climate and context alongside the re-establishment of nature as central to the built environment. For each of our projects, we prioritise the planting of native endemic species to restore the local pre-European ecology of the site. We create total environments that in turn provide vibrant ecological habitats for wildlife and sanctuaries for birds and pollinators.
On-site water strategies mitigate downstream impacts and reduce land pollution. Rainwater harvesting, biodiversity management plans, indoor vegetation and community gardens are but some of the many opportunities to be explored on the pathway to regenerative practice.
05 Value chain
Each building is much more than the sum of its parts. We care about where things come from and how they’re made. Understanding the provenance of every material, every element that goes into our work, allows us to design from the macro to the micro scale, including direct to manufacture elements. This knowledge enables us to create designs that don’t just break-even but give back.
Drawing on the legacies of modernism, The New Standard is our demonstration of iterative design. During the design process, the Fraser & Partners team utilises benchmark data and a suite of custom details – each manufactured to rigorous requirements and adaptable to a range of projects and typologies.
06 Technology
At Fraser & Partners, architecture is user experience – we treat people, architecture and communications as integrated assemblage, rather than separate elements. Our projects have a strong technology backbone, which means that we can measure and analyse almost every aspect of a building’s performance from light, to air quality to heat mapping.
Multi-dimensional sensors create buildings that literally learn to perform better, adapting to the behavioural patterns of users to optimise consumption. Software interfaces for building systems add another layer of adaptability, giving managers the capacity to transparently access data and manually adjust settings.
07 Social and culture
Our architecture puts people at the centre, using design to facilitate connection and community. Respecting the land on which we operate, from time immemorial to more recent history, we learn from the stories of Australia’s First Nations peoples, which connect place, environment and cosmology.
We undertake partnerships and engagement processes with local community representatives and the Traditional Custodians of the land and waterways of Country. This is vital as we shape the flora and fauna of endemic landscapes and enable them to repropagate and thrive.
08 Industry leadership
Our collaborations actively seek to demonstrate industry leadership. Projects embody the principles of advocacy, future value creation, ethical decision-making and contributing meaningfully to the built environment sector.
The seed of each project is a specifically commissioned piece of research. Conducted by industry specialists and university researchers, this in-depth exploration of the vital challenges we face when designing total environments cements the collaborative focus of our process. Research findings are shared upon project completion for wide-reaching benefits.
Acknowledgment of Country
Fraser & Partners acknowledges Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We acknowledge that Countries, knowledges and customs were never ceded, and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.
