Commercial and industrial design
Commercial building design starts with understanding the business itself. That means the retail or manufacturing process, what has to be stored and how, how much energy the place will use, the standards it has to meet — food handling, dust-free, refrigeration — along with staffing levels, vehicle movements and disability access.
We design from the first sketch around how the business actually runs — where things move, what plant has to fit where, what the compliance requirements will insist on, and what council is going to want to see. Planning for the business to grow inside the building matters just as much as fitting the business it is today.
The building also has to go up efficiently and stay flexible enough to be used differently later, and it should look good while it does. For a lot of owners it is the first base they have had of their own, and it ought to carry the company's identity with some pride. Greg has been doing this alongside the residential work since 1998.
The kind of projects we take on
Greg has designed for a much wider range of businesses than most people would guess — new standalone buildings as well as fitouts, refurbishments, changes of use and new amenities in buildings that are already trading.
- Retail fitouts — shops, showrooms, studios and specialist retail, toy stores included
- Hospitality — cafés and restaurants
- Offices — and workplace fitouts
- Health practices — doctors' surgeries and patient care, designed around access
- Gymnasiums — and health centres
- Warehouses — including high-bay
- Factories — new builds, refurbishment and change of use, from light to heavy industry
- Industrial unit complexes — from a pair of factories up to 14 units, on sites up to 11,000 m²
- Specialist commercial — food factories, medical equipment manufacturing, dry cleaning, joinery, transport hubs, craft breweries and engineering works, etc
- Cold storage — from small-scale to large transfer facilities, with industrial freezers up to 30,000 m³
- Signage — premises for signage businesses, and signage for other businesses
- Heritage commercial — sensitive reuse with modern flexibility
- The more unusual briefs — cemeteries and animal shelters
If your business isn't on that list, it's still worth a call. Most commercial jobs come down to the same questions about how a place has to run day to day, and we have usually worked on something close to it.
Fitting out a space you don't own
Leased space comes with its own set of complications that are the responsibility of the lessee/user of the building. The landlord will have requirements of their own such as providing a building 'fit for purpose', but you're generally working with whatever base building services you've been given rather than the ones you'd have chosen, and the whole time there's a lease clock running that doesn't care how long council takes. Also, there's usually a make-good obligation waiting at the other end of the lease.
We have worked with clients to get their applications underway ASAP to minimise wasted rent and disruption to your business. We can also design in a way that can minimise your costs of rectification at the end of the lease.
Case Study: Designing a shop with a tiny budget
Skein Sisters is a yarn shop in Dulwich Hill, in the Inner West of Sydney. The budget was small enough that most of the usual answers were off the table, so the work went into making inexpensive materials look considered rather than cheap.
The shelving is the clearest example. Rather than buying more units, Greg found usable display space in the gaps between the ones already planned, so the shop carried more stock than the budget should have allowed. As the business has grown, the modular shelving has been added to, to increase the selling space.
A lot of the thinking went into how people would move through the space as well as how it looks & feels. Wheelchair and mobility access set the aisle widths from the start. The counter sits where it does so sightlines are retained, which matters more in a small shop than most owners expect for servicing customers and stock security. Lighting and the placement of the best-selling stock were worked out before anything was built, and the dead corners that every retail space has were turned into places that sell.
The fitout is coming up to 10 years old and still gets complimented by customers.
"Greg had the challenge of working within an extremely tight budget, yet somehow managed to create a shop that felt creative, welcoming and genuinely cool.
One of the things we appreciated most was how across everything he was – not just the aesthetics, but also the practical and regulatory side of the project. He ensured the store was fully accessible and wheelchair friendly, which was very important to us."
Approvals and change of use
Commercial & Industrial projects often require a change-of-use application — a shop becoming a café, a warehouse becoming a workspace, a house becoming something that isn't a house. It catches people out because the use you're proposing frequently matters more to council than the building work you want to do to accommodate it, and the two get assessed quite differently.
Often it is a simple matter, but some uses of buildings can require the building to be of a different level of construction and fire safety — ask the hard questions first.
Where we've worked
Commercial and industrial projects across Sydney.
- Alexandria
- Arndell Park
- Beaconsfield
- Blacktown
- Bondi Beach
- Botany
- Carramar
- Crows Nest
- Dulwich Hill
- Enmore
- Erskineville
- Gregory Hills
- Haymarket
- Hurstville
- Kogarah
- Leichhardt
- Marrickville
- Mascot
- Matraville
- Moss Vale
- Newtown
- Panania
- Port Botany
- Riverwood
- St Peters
- Sydenham
- Sydney CBD
- Regional NSW
And further afield, interstate.
FAQs - Commercial Projects
Q01Can we assess the space before I sign the lease?
Yes, and it is the single most useful time to involve us. Whether a space suits your business depends on things that are difficult to see on an inspection — whether the use is permitted, what approvals the space already has, whether the services and access will carry what you need, and what the make-good obligation will cost you at the end. Finding that out after signing is an expensive way to learn it.
Q02Do I need council approval to fit out a space I am leasing?
If you are changing from one form of retail to another, your development may be exempt or complying.
Often though, if the use is changing from what the premises were approved for, that needs approval in its own right even if you are not touching the structure. Fitout work itself may be exempt, complying development, or a full application depending on what you are doing and where. It is worth establishing which before you order anything.
Some uses also require a different level of Building Classification under the National Construction Code (NCC) which can affect access and fire safety.
Q03What does a fitout design cost?
It varies widely, because a small retail fitout and a warehouse conversion are not the same exercise. The size of the space, the complexity of the services, and how much approval work is involved all move the number. Far more complex for commercial applications as there is generally not a one-size-fits-all solution — but we can help through the process.
Q04Do you handle accessibility and compliance?
Accessibility is designed in from the start rather than solved at the end — it sets circulation and aisle widths, lighting levels, slip resistance etc., so retrofitting it is expensive and usually compromises the layout. We design to the requirements and coordinate with the certifier and any specialist consultants your project needs to meet the needs of the Certifier.
Q05Will you work with my landlord's requirements?
Yes, and there are usually more of them than people expect. Landlords commonly have their own fitout guidelines, approval processes and requirements about what can be altered and what has to be reinstated. Getting those in front of us early avoids designing something that the landlord then refuses, which is a slow and demoralising way to discover the rules.
Q06Do you produce the drawings my builder works from?
Yes. The documentation is prepared so a builder can price it and build from it without filling in the gaps themselves, which is where variations and arguments usually come from. That matters more in commercial work than most people realise, because a fitout programme has a lease clock running against it.
Q07How long does a fitout take to get approved?
It depends entirely on the pathway. Exempt work needs no approval at all. Complying development through a private certifier can be quick when the proposal qualifies. A change of use through council takes longer, and that is the one most likely to apply if the premises were approved for something else. A development application through council takes longest, and it is still needed for new buildings and for anything the simpler pathways do not cover. Establishing the pathway early is what lets you plan a realistic opening date.
Q08Do you work on cafes and food premises?
Yes. Food premises carry an extra layer — council health requirements on surfaces, hand basins, ventilation and waste, alongside the ordinary planning and building requirements. It is detailed rather than difficult, but it shapes the layout, so it is designed in rather than added on afterwards.
Q09Do you design new commercial buildings, or only fitouts?
Both. Alongside fitouts, Greg designs new standalone commercial and industrial buildings, including industrial unit complexes of up to 14 units. For a business building its own premises, the design starts with how it runs now and how it is likely to grow, so the building does not have to be extended or given up a few years in.
Q10Do you only work in Sydney?
No. Most of the commercial work has been across Sydney, from the CBD and the Inner West out to Blacktown, Gregory Hills and Port Botany, but there is a long history of work through regional New South Wales, as far as the Southern Highlands and beyond, and interstate as well. If the project is further afield it is worth a conversation about how site visits would work.