ABOUT
We bring design to a broad set of situations and audiences, including peripheral locations, difficult problems and tight budgets.
We aim for our work to participate in the widest environment it can; in new forms of communication, in sensitive natural environments, new types of cities, and with ordinary life.
The office promotes collaboration across teams and design disciplines. Our involvement in academic work at RMIT University means that our design is informed by research, experimentation and reflection.
We also share ideas writing for journals, giving lectures, teaching, and publishing and exhibiting our projects. We place architecture in a complicated social and economic environments, and we’re motivated by getting more value out of less - for clients and for the public.
Directors Graham Crist and Nicola Garrod have been part of the company since its inception; Graham a founding director, and Nicola becoming a director in 2014.
We have worked with great clients-they include :
- Equip Super : The Salvation Army : The City of Greater Geelong : Knox City Council : Root Projects
- Buloke Shire : City of Moreland : RMIT University
Antarctica’s work is the result of participation by a significant number of people whose contribution we acknowledge. They include: Simon Whibley, Peter Johns, Dianne Peacock, Brendan Jones, Sasha Hadjimouratis, John Haiko, Ben Inman, Nico Kelly, Mark Lane, Amy Melrose, Frankie Piesse, Alison Claney, Michelle McMahon, Rita Henshall, Ivor McNamara,Ben Clements Jean Spencer, Tom Muratore, Nic Miltos, Taylor Whiley, Whitney Cheong, Farah Mosavari, Qixin Xie, Stephanie Burrows
We have also collaborated with a number of design offices on particular projects.They include: Architecture Associates MufAus, Studio Index, Monash Housing Laboratory, Hayball
Antarctica group pty ltd (acn114 832 852) is a registered architectural company (arbv50928) and A+AIA member (E7191) The company holds current professional indemnity, public liability and workcover insurances.
SERVICE
let us talk you through our process design is communication & it should be easy and open we embrace the constraints of time and money and the voices of everyone in the project.
ECOLOGICAL
Antarctica have signed up to architects declare. We acknowledge the climate emergency. It is our professional obligation to act accordingly. We will be carbon neutral by 2025.
TEAM
NICOLA GARROD
Nicola is a director at Antarctica and has been a part of the practice since it began, playing a central role in its operation. After moving to Melbourne from Scotland in 2001, she completed her architectural study at RMIT and became immersed in the culture of design in Melbourne. Nicola has continued to pursue her interest in the richness and diversity in architecture through both her practice and her sessional teaching role at RMIT University.
With 9 years of professional experience in architecture ranging from small installations and residential additions through to medium and larger scale public community and recreation projects, Nicola has engaged in all aspects of practice. In particular, through her principal role in delivering a number of larger community buildings she has been able to acquire an keen understanding of the construction process.
MAXWELL LEEGEL WIGHT
Max is an architect at Antarctica working across the design and documentation of civic and residential projects. With a background in multi-residential developments, community buildings, educational buildings, alterations and additions, masterplaning and 3d printed installations, Max has experience across diverse stages and typologies of projects.
Having worked for architectural practices in Melbourne and Beijing, Max has an interest in community and residential sustainable design. In addition to sustainable design, he is also interested in pushing the envelope of design through technology and emerging design processes.
EMMA DONOVAN
Emma is an Architectural Graduate with professional experience in both large and small practices in Melbourne. Since moving to Melbourne in 2015, Emma has worked across a range of projects including education, multi residential and master planning. She is interested in community and education architecture and is passionate about the accessibility of design to the wider community.
GRAHAM CRIST
Graham is a founding director of Antarctica and brings many years professional experience to the group. He has worked in offices in Melbourne, Perth and Paris prior to Antarctica, including a previous practice, the partnership of Harrison and Crist. His post-graduate education in Perth studied that city intensely, and his recently completed phD by project at RMIT examined the practice of Antarctica’s work based in Melbourne.
He now studies the built environment closely through building and through parallel academic activity at RMIT University. He participates broadly in the profession- teaching, writing and sitting on Institute of Architects Environment and Education committees. Graham’s work has been published in Architecture Australia, Monument and AR- both as a writer and a designer, and he has participated in exhibitions of his work on many occasions. Through these activities he aims to understand architecture’s contribution in the fullest sense both in relation to its physical environments and to the social processes around it.
