CO-OP, Level 2, 55 Southbank Boulevard, Southbank (2026)

20/06/2025

What happens when you rethink the sport and leisure facility — not just in how it performs, but how it serves and engages with its community?

At this year’s National Sports & Physical Activity Convention, CO.OP Studio Principal Mike McGrath and Associate Daniel Pike will be leading tours through two of our projects – both very different but equally community focused projects.

The first stop on the tour is Carnegie Memorial Swimming Pool, where delegates will get to see how sustainability has shaped every decision, from how the building fits within its parkland setting, the materials used, and how it welcomes everyone in the community to be active and look after their health and wellbeing.

Second stop is Bundha Sports Centre, Australia’s first multi-level community indoor court facility designed to integrate with an adjoining secondary school and enable a share-use arrangement, serving a key part of the Victorian Government’s visions for the Fitzroy Gasworks redevelopment.

For event details: nationalsportsconvention.com.au/tours

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Carnegie Memorial Swimming
Client: Glen Eira City Council
Builder:

Bundha Sports Centre
Client: for Development Victoria

03/06/2025

Our Melbourne and Sydney studios have come together for to reflect and learn more about how we, as architects, may contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

For this, our Reconciliation Action Plan provides an important framework, guiding us as we seek to learn more and practice better.

Among the many things learnt has been the importance of true collaboration and early engagement. Identifying consultants who can help us with this process has been intrinsic to embedding First Nations stories into our built environments in a meaningful way.

An example is ‘Shimmer’, a collection of site-specific artworks celebrating the rich First Nations history of the region through delicate murals at the Heffron Centre. Drawing together a team of Indigenous artists from Re-Right Collective, art curator Cultural Capital was engaged by Randwick City Council to develop a cultural artwork for the sports facility and South Sydney Rabbitohs headquarters.
Re-Right Collective artists, Carmen Glynn-Braun and Dennis Golding partnered for this project to tell the stories of the Bidjigal people who lived on the coastlines and fished in the fertile waters for thousands of years.

Shimmer is a collection of three individual artworks, sharing the same name to reflect their interconnectedness with nature, as they reflect light and interact with the sun throughout the day. Each artwork tells a unique story of the Gweagal and their knowledge and connection to nature. Golden painted motifs envelop the building facade, seemingly floating through to the interior via intricate decals on the glass windows. Masterfully sculpted bronze artefacts complement a traditional mural on the western entrance wall, adding a third dimension to the storytelling opportunity.

04/03/2025

Carnegie Memorial Swimming Pool has made a splash this summer, welcoming over 55,000 visitors since reopening in January. As noted by our client, Glen Eira City Council, that’s over 1,600 people per day or one person visiting every 30 seconds.

We’re also delighted to share that the Pool has achieved a 6-Star Green Star design rating and the highest design review score for an aquatic centre in Australia.

A cornerstone of the local community since 1966, Carnegie Memorial Swimming Pool has been reimagined to preserve its historic essence and for all to enjoy and benefit from year-round aquatic recreation and sport.

The expanded facility includes indoor pools, sauna, spa, consulting suites, café, and program rooms, all housed within a re-envisioned red-brick structure – a low, lean mass, buried to feel like a single-level building rather than a “big box”, and designed to blend with its parkland and residential surroundings.

03/12/2024

Many of CO.OP Studio’s projects have a strong focus on youth engagement.

One of these projects is the Bentleigh Library and Youth Hub for the of Glen Eira. A key driver of the project was Glen Eira City Council’s objective to integrate its youth services, which were previously accommodated in a separate building.

Together with the Council, CO.OP Studio created a design vision that utilised a combined building form to signify the inclusive community-focussed nature of the facility. The subsequent significant expansion and upgrade of Bentleigh Library elevates the youth services through the increased space, quality interiors and a shared, vibrant courtyard that visually links the Youth Hub’s interior with that of the main library building.

Project Director, John Schout, said “Our team diligently and carefully considered what experience the new Youth Hub might offer, and it was an honour to work with Glen Eira City Council to design a true community asset that supports youth wellbeing.”

21/11/2024

Our New Houses for Rosebud Secondary College have won the Learning Environments Australasia 2024 VIC & TAS Chapter Award for New Building/s or Facility/s – Small.

“The buildings CO.OP Studio have designed at Rosebud Secondary College have not only embedded the schools fledgling vertical house philosophy within their pedagogy, they have also transformed a cramped site where it had become evident that the existing facilities could not support the new system. The purpose built accommodation has allowed the vertical house structure to mature within the school. It’s inherent commitment to wellbeing is paying dividends in terms of student engagement and a palpable improvement in connection between the staff and the student body.”
- Jury Citation

It is a tremendous honour to help shape the student wellbeing experience at Rosebud Secondary College. The New Houses are the second LEA award-winning project we have designed and delivered for the College, following the Wellness Centre, winner of the 2023 LEAD Award for An Innovative Education Initiative.

Congratulations and thanks to everyone who has contributed to the success of the project.
Melbcon .com.au Cortese Consultants .la

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20/11/2024

We are very pleased to be appointed as the Principal Design Consultant for the Stead Park Upgrade in Corio, Wadawurrung Country.

Our team is now undertaking Concept Design for the project which will provide an upgraded pitch, a new pavilion and increased seating capacity to strengthen Stead Park’s reputation as a premier hockey venue and allow for more community and high-performance sport pathways in the Geelong region.

The redevelopment is being delivered as part of the Victorian Government’s Regional Sports Infrastructure Program.

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Development Victoria, Sport and Recreation Victoria, City of Greater Geelong, Hockey Geelong
Architecture & Access , Creo Structures Pty Ltd, Elephants Foot Group, FCA, Introba, Krneta , Octave Acoustics, Site Image Landscape Architects & Public Art Consultants, SPORTENG, Stantec, Studio Semaphore

09/10/2024

A second home. That’s how our New Houses for Rosebud Secondary College have been described by the school community.

“Our students treat the New Houses like their second homes, with the spaces cultivating a sense of community and pride of place like nowhere else on the campus. The clever design and calming interiors ensure all are welcome, with the spaces able to accommodate large numbers and diverse groups of students at once. Ultimately, the New Houses support and enhance the wellbeing of our students, which is a core focus of Rosebud Secondary College.”
- Lisa Holt, Principal, Rosebud Secondary College

The main driver for the design of the New Houses came from the College’s desire to support vertical streaming within their teaching and learning system, an arrangement that accommodates all students across four House groups.

Situated within the heart of the campus the New Houses give form to a verdant courtyard and create an environment that is more easily traversed, observed, shared, and residential in character.
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Victorian School Building Authority, Rosebud Secondary College, Melbcon, Videre Group, Krneta, Creo Structures, Cortese Consultants, Site Image

02/10/2024

The Heffron Centre completes the revitalisation of Heffron Park as a sustainable, inclusive and fully integrated sporting hub and community precinct. Serving the community of Maroubra and elite sports team, South Sydney Rabbitohs, it provides multi-purpose sport, events and educational spaces, a public café, media production facilities, and an engaging space where the entire Rabbitoh’s organisation can assemble in one location and fans can enjoy visiting and competing in a state-of-the-art facility alongside their sporting heroes.

With our design approach centred on a philosophy of community inclusiveness, we are delighted to see how the Heffron Centre has become such important social infrastructure for the City of Randwick over the past year, following the official opening of the Centre by the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, NSW Premier Chris Minns, Rabbitohs Captain Cameron Murray and Randwick Mayor Dylan Parker in 2023.
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Randwick City Council, NSW Government, Australian Government, South Sydney Rabbitohs, ADCO, Belgravia Leisure

23/09/2024

The sod has been turned for the Mordi Aquatic Centre, marking the next phase of delivering the City of Kingston’s largest project ever.

CO.OP Studio Principal and Sports & Recreation Leader, Mike McGrath, said, “It was an honour to celebrate the sod turning for the Mordi Aquatic Centre and hear how much the community is looking forward to having a sustainable aquatic and leisure centre that’s designed to support their health and wellbeing.”

The all-electric aquatic and leisure facility will provide the Kingston community with an inclusive and accessible centre replete with a 50m multi-purpose lap swimming pool, learn-to-swim pool, warm-water exercise pool, leisure pool, spa, sauna, steam room, gym, café, and change village.

The new Mordi Aquatic Centre will be jointly funded by the City of Kingston and the Australian Government, with completion expected in the second half of 2026.

Our congratulations to all involved:
City of Kingston, Mayor Jenna Davey-Burns, Wattle Ward, City of Kingston, Councillors Chris Hill, Tracey Davies, Cr Hadi Saab, Cr Georgina Oxley, City of Kingston Longbeach Ward and David Eden, Mark Dreyfus, the Community Reference Group, the City of Kingston project team, ADCO Constructions, and Donald Cant Watts Corke

06/09/2024

BEST, the Blacktown Exercise and Sports Technology Hub, has won GOLD in the 2024 Sydney Design Awards Architecture – Public and Institutional category.
Located in Sydney’s western suburbs, the $100 million Blacktown Exercise Sports and Technology Hub (BEST) is an internationally significant sporting precinct, improving the performance of athletes and the health of the community in an immersive and inspiring setting.
Commissioned by Blacktown City Council as part of their award-winning Transformational Projects Program, BEST was designed by ARM Architecture, with landscape architecture by Architectus (formerly Scott Carver). CO.OP Studio is proud to be part of this winning team as the executive architect, along with contractors, Buildcorp.
Congratulations to all involved!
Nick Cini, Steven Donaghey, Mike McGrath, Rob McPhee, Alex Thompson

Find out more about BEST here: https://co-opstudio.com.au/projects/project-heading-16/

BETTER FUTURE Awards

29/07/2024

This Thursday, the INDE Awards will celebrate Indo-Pacific architecture and design at a gala event in Melbourne, and we’re delighted that the Rosebud Secondary College Wellness Centre is among the projects shortlisted for the Health & Wellbeing category.

Held by Indesign Media, ‘’…the 2024 INDE.Awards exemplify a region continuously making its mark on the global stage. With a rich and diverse materiality and increasingly thoughtful and collaborative design processes, this year’s shortlist showcases how our most creative minds are drawing on the past to shape the future.”

John Schout, Director and Education and Communities Lead at CO.OP Studio, said, “The New Wellness Centre is small in its footprint but impactful in its gesture as a space that’s dedicated to the health and wellbeing of the students at Rosebud Secondary College. Distinctive in its form, the Wellness Centre emphasises the importance of student wellbeing within the campus setting.”

Victorian School Building Authority, Rosebud Secondary College
CO.OP Studio, Creo Consultants, Acor Consultants, Krneta

05/07/2024

We are delighted that BEST has been announced as the winner of the Interior Architecture Award for the 2024 NSW Architecture Awards.

The Blacktown Exercise and Sports Technology Hub (BEST) has been recognised by the jury for the Interior Architecture category as ”…establishing a new standard for a typology that is often protected and closed…the BEST Hub greets the community with contagious energy and joyfulness, redefining and expanding the expectations of its use.

“Walking through the intuitive circulation of this playful and dynamic architecture, conceptualized around movement and transformation, it becomes clear that the use of colour is considerate and meaningful and a necessity of the concept of the building. The materiality of the surfaces is equally evocative and tactile, which enhances the chromatic experience with the more technical components of the building smartly integrated.

“The bold, curvaceous and colour public areas are counterbalanced by quite austere and rudimental tenant areas, functional but well connected to the public spaces and natural light. The budget is carefully considered with emphasis on the community and public interface, a welcome gesture that places the accent back on the final user: the community

Congratulations to all involved in the success of BEST, and thanks to and Interior Architecture Category supporter,

BEST interior architecture is a collaboration between ARM Architecture and CO.OP Studio.

Client:
Traditional custodians: Dharug

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