Estab­lished

Found­ed in 1990, Cor­ben Archi­tects is one of Syd­ney’s most expe­ri­enced and respect­ed archi­tec­ture & inte­ri­or design prac­tices spe­cial­is­ing in res­i­den­tial projects. Over 35 years we have designed and built over 400 projects, each one under­ly­ing our rep­u­ta­tion for func­tion­al, ele­gant, high-qual­i­ty archi­tec­ture and out­stand­ing client service.

Spe­cialised

We spe­cialise in sophis­ti­cat­ed and dis­tinc­tive res­i­den­tial projects rang­ing from sub­stan­tial new hous­es to small­er scale alter­ations and addi­tions and bou­tique, mul­ti-unit apart­ment devel­op­ments. While the major­i­ty of our work is Syd­ney based, we have also designed retreats in the Snowy Moun­tains and lux­u­ry beach hous­es along the NSW coast.

Col­lab­o­ra­tive

Our approach is always to work close­ly with our clients, to ensure your ambi­tions are realised in a man­ner where every­one feels in con­trol. Our skills ensure we deliv­er both great archi­tec­ture and effi­cient project exe­cu­tion. We nev­er for­get that your invest­ment in us is also an invest­ment in your future. 

Expe­ri­enced

Over the decades we have built up an inti­mate under­stand­ing of plan­ning con­trols and pro­ce­dures. In the process, we have nur­tured an excel­lent work­ing rela­tion­ship with Coun­cils to achieve a rep­u­ta­tion for suc­cess­ful­ly nego­ti­at­ing devel­op­ment approvals. 

Rec­om­mend­ed

We are proud to say all our work comes from client rec­om­men­da­tions and refer­rals. Real Estate agents also cite our name in their list­ings. They know it stands for time­less design and qual­i­ty archi­tec­ture that will enhance the poten­tial val­ue of a property.

Con­tem­po­rary and traditional

Our work encom­pass­es a range of archi­tec­tur­al styles from inno­v­a­tive con­tem­po­rary design to more tra­di­tion­al archi­tec­tur­al approach­es includ­ing detailed her­itage restora­tion work.

Func­tion­al and Innovative

We love to inno­vate, but our feet remain firm­ly on the ground. Our projects are renowned for thought­ful and func­tion­al plan­ning, time­less ele­gance, live­abil­i­ty and qual­i­ty crafts­man­ship. In short, we cre­ate homes that look great, last the test of time and are a joy to live in.

Con­text and Fit

We care­ful­ly lis­ten to our clients to inter­pret their briefs and ambi­tions. We also analyse the con­text and attrib­ut­es of the site to ensure we design build­ings that sit com­fort­ably with­in both their urban con­text and nat­ur­al sur­round­ings and max­imise the poten­tial of the location.

Sus­tain­able

We are also com­mit­ted to design­ing projects that adopt sound sus­tain­able design prin­ci­ples that reduce ener­gy usage and min­imise their car­bon footprint.

Stream­lined

By pro­vid­ing both archi­tec­tur­al and inte­ri­or design ser­vices with­in one prac­tice, using the same CAD sys­tem, we deliv­er more com­pre­hen­sive, coor­di­nat­ed doc­u­men­ta­tion and a more inte­grat­ed over­all design. We sim­pli­fy deci­sion mak­ing and time man­age­ment by hav­ing a ​‘one-stop’ ser­vice that encom­pass­es all aspects of your project.

Qual­i­ty Outcomes

By com­mis­sion­ing us to cre­ate your inte­ri­ors, they are fin­ished and fur­nished in keep­ing with the over­all vision agreed for your project and ensur­ing a supe­ri­or out­come that is beau­ti­ful, prac­ti­cal and cohe­sive. One that com­ple­ments the archi­tec­ture and stands the test of time. Our design­ers also man­age pro­cure­ment and main­tain qual­i­ty con­trol, coor­di­nat­ing order­ing and instal­la­tion of all furnishings.

Bespoke

Our approach is to work close­ly with our clients to under­stand exact­ly what you want for your home and your lifestyle. We then inves­ti­gate your desired lifestyle — the future sto­ry of your home — and use mood and con­cept boards to com­mu­ni­cate the char­ac­ter, lay­out and feel of our pro­posed interiors.

Detailed Solu­tions

Once colour schemes, mate­ri­als, fur­ni­ture and fur­nish­ings are agreed upon, we cre­ate detailed draw­ings for all key areas to show exact­ly how fur­ni­ture, fur­nish­ings, light­ing, join­ery, fix­tures and appli­ance selec­tions will look & feel. Accom­pa­nied by a ful­ly itemised bud­get, the end result is a high­ly con­sid­ered design solu­tion that meets your brief & bud­get and enhances your every­day living.

Proven Team

Cor­ben Archi­tects has an excep­tion­al­ly tal­ent­ed team of over twen­ty archi­tects, inte­ri­or design­ers and admin­is­tra­tion staff. We oper­ate in a col­lab­o­ra­tive work envi­ron­ment, one that encour­ages cre­ative design solu­tions and the effi­cient exe­cu­tion of every project. We believe our suc­cess can be attrib­uted to the fact that our three direc­tors have worked togeth­er for over two decades and many of our staff have been with us for over ten years.

Tech­nol­o­gy

We use the lat­est Archi­cad CAD soft­ware to cre­ate detailed 3D mod­els of our designs to pro­vide a ​‘vir­tu­al fly-through’ expe­ri­ence. As your project evolves, these walk-throughs are devel­oped to incor­po­rate inte­ri­or and exter­nal fin­ish­es and spe­cif­ic detail.

Scope of Services

We pro­vide a full range of ser­vices includ­ing pre-pur­chase advice, devel­op­ment fea­si­bil­i­ty stud­ies, mas­ter plan­ning, con­cept sketch designs and prepa­ra­tion of Devel­op­ment Appli­ca­tions, detailed con­tract doc­u­men­ta­tion and full con­tract admin­is­tra­tion ser­vices through con­struc­tion. We also pre­pare detailed cost plan­ning bud­gets and pro­grammes for every project as well as devel­op­ment fea­si­bil­i­ties for devel­op­er clients.

Con­sul­tants and Builders

We work close­ly with a large num­ber of expe­ri­enced plan­ning and engi­neer­ing con­sul­tants. We have also worked with the very best builders and sub-con­trac­tors capa­ble of build­ing high-qual­i­ty projects. We work as a team to pro­vide a com­pre­hen­sive ser­vice that ensures a seam­less design and con­struc­tion process.

Cor­ben Archi­tects has a flex­i­ble approach to fees and work on either a ​‘fixed fee per stage’ or a ​‘time and dis­burse­ments’ basis, up to a ​‘not to exceed’ per­cent­age fee, based on the final cost of the project includ­ing all inter­nal fit-out, exter­nal works and land­scap­ing plus GST.

Fees are com­pet­i­tive, trans­par­ent and com­men­su­rate with the exten­sive expe­ri­ence, high lev­el of design skills and client ser­vices pro­vid­ed by Cor­ben Architects.

Archi­tec­tur­al fees are gen­er­al­ly divid­ed into the fol­low­ing stages:

- Concept/​initial sketch design

- Full sketch design

- Design devel­op­ment to devel­op­ment appli­ca­tion (DA) or com­ply­ing devel­op­ment cer­tifi­cate (CDC)

- Con­tract doc­u­men­ta­tion to ten­der and con­struc­tion certificate

- Ten­der­ing, con­tract nego­ti­a­tions and con­tract sign­ing with appoint­ed builder

- Con­tract admin­is­tra­tion dur­ing construction

We also pro­vide an in-house inte­ri­or design ser­vice which can be ful­ly inte­grat­ed into your archi­tec­tur­al project or used as a stand-alone service.

For the best advice on how to approach the fee struc­ture for your project, please con­tact us and we will be more than hap­py to guide you through this process.

We typ­i­cal­ly under­take the project in the fol­low­ing 8 stages;

1 Ini­tial Consultation 

The project usu­al­ly starts with an on-site meet­ing where we dis­cuss your brief, bud­get and scope of works. We advise you on the nit­ty-grit­ty such as Coun­cil plan­ning con­trols, author­i­ty require­ments, her­itage and Com­ply­ing Devel­op­ment options (if applic­a­ble) and dis­cuss the site con­di­tions and oppor­tu­ni­ties, like­ly floor plan and lev­el con­fig­u­ra­tions. We will start to sketch up some rough plan­ning con­cepts and give you a pre­lim­i­nary guide to con­struc­tion and over­all project costs. Depend­ing on your expec­ta­tions, this con­sul­ta­tion may involve a fee. On com­ple­tion, you will have a sound under­stand­ing of what is achiev­able to enable you to make an informed deci­sion on how best to move for­ward with your project. 

2 Concept/​Initial Sketch Design 

Should you wish to pro­ceed to the next step, we for­malise the brief, bud­get and archi­tec­tur­al style of build­ing you are seek­ing. We under­take a mea­sure up of your exist­ing prop­er­ty (for alter­ations and addi­tions), coor­di­nate the prepa­ra­tion of a site sur­vey and trans­late all this infor­ma­tion into a detailed 3D ter­rain mod­el of the site, show­ing the exist­ing build­ing and its sur­round­ing struc­tures. We then work out plan­ning options that respond to your brief and pre­pare floor plans and sec­tion draw­ings as well as a basic 3D mod­el of the design which we present to you as a fly-through 3D mod­el. We also pre­pare an opin­ion of cost esti­mate incor­po­rat­ing the entire con­struc­tion, con­sul­tant and author­i­ty costs. 

3 Full Sketch Design 

We take your ini­tial feed­back from the con­cept design to fine-tune our plan­ning and devel­op the build­ing into a ful­ly devel­oped design solu­tion with detailed floor plans, sec­tions, ele­va­tions and 3D mod­el. We also pro­vide rec­om­men­da­tions on mate­ri­als and fin­ish­es and update the opin­ion of cost esti­mate to cap­ture any design changes and fur­ther brief expec­ta­tions. We may then take this full sketch design to Pre-Devel­op­ment Appli­ca­tion (DA) meet­ing with Council. 

4 Design Devel­op­ment & Devel­op­ment Appli­ca­tion (DA)

Once the full sketch design has been signed off, we fur­ther devel­op the design and upgrade the archi­tec­tur­al draw­ings to incor­po­rate all the require­ments of the DA sub­mis­sion to Coun­cil. We also seek fee sub­mis­sions, appoint and coor­di­nate the team of expert con­sul­tants required to pre­pare the draw­ings and reports that need to accom­pa­ny the DA. These may include plan­ning, land­scape, geot­ech­ni­cal, her­itage, hydraulic, pho­tomon­tage and Basix con­sul­tants. We then lodge the entire DA sub­mis­sion on the NSW Gov­ern­ment Plan­ning Por­tal for assess­ment by Council. 

5 Coun­cil and Neigh­bour Negotiations

With the DA now sub­mit­ted, we mon­i­tor the adver­tis­ing process and review and advise on any neigh­bour sub­mis­sions. We liaise with the assess­ing plan­ning offi­cers, dis­cuss any poten­tial changes and resub­mit the draw­ings and reports as nego­ti­at­ed with Coun­cil. If required, we present the design to Council’s inde­pen­dent plan­ning pan­el. Once approved, we review, cir­cu­late and dis­cuss the require­ments of the DA con­sent conditions. 

6 Con­tract Doc­u­men­ta­tion to Con­struc­tion Cer­tifi­cate and Tender 

Once approved by Coun­cil, we pre­pare the detailed con­struc­tion doc­u­men­ta­tion includ­ing plan, sec­tion, ele­va­tion and detailed draw­ings, spec­i­fi­ca­tions, select fix­tures, fit­tings, mate­ri­als and fin­ish­es and trans­late these into sched­ules. We coor­di­nate all the struc­tur­al, civ­il, hydraulic, mechan­i­cal and elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing con­sul­tant draw­ings required to detail the pro­posed works and ensure accu­rate bud­get­ing and ten­der­ing. Again, we update our opin­ion of cost esti­mate to cap­ture any design, fin­ish­es and scope of works changes. We also pre­pare and issue all the nec­es­sary infor­ma­tion to the Pri­vate Cer­ti­fi­er to issue the Con­struc­tion Cer­tifi­cate which pro­vides the for­mal approval to con­struct the build­ing. Giv­en the ulti­mate suc­cess of any project is in the detail, this is a crit­i­cal stage to ensure we have a com­pre­hen­sive set of doc­u­ments that enables the con­trac­tor to build the build­ing to meet your expectations. 

7 Ten­der Process 

Giv­en our exten­sive body of built work, we have a close work­ing rela­tion­ship with a broad range of respect­ed builders capa­ble of deliv­er­ing high-qual­i­ty homes. We dis­cuss the options for select­ing a builder and then issue the draw­ings and spec­i­fi­ca­tions to sev­er­al builders for either fixed price, cost plus, or con­struc­tion man­age­ment tendering. 

We respond to ten­der queries, review ten­der sub­mis­sions, con­duct inter­views, and pro­vide rec­om­men­da­tions on the most suit­able builder before prepar­ing the build­ing con­tracts for sign­ing with the select­ed builder. 

8 Con­tract Administration 

Dur­ing con­struc­tion, we over­see the admin­is­tra­tion of the build­ing con­tract which includes respond­ing to builder queries, attend­ing and minut­ing reg­u­lar site inspec­tions and meet­ings, mon­i­tor­ing qual­i­ty con­trol includ­ing spec­i­fi­ca­tion and work­man­ship, assess­ing progress claims and vari­a­tions as well as issu­ing progress cer­tifi­cates autho­ris­ing pay­ments to the builder. When near­ing con­struc­tion com­ple­tion, we care­ful­ly inspect the work, pre­pare defects lists and assist in com­pil­ing all the nec­es­sary cer­tifi­cates for the issue of the occu­pa­tion cer­tifi­cate. Whilst our con­trac­tu­al oblig­a­tion is to fair­ly admin­is­ter the con­struc­tion con­tract we act as your rep­re­sen­ta­tive to ensure the entire con­struc­tion process is under­tak­en as seam­less­ly as pos­si­ble and ensure your design and bud­get expec­ta­tions are ful­ly realised.