ORGANISATION
HASSELL
ESTABLISHED
1938
LOCATION
Australia, China, Hong Kong,
Thailand and Singapore
SPECIALISING IN
Architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and planning, with integrated sustainability and urban design capabilities.
EMPLOYEES
circa 850
GROSS TURNOVER
$122.3m
MARKETS
Domestic 80% : International 20%
HIGHLIGHTS
2009 Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
www.hassell.com.au
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‘INSPIRED BY NATURE’
Professor Ken Maher, Chairman, HASSELL
ISSUES OF THE FUTURE
HASSELL is a multi-disciplinary design practice comprising architects, landscape architects, interior designers, urban designers and planners working in collaboration. Ken Maher, a practising architect and a Professor at the University of New South Wales, is Chairman of the company with some 850 people. ‘We’re a very large practice for a design studio’ Ken says, ‘but we’re a collective of studios that are located around the country and in Asia.’
According to Ken, much of the practice’s design thinking revolves around innovation, ‘but for me’ he says, ‘the important thing is dealing with issues of the future.’
INNOVATION IS ACTUALLY AN OPPORTUNITY
Ken does not see innovation as a role, ‘it is’ he says, ‘actually an opportunity.’ As Ken sees it, when we design we need to think about how people behave and experience places. Ken believes that ‘we need to think about how the future might be different, especially our cities.’
To illustrate the ability of innovative design to extend beyond its practical purpose, Ken cites HASSELL’s work in public transport environments.
‘Research is a fundamental platform for innovation and I think that we need to be starting to think more about how we can align research thinking to the future issues of our cities.’
Professor Ken Maher, Chairman, HASSELL
‘We’ve been working on the four new Epping to Chatswood rail stations’ he says, ‘and we worked on four new stations in Singapore, two new stations in Perth and we’re currently working on the Metro Projects here in Sydney. We have an opportunity to excite people through the experience of getting on a train and coming out into a station and being inspired by the way the sun penetrates and the way light works.’
WE DO IT
Ken was recently awarded the 2009 Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal and he lectures at University, but he downplays the theoretical side of his own work, ‘Research is important, but theory emerges in the work. Innovation is achieved through action—we do it.’
MORE INFORMATION
For more information about Industry Innovation Councils:
WEB www.innovation.gov.au/industryinnovationcouncils
EMAIL innovationcouncils@innovation.gov.au
PHONE +61 2 6213 7221
Manager
Industry Innovation Councils Team
Department of Innovation,
Industry, Science and Research
GPO Box 9839
Canberra ACT 2601