The esteemed 10 recognises influential voices in the architecture and design community in 2025. Criterion is based on approach, notable achievements and completed and anticipated projects.
This piece originally appeared in est magazine issue 55: ‘Faces of Design’.
Principal Andrew Burges
Gadigal Country / Sydney, Australia
My design work is best summed up as:
I coined the phrase ‘architecture as geography making’ to express how even residential-scale designs can connect to broader narratives about place, landscape, sustainability, and urban contexts. Acting small still allows for thinking big.
What aspect of your work are people most curious about?
A potential client recently shared that our projects have a consistent, intangible quality best experienced in person—an observation I found both intriguing and a lovely way to describe our work!
What has recently challenged the way you think about design?
The dramatic rise in construction costs is reshaping how we approach design pragmatically, making architect-designed homes less accessible. Philosophically, I think issues around sustainability and First Nations concepts of ‘country’ are very challenging to our Western conception of the design canon and what we think great design is. As a practice focused on connecting projects to geography and place, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity to deepen our understanding of Indigenous histories and knowledge.
What person, building, product or art piece has had a lasting impact on your work?
While studying at Harvard GSD, I had the privilege of learning from the late Enric Miralles and Rafael Moneo—two globally influential Spanish architects with vastly different teaching styles.
In 2017, I visited five Peter Zumthor projects. While his work is often praised for its resolution, I was struck by the extraordinary conceptual range. Each project was radically distinct in approach, typology, materials, and form, demonstrating that great architecture isn’t about a signature style but about thoughtful, inventive responses to site and brief.
The three words I would most like people to attribute to my work are:
Thoughtful, inventive, connected.
What is the one piece of advice you would share with an emerging designer?
In my 20s, I was torn between teaching, research, and practice but ultimately chose to focus on building. It took time to master designing projects with enduring, raw material character.
"Thoughtful, inventive, connected"
–Principal Andrew Burges
Where do you go to appreciate exceptional design?
I love travelling to see architecture in the flesh. It is fundamental to our creativity and critical reflection to keep looking at as much architecture as possible.
Something you want to see more of in 2025? And less of?
More of: we would love to increase the diversity of projects in our office in 2025. We enjoy working on public and urban design projects as well as the residential projects that have been a big part of our identity over the last 15 years.