Our approach to architectural practice is summed up simply.

Making things better | Making better things

This approach captures the belief that before we begin any new construction we must understand the histories of the site.

• Is it necessary to demolish existing structures?
• Is it more important to regenerate the site rather than clear it?
• Are there materials that can be salvaged?
• How do we marry the old and the new in a way that keeps the integrity of both and reveals and highlights rather than subsumes?

Working with existing structures is difficult and rewarding – there are always surprises and any design methodology needs to be adaptive, agile and responsive.

Our expertise working with historic buildings has been developed over 20 years of working on large-scale civic projects and smaller-scale insertions in loved and listed institutions.

These include the NGV International where we created a series of sensitively designed commercial facilities that stripped out some of the less successful additions to reveal more of the original Roy Grounds fabric.

At MONA we worked alongside Nonda Katsilidis to imagine a new sub-terraninan gallery connecting the 2 historic houses in a bold and technically challenging way.

We enjoy seeing underutilized assets re-imagined as inclusive and engaging spaces; upgrading and restoring buildings to be returned back to the public domain.

At Charcoal Lane in Fitzroy we worked with Mission Australia to convert a decaying Victorian Bank building into a social enterprise.

It included a restaurant, training kitchen and offices where young aboriginal and torres strait islander people where given the opportunity to gain new skills and work.

We have been lucky enough to have worked alongside the National Trust Australia, Victoria to help realise projects including The Pollywoodsie Museum, Ripponlea Masterplan and refurbishment, Gulf Station Masterplan and Endeavour Fern Gulley Education Centre. These projects have required an understanding of best practice conservation architecture working with specialised consultants and contractors to ensure

We’ve set our sights on democratiing access to great architecture. The future lies with the collective, with working… in TANDEM.

Professional Affiliations / Qualifications

Tim Hill & James Murray are the Principals and Co-Founders of TANDEm and have worked together for over 20 years.

They have both graduated with first class honours in Architecture and in 1995 were invited to undertake the Masters by Practice.

They are members of the AIA and regularly attend professional development seminars in best practices within the conservation architecture sector and have lectured and led design studios at Melbourne University, RMIT and Monash.