The adaptive reuse of a condemned 1892 boot factory in the heart of Bondi Junction was Australia’s best-designed timber building last year—a project that began as a derelict shell, with glue-laminated Australian hardwood columns rising through a light-filled community hub that its designers hope will stand for decades to come.
Constructed by Schiavello Constructions and designed by Archer Office, the Boot Factory has retained its original brick perimeter whilst its interior was entirely reimagined — exposed Victorian Ash columns, an inverted floor system of beams and planks, and radial timber rafters converging on a central skylight produce a building where structure and material are inseparable.
The project had been in the pipeline since 2018, when the structure was deemed unfit for use. Accepting the Grand Prix prize at last year’s Australian Timber Design Awards, Archer Office’s Tomek Archer described timber as a material that demands patience and expertise. “It’s very easy to stop, but very hard to become an expert,” he said. “Timber demands an appreciation of tolerances and the subtle perfections that make a building succeed.”
Crucially, Archer credited early collaboration — clients, quantity surveyors, specialist engineers and contractors engaged from the outset — as fundamental to a smooth installation. “This project has extended the useful life of the Boot Factory — we hope for another 100 years,” he said, acknowledging structural engineer Robert Nestik of TGA Engineers, one of Australia’s top timber engineers, amongst its key collaborators.
The Boot Factory’s Grand Prix is the latest in a pantheon of projects recognised over the 27 years that the Australian Timber Design Awards have been in existence. “It’s one of the oldest timber design awards anywhere in the world,” according to Kylan Low, organiser of this year’s awards, who said Australia has a long and proud history of punching above its weight. “It’s also worth noting that The Boot Factory has gone on to win several more awards since October, another example where the awards have been a launching pad for national and international awards.”
That includes the Bates Smart-designed Australian Embassy in Washington, DC (in 2024), the ARM-designed Sydney Opera House Concert Hall (in 2023) and the Tzannes-designed International House at Barangaroo (in 2017), which secured the title World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival in Amsterdam.
According to Low, this year’s awards are now open to architects, engineers, builders, designers, and landscapers working on residential, commercial, and public projects that feature timber structures or finishes. It is against that backdrop that Kylan Low, awards organiser, has confirmed the 2026 program is now open for entries, with a final deadline of June 30. Early bird pricing closes at 7pm on May 29.
“These awards are the industry’s way of championing its best work,” Low said. “Behind every winning project is a supply chain story that begins in the forest and runs through sawmills, engineers, and builders,” Low said, adding that the early bird pricing for entries closes 7pm May 29, 2026, with a hard deadline of June 30, 2026. “Australia has produced some of the most accomplished timber design in the world, and the ATDA exist to make sure that tradition continues to be recognised and celebrated.”
