rfa ensures its designs are sensitive to the local context and environment on all its projects and we apply a sustainability mindset to our work as best practice. Notably, we have an ongoing relationship with a bank client to help broaden its Green Star commitment across its national retail and corporate settings. We are also proud to have been awarded the first-ever Six Green Star sustainability rating for our fit-out of St George Bank’s Barangaroo branch.
Throughout our 25 years of experience designing residential builds and renovations across Australia and New Zealand, we have always strived to deliver beautiful, functional homes. Our talented team has created family homes, luxury high-end residences, boutique and high-rise apartments and unique multi-use developments.
Our aim is to bring to life a client’s vision for their home. We push boundaries on design and creativity and draw on our extensive experience to meet any challenge such as site-specific development restraints and local authority requirements.
rfa specialises in delivering beautiful home projects from minor alterations to major renovations and new builds. We understand that, especially for first-time home builders and renovators, the design and construction process can be daunting. At the outset we spend the time needed to understand a client’s expectations and we work closely with them from the early phases of design through to project completion. We want our clients to enjoy the experience of creation as much as we do, and we draw on years of experience of navigating the industry to guide them through the process.
rfa has designed a range of multi-residential projects from small boutique developments to large, multi-level apartment complexes. We are highly regarded for our ability to assess the merits of potential sites and to push the envelope to maximise a client’s requirements and investment. We also know that each project is unique and requires careful consideration of apartment specific design options and a focus on liveability and amenity.
rfa has gained extensive expertise through its numerous mixed-use developments combining residential spaces with retail, commercial, early learning and medical facilities.
We know that each mixed-use project is unique in its requirements to combine residential and retail components, and we are able to achieve this through finding seamless solutions that satisfy commercial and functional needs.
Retail spaces are all about the customer: what they experience whilst in a space and the resonance they have with the brand and offering that brings them back a second time. rfa achieves this through designs that understand their client’s brand, business objectives and customers, through the use of materials, furniture and finishes, lighting and technology. We create retail spaces that make a return visit a pleasure.
We design bank retails spaces that meet the challenges ahead for the banking sector: designs that are flexible and adaptable to the ever-changing customer needs and security requirements of the banking sector. rfa architects has designed several bank branches at multiple sites across Australia as well as business banking facilities and pop-up kiosks and a ‘Bank in a Box’ – a mobile retail branch in a shipping container (refer ‘INDUSTRIAL’ projects).
Our experience in supermarket retail spaces includes the refitting of more than 90 stores across Australia for a major retailer, each of which brought site challenges requiring adept design solutions. We deliver site-specific solutions in the test fit and design stages that meet design standards, and we are responsive to changing client requirements that are often to tight deadlines.
Hospitality design requires a unique balance of brand identity, functionality and aesthetics. rfa’s experience in crafting hospitality spaces includes working on bespoke projects for high profile locations such as Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens, the Opera House and the Australian Museum with its stunning Hyde Park vista. Others include busy hospital cafes, cinema lobbies and staff canteens. We tailor our designs to suit our clients’ operational, functional and branding needs.
The team at rfa has a long history of designing commercial and retail fit-outs across Australia. Our past projects include the design and rollout of award winning retail branches for national bank clients across Australia, the interior upgrade of several sites of a large supermarket chain nationally, corporate office fit outs with large floor plates and Activity Based Work place requirements, complex funeral homes and boutique gym studios.
rfa prides itself on designing spaces that clearly articulate a client’s brand identity and define their market position, as well as incorporating diverse technology and material requirements. We also have extensive experience in designing and developing complex corporate design standards as well implementing client owned design standards.
Creating a space that captures the identity of a business while fulfilling its workplace and cultural needs requires intelligent design. rfa tailors plans to a client’s vision and budget and utilises its wealth of experience to develop bespoke designs and creative solutions.
We specialise in working with clients to incorporate the increasing demand for more agile workplaces, including clever solutions for breakout areas and think spaces, into our designs. rfa has led by example with the design of its own office space – creating a contemporary, open and adaptable workspace that fosters collaboration and creative thinking.
Our aim is to take the sweat out of gymnasium concept and construction.
The demand for small-scale group fitness studios is growing and rfa has already helped high-profile national and international brands create world-class fitness spaces.
The on trend, urban gym concept demands an immersive fitness experience that inspires and motivates. rfa thrives on this challenge and has delivered studios that have pushed the design boundaries with clever lighting solutions, contemporary finishes and unique space planning.
Drawing on our corporate office experience, we have delivered numerous business banking centres for a large national bank. These projects are complex in their additional requirements for high security, brand positioning and adherence to corporate design guidelines.
rfa has worked closely with national cinema clients on the refurbishment of key aspects of cinemas to create a fun and enticing journey from the front door to the cinema seat. Working closely client branding and marketing teams to ensure delivery of its unique identity, we have overhauled front of house ticket hall and food and beverage spaces and redefined the theatre experience including alternative seating offers, such as recliners, day beds and a children’s cinema.
Over the past few years, rfa has worked closely with a national funeral service provider to design and document a number of ‘shop front’ arrangement spaces, multifaceted funeral homes and crematoria. Such projects require an understanding of the delicate interaction between operational requirements, including catering, coffin management and cremation facilities, and the sensitivities of client spaces, chapels and reflection lounges.
rfa has provided quality architectural and interior design services for the childcare sector on sites across eastern Australia for over 10 years and has long term clients in the sector including several leading childcare operators.
Our projects have included the tricky, and often complex upgrade of existing buildings, expansion of smaller centres, new builds, multistorey centres and out of school hours centres located within school grounds. We work to create fun, educational spaces for children including external play spaces with seamless indoor/outdoor access, child friendly amenities and practical and functional staff facilities. rfa is recognised for its in-depth knowledge, and application of, industry specific authority requirements, building compliance codes and the understanding of the operational needs that define the success of an early learning business. Our pride is in being able to find clever design solutions that bring together all of these elements in a thoughtful and beautiful early education centres.
rfa has extensive experience in providing the full breath of architectural services for industrial clients from minor refurbishment works to large scale automotive fit-out projects. rfa’s industrial space designs span a variety of sectors including automotive construction, storage facilities, alcohol beverage facilities and community centres.
Designing industrial buildings and spaces requires a completely different technical approach to any other industry – it calls for consideration of business objectives, logistics and functionality combined with aesthetics and branding requirements. rfa has happily taken on this challenge for many clients.
Specific to large span industrial spaces, which have to provide for logistics, heavy vehicle movements and loading zones, is the focus on integrating substantial service requirements. These include heavy electrical and hydraulic loads, mechanical detailing, fire system compliance and emergency services access provisions. In addition there is often a requirement for integrated learning facilities, staff change and wash amenities and canteen/café spaces. Backed by a thorough knowledge of the Building Code of Australia and fire and services standards, rfa has successfully delivered numerous industrial projects that meet these complex and challenging requirements.
Unique to the industrial sector is rfa’s skill in the refurbishment of outdated and out of compliance semi commercial, storage and other industrial services buildings. rfa has brought these buildings into the 21st century by not only giving them a new contemporary façade but re- designing elements of the building to meeting building code regulations. This includes alterations to meet accessibility commitments and modifications to building and materials to meet fire safety standards, amongst many other building regulation obligations.
“Bank in a box” was a unique collaboration with a large bank client to produce a mobile bank facility that could be dispatched to emergency locations with 24 hours. The ‘Bank in a Box’ initiative is a converted shipping container equipped with IT and technology requirements and is able to be trucked or helicoptered into tight spaces providing instant banking services to customers in need.
