Jane is an architect with 30 years’ experience who is passionate about design and architecture. She has worked across a range of project types and sizes in both small and large architectural practices.  This breadth of experience informs her role as Chief Operating Officer at Smart Design Studio, where she oversees operations across the financial, marketing, legal, IT, HR and administrative functions. Jane promotes clear communication between all parties involved in the design and building process.  She has a strong commitment to ensuring that SDS staff are well supported and able to maintain the high standards that have come to be a trademark of the practice.

Jane spent 13 years at Allen, Jack + Cottier (AJ+C), becoming a Director there in 2008. Her focus at AJ+C was on multi-residential and hospitality projects in Sydney and China.  She established her own practice in 2013, focussing on single residential where she developed very strong connections with her clients and the builders working on her projects.  Experience working in France and The Netherlands has given Jane an international perspective on the architectural profession. She has often been involved in pro-bono work throughout her career, most notably as a Board member, architectural advisor and mentor for The Anganwadi Project, an Australian NGO, which sends volunteers to India to deliver beautiful learning spaces for communities in need.”

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Christina’s role at Smart Design Studio is Group Leader of large projects. As a registered architect with more than 35 years experience in architecture and interior design, Christina has worked across a broad range of sectors including bespoke single and multi-residential developments, hospitality and leisure, education and childcare centres, heritage, adaptive reuse and building renewal, workplace and interior design, and prefabrication.

Christina’s passion is to create high-quality and bespoke design solutions, tailored to each client. Her interest in the built environment is holistic, responding to and interpreting a brief to achieve an architectural solution that expresses the human spirit in a particular time, place, economic and social condition. A rigorous and systematic approach is applied at every level, from the largest scale to the smallest detail – instinctively seeking and extracting simplicity from complexity to achieve calm, balance and order.

Prior to joining SDS, Christina founded and directed her own award-winning architectural practice for over 20 years, and also worked in multi-disciplinary practices in both Sydney and Melbourne. With extensive experience in all phases of project delivery from concept to completion, Christina has a considered and collaborative approach creating strong client relationships, and rewarding outcomes within the built environment

Derek is a registered Architect with over 15 years of experience with award winning practices in both the ACT and NSW. As a result of his diverse experience, he has been project architect for a range of projects including high end residential homes, a specialised institutional building for St Lucy’s School in Wahronga, innovative commercial offices in Canberra’s Business Park and a multi-million state of the art storage facility building for a private art collector in Sydney.

At SDS, Derek is focused on the preparation and delivery of contemporary residential and commercial projects with an emphasis on elegant designs with high quality detailing. He oversaw the documentation of the Phillip Street refurbishment project, the $12M rejuvenation of a pair of multi-storey storey mixed use commercial and retail buildings originally built in the 50s and 70s in Sydney’s CBD. Other projects include the Mandolong and Wollumbi Residences, and the Bridge Street Refurbishment.

In addition to his technical knowledge and an appreciation for high quality designs, Derek exhibits strong problem-solving skills in working collaboratively with clients, consultants and builders to successfully deliver buildings of all categories and complexities.

Hon has contributed to the successful delivery of many Smart Design Studio projects, including White Rabbit Gallery, Arlington Grove, Connor at Central Park and Sydney Town Hall House. In addition to this, he was instrumental in the documentation of Sydney Saesoon Presbyterian Church and Metcalfe Bond. Along with White Rabbit Gallery, these adaptive re-use projects required extensive co-ordination of existing fabric and specialised building knowledge. His ability to negotiate multiple concurrent projects successfully and deliver them on schedule ensures projects have ample time for further review, design development and refinement.
Hon’s expertise is in the technical production and co-ordination of detailed and accurate documentation. His attention to detail combined with CAD proficiency ensure he is an invaluable member on our medium and large-scale teams. Additionally, he has been providing ongoing CAD mentoring within the studio. Hon has developed and introduced measures to ensure our projects are delivered efficiently and in line with their unique requirements. His role has been crucial in ensuring the documentation standards across the office is of high quality and consistent with the requirements of our QA system.