Meet the Team.

Toby Wetherill

Director

Qualifications/ Professional Associations

Australian Institute of Architects member

Registered Architect in NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland

Green Star Accredited Professional

Examiner in Architectural Practice (NSW)

Keynote Conference Speaker

Personal Statement

 “For me, being an architect presents a unique opportunity to work with our Clients to explore and make places that evoke a sense of connectivity and well-being.”

Toby’s role in the practice

Toby is a Founding Director of GW. Whilst he has a diverse and varied role within the business, Toby has a strong focus on the creative process and the journey of collaboration with Clients to understand their aspirations that, in turn, shape the projects we grow on their behalf.

Bringing excellent design skills from the initial ‘big picture ideas’ right through to the finer detail, Toby is also cognisant of being commercially astute and developing structures that have longevity and sustainability within their context.

Committed to delivering projects with a strong sense of place with a clear narrative which remain true to the core ideas embedded in their foundation, he thoughtfully uses proportion, materiality, colour and light in a space together with embracing other multi-sensory opportunities to produce outstanding results.  Toby takes particular pleasure in working on projects with a community benefit and has taken a leading role in developing our sacred architecture portfolio and evolving the education sector.

Examples of Toby’s architectural (and artwork) have since our inception (2003) been focused in Australia, but he also brings international experience.

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My ‘timeout’ is predominantly spent actively enjoying family albeit at basketball, ballet or at the gym. My retreat is to be immersed in a seascape or/and making artworks.

Carolyn Meddick

Architectural values:

• All-rounder with a diverse range of experience from low density residential to multi-storey school buildings;
• Creating places of learning including implementing future focussed learning pedagogies;
• Developing ideas of ‘community’ within learning environments, most notably in ‘vertical schools’ often in high density built environments;
• Collaborative;
• Commitment to high quality built outcomes.

Key professional strengths

• Coordination of teams with complex stakeholder and procurement methods through all stages from masterplanning to project handover;
• Close relationships with Clients and project team;
• Commitment to projects;
• Enjoy challenges;
• Strong interest in contributing to healthy work culture.

What you enjoy about architecture

• Lifelong learning;
• Good balance of artistic and technical opportunities;
• Seeing people inhabiting the built outcome;

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• Listening to podcasts;
• Hiking and being in nature

Driekus Vorster

Associate

My Architectural Values:
Restraint budgets and preconceptions do not stifle my creativity. It challenges me to leave inspiring creations in its wake.

My Key Professional Strengths:
I am a Senior Project Architect (B.Arch) at Gardner Wetherill and Associates. My natural design flair coupled with strong technical skills and 22 years of experience across various disciplines within the fields of architecture and interior design have earned me both international and highly acclaimed South African recognition.

What I enjoy about Architecture:
Architecture forever changes the environment in which it exists and, if permitted, it will last for generations as a reminder of ideas that became tangible.

Something personal to share:
I admire everything Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Mid-Century design and enjoy visiting Art Galleries, going to Opera, exploring Antique Fairs and Auctions, travelling, cooking and watching Cinema/TV. My passion is motor vehicle design and I am an enthusiastic collector of die-cast models.

Fiona Murphy

Habib Hayek

Architectural values

• Visual Beauty
• Functionality
• Efficiency
• Sustainability
• Wellbeing of end users

Key professional strengths

• Project Management
• Coordination
• Management of Consultants and relationship building client, council and the like
• Delivering projects on time and within budget

What you enjoy about architecture

• Design process
• The way good architectural design can complement and enhance the natural environment

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• Walking
• Listening to music
• Writing

Janja Wetherill

Laura Jones

Architectural values

I value environmentally and culturally responsive design which improves the physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing of communities.

Key professional strengths

Collaborative, friendly, organised, driven, compassionate, conscientious, creative

What you enjoy about architecture

Architecture is a powerful means of communication and cultural expression which can shape the way we view and experience word. Through responding to environmental, historical, and cultural context, architecture can draw upon our sense of identity, to make us feel deeply. Architecture can be used as a tool to provide narrative, create dialogue, share, educate and unify. Ultimately, architecture can have a positive impact on this world.

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I love getting out in nature: hiking, snorkelling, rock climbing, and spending time with my family and friends.

Lee Daltrey

Architectural Values

Functional space / practical design / organic materials / collective ambition

Key Professional Strengths

A passion & attention to detail in documentation & coordination

Good collaborator, goal orientated

What you enjoy about architecture

The social importance of what we can do

Standing back upon completion and taking pride of what the team has provided

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A passion for history through reading and collecting

Designing and creating stain glass windows

Lindsay Henry

Architectural values:
Functional planning approach.
Clear, practical designs that adhere to the project budget.
Honest design (structure and materials)
Sustainability and bringing nature into the design

Key professional strengths:
Responsiveness, project planning, and organisation
Client liaison
Agility is being able to ‘think on his feet’ replanning in workshop sessions
Perspective rendering and sketch images

What you enjoy about architecture
The ability to visualise the project and then see it come to fruition.
The pleasure in acquiring gratitude from the end-users, after project completion and occupation.
The challenges of a new project.

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Regular overseas European and North American travel, visiting great architectural masterpieces of past and present. Whilst overseas, I really enjoy freehand felt pen sketching of local cultural life and vernacular architecture.

Martin Cumming

Architectural values
To engage in regenerative design practices that balance sustainability of current and future users.

Key professional strengths
Care, consideration, & craftmanship

What you enjoy about architecture
Being able to create spaces for human habitation

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lego aficionado

Michael Lau

Associate

Architectural Values
Nature, organic and sustainability design value

Key Professional Strengths
Adaptability, Critical thinking, goal orientated, honesty and integrity

What you enjoy about architecture
Being able to see a building come to life from a blank sheet of paper

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Spending time with the family. Exploring the urban jungle to discover a new eatery.

Michael McGrath

Associate

Architectural values:
Good Architecture adds value.  Both to the product and to the process.

Key professional strengths:
Considerable experience in steering projects through all stages of the process to realize better outcomes

What you enjoy about Interior Design:
Better outcomes,  (every day, everywhere, everyone). Projects with ambitions.

Something personal you want to share:
Scottish born, Mackintosh trained; London practiced; Singapore ventured; Sydney settled.

Simon Taylor

Architectural Values
Providing the client with the best outcome and producing great looking spaces/buildings that will be enjoyed

Key professional Strengths
Archicad / IT;
Deliverables – bringing it all together
Keeping an office running smoothly

What you enjoy about architecture
To see a concept come to reality
To watch the user enjoy what you have helped produce

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AFL

A single trail and my mountain bike.

Tiffany Woo

Architectural values

Honesty, integrity in design and challenging pre-conceptions.

Beautiful detailing, honesty in materials and tactility.

Connecting our internal lives with the green world outside – I love introducing a planting element to my projects.

Key professional strengths

Thorough, creative, rigorous thinking.

Problem solving.

Strong communicator, especially good at listening and understanding briefs; getting to the heart of the matter.

Experienced in a wide range of sectors and project scales.

What you enjoy about architecture

I enjoy the challenges of creating and delivering spaces whilst working with a variety of disciplines, people and contexts.

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Dining out

Crocheting (badly)

Binge watching sci-fi TV.

Wojciech Grencer

Architectural values

Simplicity, boldness, clarity, purpose

Key professional strengths

Understand the importance of information flow beyond drawings realm, BIM and construction expert

What you enjoy about architecture

Architecture has many aspects, interfaces with many different areas of human life, there is always something interesting about any project

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Photographer, mountaineer

Angelina Minawaty

Architectural Values

Respectful and responsive design to genius loci, local culture, context, and values.

Key professional Strengths

For more than 25 years, Angelina has been involved in the delivery of high quality commercial, hospitality and residential projects across Abu Dhabi, Jakarta, and Sydney. Her design development skills were honed in designing large scale projects in Abu Dhabi and Jakarta, alongside with leading architects and building practitioners from Singapore, Malaysia and Korea. Her exposure to design and documentation of development projects equips her with attention to details.

What you enjoy about architecture

Architecture is never boring, always has something new to offer. It captures almost all aspects of life : culture, habits, perception, spirituality, built form, material, textures, beauty, legislation, economy. Every project is unique. Overseeing a project up to completion and then watching how people engage in it always bring joy that comes with a sense of accomplishment.

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I enjoy travelling. It enables me to observe different people, culture, and natural environment. When I am not travelling, I enjoy reading books or doing some paintings.