Common
“As architects and urban designers, we aim to build spaces that have a substantial impact on how people experience the public domain. We believe in the built environment as a common, collective project.
“We’re proud of our work and the way it creates value in the world. Each project is our incremental contribution to the city.”
Common is an architecture and urban design practice led by John Doyle, Ben Milbourne and Laura Mártires, located behind a small doorway in Cobden Street, North Melbourne.
Previously known as NAAU, the trio founded their practice eight years ago and rebranded to Common.
“Throughout our partnership, we have built our practice focusing on buildings that have an impact in the public, or common, domain,” explains Ben.
The close friends and, in the case of John and Laura, husband and wife, came together many years earlier. Ben and John worked together at another firm, while John and Laura met while studying for their master’s degrees in Japan.
“When Laura and I came back from Japan, we shared a studio together with Ben in an office in the city. We worked as sole practitioners but then would work together on bigger projects. Gradually we came together when we realised we had a lot in common.”
While there are similar tasks that they work across, each director brings different skills and interests to their projects in the fields that they specialise in.
Laura specialises in the design and visualisation department, while Ben leads projects, working closely with clients to take them from first conception through to completion.
John works on similar projects to Ben but currently spends much of his time heading up the Master’s program at RMIT, focusing on producing new architect talent into the industry.
Ben and Laura are also active academics, and all three engage in the latest research putting them at the forefront of design.
“We're very much a design lead practice, and our processes are quite unique,” says Ben.
“We use design as a research methodology and a way of thinking. All of us contribute to design actively and explore ways of finding how things work in the world.
“We look at everything from robots to thinking about equality and cities as well as the active role of computer-generated imagery as a design technique.
“We bring new and emerging knowledge from academia into how we think about design for cities.”
One of Ben’s favourite recent projects was working with traditional owners on a masterplan for the future of Jabiru, the main township of Kakadu National Park, and exploring what that town might look after mining officially ceased in January 2021.
The practice has also been involved in projects for the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, the Mabu Mabu Big Esso restaurant in Federation Square, and has won awards for projects like the LaTrobe Regional Gallery.
'Common recently completed The Roundtable, a 7m diameter public table filled with edible plants installed in Errol Street Reserve.
The idea for the project came about during the dark winters of Melbourne’s lockdowns and was born of a deep nostalgia and longing for the social. The table is the original common space, an object that celebrates coming together, seeing each other, or sharing food. A space within the home and the city that serves as a hub in increasingly divergent lives.'
As architects and urban designers, the trio are proud to call North Melbourne home to both their business and home lives. Each loves the community and lifestyle that their part of the world brings.
“I’m a self-confessed architecture nerd, so I find a lot of joy in the history and culture of the area. I’m a big fan of the Instagram account Houses of North Melbourne,” laughs John. “North Melbourne is close to the city, but it has a village feel. Everything is on an intimate, human scale. You feel like you know everyone here, and there is a great cultural scene and diversity.
“Everything that happens here adds to the great community.”
WORDS BY JOYCE WATTS & PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA ENCIOCommon
36 Cobden St, North Melbourne, Victoria 3051
