BALDASSO CORTESE ARCHITECTS
ESTABLISHED 1987
MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
Baldasso Cortese Architects’ work is defined by a collaborative and inclusive critical process. The Melbourne-based practice, which also has an office in Christchurch, values client engagement and open communication together with a commitment to creating sustainable built environments. Its portfolio, specialising in education, community, and care and lifestyle sectors, is distinguished by dynamic expressions in light, spatiality and materiality. From the ambitious redevelopment of 276 Flinders Street to the smaller St Mary of the Cross Primary School, each project resonates with the finely tuned resolve of a rigorously tested clear architectural idea.
Tarrawarra Abbey, Fire Shelter, 2016
Yarra Glen, Victoria
Tarrawarra Abbey is a Cistercian monastery set on 400 hectares of grazing land at Yarra Glen in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, 60 kilometres north-east of Melbourne. Baldasso Cortese Architects were mindful to design a building that would not only offer the monks a sense of home but would also provide them with a secure fire shelter, following the devastating Black Saturday fires which ravaged the area. The result is a timber-boarded concrete bunker of strikingly serpentine appearance that pays respect to its rural context.