About | Chris Cole

NSW Reg. #6714 Fiji Reg. #228

Building and renovating are often surprisingly stressful endeavours. Fast decisions regarding detailing, sustainability and future proofing, all with aesthetic and cost implications, need to be made on a regular basis. Experienced and empathetic, the team at Chris Cole Architect will help you through the process.

Chris Cole Architect is an award-winning architectural practice focused on residential, and resort projects across Australia-Pacific. With offices in Sydney, Australia and Fiji, principal architect Chris Cole, brings a modernist sensibility with a progressive and sustainable handcrafted quality to your project.

Chris Cole started his own architectural practice in 2000 focused on unique residential and medium density projects in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Chris then spent a number of years based in Fiji where he worked on the seven star Laucala, Island Resort (Red Bull), as the Project Architect on the Pacific Village at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, China and doing voluntary work for displaced Fijians in local villages.

Along the way Chris has picked up a number of awards:

2024 Winner Fiji Association of Architects Residential award and Viti Levu Award.

2022 Shortlisted Suva Foreshore Re-Development Masterplan, Fiji.

2018 Architecture MasterPrize Honorable Mention, Pak Shak in Small Architecture category.

2017 Commendation for Residential Architecture, Vuda House, International Chapter, NSW Institute of Architects

2010 Gold Medal, Zone B, for Most Creative Display Pacific Village, World Expo Shanghai, China.

2007 First Prize, Royal British Institute of Architects (USA Chapter) Vakabauta Village. In collaboration with Toby Kyle and Kaminieli Vuadreu, an environmentally sustainable medium-density, urban development scheme, inspired by the traditional Fijian village.

Chris has over 20 years’ experience, is fully conversant with the Building Code of Australia & NZ, the National Building Code of Fiji & also Fiji Code of Environmental Practice. Chris has successfully delivered numerous residential & resort projects across the region.

Whilst running a full time architectural practice, Chris also holds a part-time Design Studio tutoring position at the University of NSW, in the Faculty of the Built Environment.

Prior to taking up architecture, Chris spent much of the 1980s working as freelance cameraman and camera assistant in the Australian film industry, where he gained an appreciation of the craft of cinema lighting and the collaborative film-making process. This was a period of great vitality, passion and innovation in the film industry, qualities that Chris highly values and seeks to bring to his architectural practice today.