Kerstin Thompson Architects
(est. 1994, Melbourne)

Founded in 1994, Kerstin Thompson Architects (KTA) is an award-winning architecture, interiors, landscape and urban design practice whose wideranging projects include educational institutions, multi-residential developments, police stations and commercial fit-outs.

The Broadmeadows Town Hall, designed by architects Forster & Walsh, was completed in 1964 on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Country. In 2002, Hume Council proposed the demolition of the hall, but the plans were overturned following pushback from the local community. Nearly two decades later, the hall was earmarked for a $25 million refurbishment led by KTA, in a bid to reinstate the building’s suburban civic grandeur and transform the space around it from a barren car park to a thriving urban site.

KTA made two dramatic cuts to the northern face of the building, creating a north–south street and a circular portal over three floors. The result is greater visibility of the life and activities within the building, which include a community business incubator, a gallery, office space and the key town hall and event spaces.

For the interiors, KTA set out to build on the town hall’s legacy as the site of countless weddings, citizenship ceremonies, debutante balls, dance classes, sporting events and more. The palette of the new interiors centred on the existing two-tone brickwork, while the upgrade of the grand staircase in the civic foyer retained its original steel and timber detailing. A major artwork by Melbourne artist Robbie Rowlands, Crossing the floor, 2019, hangs from the ceiling and is made from the old supper hall’s original floorboards.

Completed in 2019, the Broadmeadows Town Hall was named best in category for Architectural Design in the 2021 Victorian Premier’s Design Awards. It also won the 2020 Victorian Architecture Medal, the 2020 Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) Victorian Chapter John George Knight Award for Heritage Architecture, and the 2020 AIA Victorian Chapter Public Architecture Commendation.

KTA’s work has been exhibited in the Venice Architecture Biennale, Beijing Architecture Biennale, DAZ (Deutsches Architektur Zentrum) and at TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria. Kerstin Thompson is also listed in the International Archive of Women in Architecture.