The quiet powerhouses of Sydney’s urban fabric

For more than twenty-five years, MHNDU has been shaping Sydney with an unusual mix of restraint, rigour and quiet confidence. Their buildings don’t shout, they clarify. Across the Eastern Suburbs and beyond, the studio has steadily built a reputation for projects that balance commercial intelligence with a deep respect for context. A combination increasingly rare in a city in the midst of rapid urban transformation.

This past year marks a shift in tempo. A string of accolades spanning the Architizer A+ Awards, the UDIA NSW Awards for Excellence, the Think Brick Awards and the Australian Interior Design Awards has placed MHNDU firmly among the practices redefining what contemporary density can look like in Australia. Projects such as Traces, One Hastings, Anden, The Carlisle and Ramsgate Ave have become case studies in how architecture, craft and commercial pragmatism can coexist without compromise.

At the heart of the practice is a steady, collaborative leadership team, Brian Meyerson, Kevin Ng, Liam Hancock and Tanya Awadallah. Each brings a distinct strength, but it’s their shared discipline, an unwavering belief in experiential beauty and precise architectural expression, that threads the portfolio together. Their work is modernist in spirit but adaptive in execution, always shaped by climate, culture and the subtle rhythms of Sydney life.

Nowhere is this more visible than in their multi-residential and mixed-use work. Under the direction of partner Liam Hancock, this portfolio has matured into one of the most compelling in the country. Rather than treating density as a planning outcome, MHNDU approach it as an opportunity to elevate how people experience home, even at scale. Their buildings feel generous, light-filled and carefully choreographed. Facades are sculpted with purpose; materials are chosen for longevity rather than trend; and internal planning privileges everyday liveability as much as yield.

This ethos extends into their ongoing collaboration with interior design studio Lawless & Meyerson, whose finely tuned interiors bring a layer of tactility and refinement to many of MHNDU’s award-winning projects. The partnership has produced a string of celebrated outcomes defined by relaxed sophistication a seamless continuation of MHNDU’s architectural intent.

What distinguishes MHNDU, however, is not just the design language. It is their fluency in the realities of development. The studio is known for navigating complex approvals, unlocking potential through strategic planning pathways, and mediating between council, neighbours and stakeholders. A capability that makes them as dependable as they are inventive.

In a landscape grappling with the future of urban living, MHNDU represent a grounded, future-focused model of practice. They build with clarity, with humility, and with an understanding that beauty and commercial outcomes need not be mutually exclusive. As Sydney continues to evolve, their influence, quiet, disciplined, and consistently award-recognised, feels both timely and necessary.

Explore MHNDU’s body of work on ArchiPro.