Pelaco Precinct

Built in 1922 and recog­nised by its rooftop sign on Rich­mond Hill, the for­mer Pela­co fac­to­ry was orig­i­nal­ly pur­pose-built for pin­stripe shirt man­u­fac­tur­ing. The project uni­fies the exist­ing build­ings into a con­nect­ed com­mer­cial envi­ron­ment for con­tem­po­rary tenancy.

The design approach cen­tres on pre­serv­ing the recog­nis­able iden­ti­ty of the orig­i­nal Pela­co build­ing, with the rooftop sign remain­ing a defin­ing mark­er with­in the broad­er precinct. The refur­bish­ment draws on the building’s char­ac­ter, care­ful­ly strip­ping back lat­er lay­ers of plas­ter­board and dat­ed fit-outs to reveal the orig­i­nal indus­tri­al fab­ric beneath.

Exist­ing brick­work, con­crete sur­faces and large tim­ber beams are retained and cel­e­brat­ed, while new inser­tions use a restrained palette of steel, tim­ber and con­crete to main­tain con­ti­nu­ity with the building’s robust mate­r­i­al fab­ric. Soft­er over­lays of light­ing, tim­ber detail­ing and tac­tile fin­ish­es intro­duce warmth and appeal, while remain­ing durable enough for a high-use com­mer­cial environment.

A new entry sequence is carved through the front build­ing to estab­lish a clear con­nec­tion from the street into the heart of the precinct. This inter­ven­tion reori­ents arrival, draw­ing users through a lay­ered thresh­old that links the new and exist­ing build­ings with­in a sin­gle con­tin­u­ous experience.

Large lamp­post-like globe lights are intro­duced through the cir­cu­la­tion spaces, link­ing the build­ings and cre­at­ing warmth across the cor­ri­dors. A new hos­pi­tal­i­ty venue is added to the ground level.

The mas­ter­plan recon­fig­ures the for­mer dri­ve­way into a shared pedes­tri­an and ser­vice laneway, shift­ing cir­cu­la­tion into a more pub­lic and con­nect­ed ground plane. Inter­sti­tial spaces are reworked as pock­ets of gar­den, cre­at­ing green set­tings for pause, seat­ing and infor­mal meet­ings. A durable ground treat­ment of thin blue pin­stripes over a light grey sur­face ref­er­ences Pelaco’s tai­lor­ing heritage.

In addi­tion to accom­mo­dat­ing new ten­an­cies, the works rein­force the precinct as a con­tin­u­ous­ly oper­at­ing work­place, with star­tups, cre­ative indus­tries and com­mer­cial radio sta­tions remain­ing active on site.