Fiona Dunin

As an architecture and interior design practice, FMD Architects is original and dynamic. Led by principal, Fiona Dunin, the studio is creating a new vision for Australian design through an innate understanding of the intrinsic values of steel.

As an architect of note, Fiona Dunin has forged her place as an exemplar practitioner within the Australian architecture and design community, creating projects that are both sensitive to place and genuinely fulfil clients’ briefs.

Through an innate understanding of materials and design, the projects that her practice, FMD Architects, undertakes are innovative and unique, pushing the boundaries of form and function.

Dunin’s signature style was formed through the intersection of two very complementary learning paths: interior design and architecture. She completed a Bachelor of Arts (Interior Design) at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in 1993 and then achieved a Bachelor of Architecture (Honours) at the University of Melbourne in 1998.

After graduation, Dunin worked for Geyer, Jackson Architecture and John Wardle Architects, and then established her own studio, FMD Architects, in 2006. And so, with her very first residential project in the seaside town of Lorne in Victoria on the drawing board, the practice was born.

Over the next 15 years, FMD Architects and Dunin have achieved myriad accolades and awards, and the practice is renowned for its bespoke creativity and incredible attention to detail.

With a team of six architects and designers and a plethora of completed commissions, the studio focuses on varying scales and types of projects that encompass residential architecture and interiors, the commercial and cultural sectors, and competitions.

Strongly differentiating Dunin, her team and their work, is that materiality forms the very heart of the FMD approach to architecture and interiors. Steel is favoured in the practice’s material palette and acknowledgement of the values of Australian manufacturing is ingrained in its consciousness. Progressive and curious, and ready to examine and investigate how various materials can be used and adapted, Dunin and Co’s projects reinterpret and transform materials into new and original designs.

“I would say that the materiality of a building is not necessarily immediate at the beginning of the concept, but it’s something that evolves as we start developing the design into 3D,” says Dunin.

Her passion for one of those ‘humble’ materials is ongoing: BlueScope’s steel is a part of the FMD Architects’ DNA and has truly been defined in its latest weather-hardy residential project, Coopworth.

“Coopworth’s exterior was created from a really simple, material – being made from COLORBOND^® steel in LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB^® profile, in the colour Terrain^®*,” said Dunin.

“Yes, it is very economical and durable but it’s all in the detail so that we can achieve those really fine connections with really complex geometries, which was a great design challenge.”

While the pandemic has brought to the fore many ideas, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and buying local have become paramount in process for many architects and Dunin is mindful, wherever possible, of specifying and buying products that are environmentally conscious and locally made.

Buying local also aligns with broader ideas of sustainability - however, information on the provenance of materials could be improved, as Dunin comments. “I think there actually needs to be more government support in creating a standard. At the moment there’s no necessity to find out what the carbon footprint and embodied energy are of a material. There are so many building materials that you don’t really know where they’re from or how they’re made and I think that requires government input and support, to start enforcing this.”

While there’s always room for improvement within general process, FMD Architects’ role as architects and designers is streamlined and encompasses both yin and yang. “We oscillate between the pragmatic and the poetic on every project. We start very pragmatically.”

“When we design, when we think about the brief and the arrangement of spaces, we explore the climate and the ventilation before we even consider what it’s going to look like. And then we start thinking about the aesthetics. So, there is this constant oscillation between the pragmatic and the poetic and when we have a rapport with the client and an understanding of the site, the architecture starts performing the poetry.”

Through visionary thinking, Dunin and her team create projects that, while best practice, also utilise materials that contribute to authentic design. Dunin shows that a ubiquitous material such as COLORBOND^® steel is integral to creating outstanding projects when thinking outside the box and exploring possibilities.