Bookshop by Uro, Sydney

Project Information/Data

Date: 2025
Client: Bookshop by Uro
Project Team: Supercontext, Second Edition, Stukel Architecture, Natural Brick and Copy Nature Office
Built by: All of us! (with assistance from DAB metal fabricators). Fabricated on site in our workshop/garage in April 2025
Photography: Hamish McIntosh

A collaboration with Second Edition, Stukel Architecture, Natural Brick and Copy Nature Office. Fitout of 'Bookshop by Uro' (https://bookshopbyuro.com/) in Chippendale, NSW. The project involved the construction of book shelves from reclaimed perforated metal office dividers and reclaimed timber dowel, converting the ground floor 'shop-front' of a narrow office building in Sydney's city fringe to a bookstore and events space.

Situated in Chippendale in Sydney's city fringe alongside Supercontext's offices, Bookstore by Uro represents the Sydney store of Australian publishing house Uro Publications (https://www.uropublications.com/). The project was developed as a collaboration between several architecture, design, fabrication and manufacturing studios largely from within the network of studios co-located with Bookshop by Uro, Sydney. Contributions from Second Edition, Copy Nature Office, Natural Brick and Stukel Architecture converted the ground floor of a narrow, 4-story 'terrace'-like office building into the bookstore and event space.

Uro Publications was established in 2009 and is one of the most prolific architecture and design publishing houses in Australia, representing the work of Australian architecture through a wide range of publications on our unique design, landscape and architectural culture. With a bookstore alongside their publishing house in Collingwood, Melbourne, Bookstore by Uro (Sydney) is one of if not the only dedicated architecture and design bookstore operating in Sydney.

The Chippendale space is also an events space as part of a broader committment to the Sydney and Australian design and architectural culture. The Sydney bookstore, like its Melbourne counterpart, regularly hosts booklaunches and and other related events.

The bookshelves were specifically designed for the bookshop by Second Edition (secondedition.com.au), and fabricated with the assistance of Supercontext and Copy Nature Office, using reclaimed materials otherwise destined for landfill. Perforated metal dividers were rescued and cut down to size for shelving, with a custom jointing design developed to ensure that the shelves are completely dissassembable - designed for defit - allowing for the materials to potentially be again reused in the future. A custom window display unit was provided by Natural Brick (naturalbrick.com.au), made from green concrete 'terrazzo' utilising recycled aggregates from waste-stream sources.