Shaping the Gold Coast since 1978

Architecture is the art of designing places to fit the needs of people. HHH’s founders, Max Hamilton, Lach Henderson and Alan Hayes share an unwavering belief; they insisted on not simply meeting the needs of the firm’s clients but that it was essential that whatever design solution proposed by the HHH team it had to ‘stack’ the solutions needed to be viable.

By this he meant that it was simply not good enough to produce an award-worthy design; the solution had to meet the set of objectives defined in the brief and deliver on the economic, social, environmental and other goals the client had nominated as essential for their project’s success.

Nothing emphasises the continuously evolving nature of the HHH ethos than the Gold Coast skyline and the continuously changing built environment.

HHH was established on the Gold Coast in 1978 and celebrates 40 years contribution to the continuous period of change Australia’s premier internationally acclaimed leisure, resort and tourism destination has undergone since. In the decade 1971-81 the population of the Gold Coast grew by 100,000 to just under 180,000 and in 2018 stands at around 560,000.

HHH can point to having played a significant role in the way the region has dealt with change and made the Gold Coast not simply a great place for people from other parts of Australia and other countries to visit but to also be a great place to live and raise a family.

Quite often, in the early days, the client simply had an ‘idea’ of what they wanted. They needed professional guidance on what was not only permissible within the confines of planning and urban design contexts but expert advice also on what could be achieved on a particular site with the resources available. HHH throughout its existence has very often acted as an intermediary and trusted adviser in harnessing the professional skills of others to ensure what were essentially dreams could become reality.

Max believed great design and architecture, the built solutions offered the client, be it categorised as residential, commercial, hospitality, education or health and retirement design focused, a project could only satisfy a client’s expectations when the solutions fulfilled the complex set of client’s needs and at the same time offered genuine ‘value for money’.

But that was not simply enough; he strongly believed also that there was always room for improvement. The firm needed to not simply deliver ‘a’ solution but needed to find ‘the’ solution that lifted the project out of the ordinary and would be brought to life at the lowest possible cost for the highest possible return and just as importantly stand the test of time.