Billy Robinson

I am a graduating architect with a Diploma of Building Design, a Bachelor of Architecture, and soon a Master of Architecture. What excites me most about studying and practicing architecture is the chance to create designs that connect with their surroundings and the people who inhabit them. I’m drawn to the way the built environment can engage with the natural world, creating a sense of flow and harmony that strengthens both the space and its context.

My approach to design is deeply sensory. I believe architecture is more than what is seen, it’s something felt through touch, movement, light, and atmosphere. By paying attention to these elements, I aim to create spaces that evoke emotion and meaning, offering depth and opportunities for genuine engagement. Materiality, tactility, and spatial composition shape how I think and design, because I want each project to resonate on multiple levels.

I’m drawn to projects that build a strong relationship between people and place, where architecture encourages moments of connection, curiosity, and exploration. Through thoughtful design, I strive to craft environments that are immersive, memorable, and responsive to their surroundings. Ultimately, my goal is to create architecture that is not only visually compelling but meaningful, enriching the experience of those who use and move through it.

Observation Tower

An inclusive structure reinterpreting the lighthouse as a place of shared perspective. The spiral ramp allows all visitors to experience the wind and views of Cape Otway Lightstation.

Observation Tower Floor Plans | Sections

The observation tower is designed for universal accessibility, featuring a continuous spiral ramp and a central elevator so all visitors can reach the top. The curved form is both experiential and structural as the steel frame bends with the ramp’s geometry, distributing loads evenly along its arc.

Visitor Huts | Bird Watching Huts

The bird hut echoes the language of the observation tower, translating the frottage textures into a perforated metal skin. This tactile surface invites visitors to peer through playful openings for bird watching and exploring.

Data Centre - Data for Green Things

Data for Green Things transforms the Lonsdale Exchange into a vibrant green beacon in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD. By harnessing waste heat from the servers, microalgae panels on the facade turn what is usually a by-product of data into a living, breathing system. These panels not only bring life to the building but also act as a visual symbol of sustainable technology, showing how urban infrastructure can become ecological, regenerative, and poetic.

Data Centre - Alleyway

Curved alleyways and interactive tunnels invite people to explore the building and its surroundings, transforming the Data Centre into a public, engaging space along Lonsdale Street. The design encourages human interaction, with reflective surfaces, subtle openings, and art displays that merge urban culture with ecological innovation. Here, technology and nature coexist, creating a unique space where the city, its people, and the environment connect.

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.