Bringing together a multidisciplinary team of almost 400 professionals across Australasia, Asia and Europe, Buchan (formerly The Buchan Group) has merged three practices to form one unified company, it was announced today.
The merger is the result of a strong history of working together across borders for more than three decades and will, along with the company’s new brand – also unveiled today – further strengthen its reputation as one of Australasia’s leading firms.
Director and Principal Phil Schoutrop said the merger was the start of creating a truly global design studio.
“The genuine desire to make this merger work has created a strong platform to launch the brand to a wider audience in markets that we have worked across for a number of years,” Mr Schoutrop said.
“We all share the view that we can compete far better within our chosen markets as a merged entity rather than as separate practices, marking the start of Buchan operating as a truly global studio.”
“Clients will benefit from our combined design and project delivery expertise, with our shared values, culture and drive for innovation enabling us to work in multidisciplinary teams all striving for one goal: to deliver world-class design services to our clients,” he said.
Non-Executive Chairman Frank Zipfinger said the merger would see Buchan become one of the most well-connected design studios in the world.
“The merger allows us to bring together the extraordinary expertise from our 11 studios and the diverse perspectives of almost 400 staff,” Mr Zipfinger said.
“Clients of the combined firm will have access to broader and deeper design and project delivery services, including a formal strategic alliance with Nikken Sekkei – the world’s second largest architecture firm – making Buchan one of the most well-connected design studios in the world,” he said.
Mr Schoutrop said the repositioning of the brand reflected the strong history of the company as a well-known and respected firm.
“We’ve shortened our name – from ‘The Buchan Group’ to simply ‘Buchan’ – reflecting how many of our stakeholders already know us, but we’ve retained the heritage of our brand – going back 125 years to our first practice opening in 1890 – of which everyone is still very proud,” Mr Schoutrop said.
“We are really looking forward to promoting the new Buchan brand, along with our strengthened offering of both creative and technical expertise, as we become more recognisable in the Asian and European markets and look forward to seeing what the future holds.”
Buchan operates in 11 locations in Australia and across the world – Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Christchurch, Dubai, Gold Coast, London, Melbourne, Perth, Shanghai and Sydney. The new combined firm will be led by CEO Andries Meyer.
