Specialists
Specialists in Experience Design Across Australia
We are experts in visitor experience design, placemaking, and destination development, with extensive experience across tourism, hospitality, retail, community, and public spaces in Australia. At S2 Architects, we’re not just architects; we’re specialists in creating engaging, immersive, and memorable experiences that connect people with places. Every building, every space, is an opportunity to tell a story, inspire action, and leave lasting impressions.
Visitor-Centric Design That Engages and Inspires
Our expertise lies in designing spaces that put visitors, guests, and users first. From the moment people enter your space, we ensure they are welcomed into an environment that captivates, engages, and sparks curiosity. Our visitor experience design approach ensures every interaction is intentional and memorable.
Tailored and Authentic Experiences
We don’t do one-size-fits-all solutions. By understanding the unique identity, purpose, and aspirations of your place, we create customised, authentic, and immersive experiences that resonate with your audience and leave a lasting impact.
Deep Expertise Across Sectors
While we are known for our leadership in tourism design, our specialist skills extend to hospitality, retail, community, and public spaces. Our team understands the latest design trends, operational challenges, and visitor expectations, enabling us to deliver spaces that exceed the needs of modern audiences.
Local Insight and Placemaking
We harness our local knowledge, cultural understanding, and social insights to design spaces that foster connection, belonging, and loyalty. Our placemaking approach ensures that every project—whether a destination, retail precinct, or community space—is meaningful, functional, and emotionally engaging.
Maximising ROI Through Strategic Design
Every square metre counts. Our designs are strategically crafted to maximise return on investment, whether through efficient layouts, revenue-generating amenities, flexible spaces, or emotionally engaging experiences. Every aspect of your space is designed to work hard, enhancing both visitor satisfaction and commercial performance.
Sustainable and Long-Lasting Design
Sustainability is central to our work. We create spaces that are environmentally responsible, socially meaningful, and economically viable, ensuring your project delights today while standing the test of time.
Why Partner with S2 Architects
Partnering with S2 Architects means working with experience design specialists who are passionate about transforming spaces into destinations that attract, engage, and retain audiences. From tourism and hospitality to retail and community projects, our holistic approach ensures every element contributes to a memorable, immersive, and commercially successful experience.
Cellar Door and Tasting Rooms, F&B Offerings
Your reputation for an extraordinary F&B offering is built on a commitment to pairing the place and people with the offering. Attracting locals and tourists alike is not a happy accident, but a purposeful creation of entrance, environment and menu that attracts them in, keeps them engaged and encourages them to buy.
Our team can show you how to craft a space that offers an amazing F&B experience, can accommodate retail offerings that make sense, and is flexible enough to cleverly adapt to other uses throughout your opening hours.
Get the design guide to make your Cellar Door or Tasting Room Extraordinary
Hotel and Accommodation
Today’s tourists want more than just home-like accommodation—they want a unique hotel experience that reflects the local flavor and stories. We help uncover a location’s uniqueness, embedding your brand while capturing the essence of the place. With expertise in coordinating efficient back-of-house operations and responding to diverse operator needs, we ensure a seamless plan that enhances both functionality and guest experience. Whether upgrading existing accommodations or creating new ones, we’ll help you create spaces that tell a story, leading to longer stays and stronger guest recommendations.
Get the design guide to make your Hotel and Accommodation extraordinary
Attraction & Visitor Centres, Museums & Exhibitions
Visitor or welcome centres need spaces where the local character and stories are so tangible that visitors become curious and motivated, and where people understand the value of your place and how special it is, that spending time and money on your product and out in the region is the obvious choice.
Operational efficiencies such as opportunities for multiple uses, cross-staffing, self service options and quiet retreat areas are a focus for many centres.
Get the design guide to make your Attraction and Visitor Centre extraordinary
Food Tourism
More than other, more traditional tourism markets, interest in food tourism is new, growing and relatively untapped with massive potential. These operators can harness the authenticity built into place, culture and history, and be made unique under a strong banner of their own branding. Woven together, place and brand can generate completely unique offerings, stories can be unfolded and opportunities for extraordinary experiences created.
Get the design guide to make your Food Tourism space extraordinary
Agri-tourism and Manufacturing Tourism
For many farming, production and manufacture businesses, branching into offering tourism experiences is a new and intimidating possibility. But we only need to look to the wine industry of the past to see how successfully growing and production can translate into a strong tourism economy – from grower to manufacturer, craftsman to seller and retailer, from sampling to tourism.
Truly successful operators have utilised their history, culture, values, place and space to develop an understanding of what makes them unique. Being honest and authentic about what they do is what builds trust and loyalty, but the public doesn’t need to see everything and the key to successful agri-tourism and manufacture tourism is crafting the right experience in extraordinary places and spaces.
Get the design guide to make your Farm and Manufacturing Tourism space extraordinary
Community Places & Local Spaces
Place-making is the idea that by creating places that people love, we cultivate vibrant, safe, and interesting urban and streetscape environments that enhance the quality of life for all. We engage local businesses, activate precincts and promote livability. We create spaces that are alive, enticing and sustainable.
Place-making goes beyond mere physical design; it transforms ordinary spaces into vibrant environments that encourage connection and engagement within communities. Successful places offer a variety of activities and experiences that attract diverse groups throughout the day and night. We help create spaces that embody the stories and aspirations of its users, so it becomes more than just a physical location; it transforms into a cherished part of their lives, enhancing ongoing engagement and connection for generations to come.
Get the design guide to make your Local and Community focussed space extraordinary