- Stephen Crafti
In Development
Warehouse chic? You can thank Neometro for that. The residential development company single-handedly transformed how we think about inner-city living. Three decades later, co-founder and design director Jeff Provan remains steadfast in his ethos. By Stephen Crafti.
Neometro has carved out an important space on the Melbourne housing scene. The residential developer’s projects exist at both the high-end and more affordable ends of the spectrum, whether it’s a luxury apartment block in Walsh Street, South Yarra, or the more community-focused Jewell Station precinct in Brunswick. Both are as appreciated by the locals as they are by the residents who live within them.
For Jeff Provan, the co-founder and design director of Neometro, the road to success was paved in small stepping stones before becoming a smooth ride. First, he spent a decade working as a civil engineer, and in his 30s studied architecture at RMIT University. In 1985, he teamed up with the then-photographer Barry Ludlow to launch Neometro as a development, design and construction company. “Both our fathers were builders, and we both worked on building sites,” says Provan, who saw that Ludlow shared his passion for design and architecture and had an eye for interior design.
The duo’s first project was to convert a warehouse on Little Smith Street, Fitzroy, into two residences. Receiving numerous accolades upon completion, including awards from Belle magazine and a Dulux Colour Award, it set the trend for warehouse living and a move to more vibrant and colourful interiors. This success led to a series of developments on small sites in Melbourne’s laneways that offered an affordable entry point to inner-city living. “Up until then, developers weren’t looking at these sites,” Provan says. He and Ludlow applied warehouse typology to these townhouses — think double-height spaces and enclosed courtyard-style gardens, which were novel then.
By that point, the phone was constantly ringing with people wanting something with a point of difference that was relatively affordable and was far from being cookie-cutter in its design. Natural materials, including timber and stone, formed part of the mix.
While Ludlow left Neometro in 2004, Provan and fellow Neometro directors James Tutton and Lochlan Sinclair keep looking for that next project, working with leading architects such as Kerstin Thompson of KTA, Edition Office, Fieldwork, MA+Co, Carr Design Group, Clare Cousins Architects and Kosloff Architecture. “I’m looking for architects who share similar values to Neometro, who work in an ethical way and, obviously, those who are talented and good at what they do,” Provan says.
For the 49 Walsh Street apartments, expected to be completed in early 2026, Neometro has collaborated with architecture firm MORQ, which has offices in Perth and Rome, and local landscape architects Mud Office. “[MORQ] had some of Neometro’s DNA — the ability to play with light and create beautiful spaces for people to live in,” Provan says. “In this case, many [people were] scaling down from large family homes but still wanting a sense of space and amenity that’s been left behind in the suburbs.” Each of the 10 apartments has their own “voice” and floorplan, with the penthouse including three living areas, a secluded guest bedroom suite and a dining area. Andrea Quagliola, MORQ’s founding director, says, “We strive to design buildings that stand outside of time, untethered to any singular era, style or place, which can’t be reduced to a movement, fashion or label.”
At the other end of Neometro’s portfolio is the Jewell Station precinct, situated next to a railway line in Brunswick. When Neometro developed the site’s first building, also called Jewell Station, nearby Collingwood and Fitzroy had already seen the horse bolt in terms of housing prices, but Brunswick was still relatively undiscovered. Today, as Provan works on the fourth building for the site — 9 Wilson Avenue, set to open this month — the suburb is filled with a broad cross-section of people drawn to the area’s vibrancy. The train line, along with the adjacent bike path, has become a drawcard for many, and each building is generally mixed use, with offices, cafes and retail offerings.
For Provan and his team, part of the satisfaction of the Jewell Station precinct is seeing the diversity of residents attracted to the apartments — people aged between 20 and 70-plus, from various cultural and social backgrounds. “I love seeing the way people live in these spaces, whether they’re in a studio apartment of 40 square metres or a luxurious penthouse that’s 300 square metres, the size of a house,” Provan says.
His passion for producing memorable architecture extends to his personal beach getaway on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Mori House. Designed by the eminent Lisbon-based architect Manuel Aires Mateus, the monumental concrete house responds beautifully to the site overlooking Port Phillip Bay and Provan’s family’s lifestyle. “I’ve stayed at a number of places designed by Manuel,” Provan says. “You can see by entering his buildings how he sees the world, with his perspective on the past as much as the future.”
Knowing that buildings can last for centuries, Provan says that “sometimes [a project] is about giving a building a new lease of life down the track. We have a saying in our office that an apartment should ‘wear in but not wear out’. The bones have to be right.”
Provan also enjoys hearing stories of people who are “wedded” to their Neometro homes, living in them for decades. “I heard that one of our clients is still enjoying the place we built more than 30 years ago,” he says. “It might be a tad too large for them now, but they have no intention of moving.”
And although success has followed success for the past three decades of Neometro, with more on the horizon, Provan is more than aware that “you are only as good as your last show”.
This is an extract from an article that appears in print in our twelfth edition, Page 126 of Winning Magazine with the headline: “In Development”. Subscribe to Winning Magazine today.
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