About Prior Barraclough

Prior Barraclough is a contemporary architecture practice concerned with the design and delivery of thoughtful, sophisticated and critical architecture. We seek to engage with our clients and collaborators to understand and resolve the complexities and contingencies inherent in all architectural projects through a language of formal, spatial, and material coherence. We pursue an architecture of refinement with embedded spatial logic, structural clarity, and formal integrity.

We are a dynamic and nimble practice that works with curiosity and rigour across scales, budgets, and typologies, our small but dedicated team equally adept at engaging with multi-residential housing briefs, institutional projects, and single family homes on urban and regional sites. Our projects have been recognised in industry awards programs and have been published in a range of architectural media.

We are committed to our discipline and actively engage with teaching, research, and architectural advocacy. As a young practice, we are part of an emerging generation of architects determining the shape of our shared future.

Awards

Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Chapter Awards
Emagn Project Award - Winner
Greeves Street Townhouses

Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Chapter Awards
Multi-Residential Category - Shortlist
Greeves Street Townhouses

Urban Developer Awards
Development of the Year - Finalist
Greeves Street Townhouses

Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Chapter Awards
Multi-Residential Category - Shortlist
York Street Townhouses

Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Chapter Awards
New Residential Category - Shortlist
Illawong Court Residence

Australian Interior Design Awards
New Residential Category - Shortlist
Rhyll Court Residence

Architzer Awards
New Residential Category - Finalist
Anne Crescent Residence

Press

The Local Project - Issue No. 9
Union Street Residence

Mezzanine Magazine - Vol 11
Anne Cresent Residence

Houses Magazine - Issue No. 79
Illawong Court Residence

Abode Magazine - Issue No. 26
Illawong Court Residence

Best Coastal Homes
Illawong Court Residence

Dennis Prior

Dennis Prior is a founding director of Prior Barraclough. He is a registered Architect and a Lecturer in Architectural Design at The University of Melbourne where he is responsible for coordinating design studio subjects at both undergraduate and post graduate levels. He has oversight of the design studio program in the Bachelor of Design degree and is actively involved in the public program of the Melbourne School of Design. His teaching has been recognised with a Faculty Teaching Excellence Award from The University of Melbourne for “sustained performance and history of accomplished design teaching in architecture”.

Dennis holds a Master of Studies Degree from The University of Oxford, graduating with distinction and a prize for academic excellence. His dissertation at Oxford investigated the relationship between architectural and artistic practice and received the prestigious Association of Art Historians Dissertation Prize. He completed his studies in architecture at The University of Melbourne and The Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, graduating from the former with First Class Honours and the Edward and Penelope Billson Prize for Architectural Design. Prior to co-founding Prior Barraclough, Dennis worked at a range of award winning practices including NH Architecture, Six Degrees, and Andrew Simpson Architects.

Michael Barraclough

Before co-founding Prior Barraclough, Michael worked for two of Australia’s leading architectural practices, Lab Architecture Studio and John Wardle Architects, and gained international experience in the London and Colombo offices of Cecil Balmond, the world-renowned structural engineer.

Michael was educated in the United Kingdom, Denmark and Australia, and holds a Master of Architecture and Urbanism with distinction from the Architectural Association’s Design Research Laboratory in London, and a Bachelor of Architecture with First Class Honours from the University of Melbourne. During his education, he was awarded a series of scholarships, awards and honours, including an Architectural Association Graduate Scholarship, a Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship, an Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant, the Edward and Penelope Billson Award, the Castles Stevenson Turner Award, the Deans Honours Award, and a Melbourne Abroad Scholarship to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. His graduate thesis was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the Building Centre in London, the Maison Mais Non in London and the Esba Talm in Le Mans.

Since his education, he has remained closely involved with academia, teaching architectural design and theory at the University of Melbourne and Monash University.