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When architect Catherine Downie first visited an 1888 Camperdown corner store, Chupa Chups and deodorants vied with empty displays for Anticol and Soothers in the derelict space.<\/p>\n
Neil Mackenzie faced a similar scene when he bought a squalid Marrickville corner shop. \u201cIt was almost unliveable,\u201d said Mackenzie, architect and cofounder of Mackenzie Pronk with Heidi Pronk.<\/p>\n
Dating back to 1890, it had been home to 17 businesses before them. The names and types of businesses tracked the areas\u2019 changing demographics with a succession of greengrocers with very English names; Greek corner shops, including Con and Maria Prodromakis who also sold hot food; auto repairs; and the musician Phil Stack.<\/p>\n
Add architect to that now. And in the case of Downie\u2019s site in Camperdown, builder can be added to the list. The two corner store transformations both feature housing as well as commercial space, and both are on the shortlist for NSW architecture awards.<\/p>\n
![\"Architects](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/666d9bdf331457437568e080acd62f351938979f.jpeg\")
Architects Neil Mackenzie and Heidi Pronk and their groodle Milo inside the Marrickville corner terrace that they renovated with Make Projects. The group created Crossroads, a studio, an apartment and a new home that has been shortlisted for an award.Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n
Mackenzie says the growth of shopping centres killed the shops on nearly every corner in the city\u2019s inner west. Many were boarded up: \u201cPeople put newspaper up in the front room and that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n
As density has increased, and local community life has increased in value, these sites are becoming more valuable.<\/p>\n
Corner sites such as his had become a \u201cbit like the town square\u201d where people stopped to chat or look in the windows.<\/p>\n
Both sites have been updated to provide much-needed housing as well as commercial space. Yet they are shortlisted for different awards in the 2026 NSW chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects\u2019 awards.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/a412d6270cdf9bcc38a7cf23b74c8eb8c2d111d4.jpeg\")
The Corner Shop by Downie North has been shortlisted in the 2026 NSW architecture awards in two categories, interiors and residential\/alternations and additions.Clinton Weaver![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/77f22dadc8ccce2f6cb7e0c53971fc595a6c5fc9.jpeg\")
The old shop was turned into three things, an apartment, a new home (pictured) and a shop-front studio with gallery boxes in the window. Andreas Bommert![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e87d1922a3ecb556479a3c15e453ba86463bce04.jpeg\")
The Corner Shop by Downie North also offers housing as part of its transformation.Clinton Weaver <\/p>\n
Downie North\u2019s The Corner Shop in Camperdown has been shortlisted in the interiors and residential alterations and additions categories. Mackenzie Pronk with Make Projects \u2013 which owns the Crossroads site \u2013 have been shortlisted in the sustainable and the multi-residential categories.<\/p>\n
Downie, a cofounder of Downie North, said such corner sites were a \u201cgift for an architect\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have access to air and sunlight, and three facades instead of two very narrow ones,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
This allowed them to design a new interior around the \u201cmovement of the sun\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Owner](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/3efeb228b208a6cb6ae557ba8946f2aaeb86b847.jpeg\")
Owner Will Blackwell at the Corner Shop in Camperdown. Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n
The owner of the Camperdown site, Will Blackwell, who also owns building company BWM, said it was love at first sight. Having worked on many terrace renovations, he knew it would not be as dark as a traditional terrace. It would also provide a \u201cbigger canvas to do something a little more architectural\u201d.<\/p>\n
While Mackenzie Pronk\u2019s project retained most of the old building\u2019s structure, Downie North kept the Camperdown shop\u2019s brick facade but gutted the middle.<\/p>\n
Downie North designed a new 100 square metre three-bedroom home, which went up behind the old parapet, and built an office for Blackwell\u2019s business on the ground floor that opens to the street.<\/p>\n
Blackwell insisted on some of the exterior\u2019s blue paint and old tiles being kept as a reminder of the site\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
In Marrickville, Mackenzie said their project turned one thing into three. It added a one-bedroom unit above the corner shop, a three-bedroom home next door for co-owners \u2013 Make Projects\u2019 Tom Hume, a builder, and Jos Tarr, a designer \u2013 above two rooms where shopkeepers once lived.<\/p>\n
Mackenzie and Pronk love a corner shop. The practice used to operate in another nearby called Three Things. It sold coffee, cakes and architecture.<\/p>\n
At the new Crossroads site, they have put gallery boxes with art in the windows, and with the doors often open, locals stop to chat. \u201cI love it when people stop to look in the gallery,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
![\"Make](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e9d680d2896c9c62c83139fcd7e91735712f3bab.jpeg\")
Make Projects designer Jos Tarr with Mackenzie Pronk Architects co-founders Neil Mackenzie and Heidi Pronk and groodle Milo outside Crossroads, an office and apartment project shortlisted for residential alterations and additions.Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n
These talks turn into questions about architecture projects that have fuelled a long list of local projects, evidenced by the piles of plans filed under M for Marrickville in the studio.<\/p>\n
![\"Hannah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e8db0cd944fde131a52a98fbba6958c3cb7008f3c54f72beae3265f3cb98b103.gif\")
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