Precinct-scale agri-tourism, hospitality and renewable-energy development.
Multi-building precinct on a working farm, including hospitality, retail, education, and back-of-house operations.
Southern Highlands, NSW
Adaptive reuse of existing farm buildings.
Client-side project leadership, end to end. Patrick Sleeman led project delivery from feasibilitythrough to handover.
Precinct open and operating.
An ambitious, integrated development on a working farm in the Southern Highlands of NSW — combining hospitality led by a nationally-recognised operator, retail, education for children and the community, working agriculture, and a renewable-energy infrastructure capable of supporting the entire precinct.
The brief required adaptive reuse of existing buildings wherever possible, a strong sustainability discipline through every decision, careful integration of hospitality operations into a working farm, and a programme that would have the precinct open and trading within a defined window.
A substantial proportion of the precinct is adaptive reuse—existing farm buildings retained, repaired, repurposed, and brought into compliance with their new uses. Adaptive reuse is the harder path on most projects. It requires more design effort, more construction judgement, and a higher tolerance for the unknowns that only reveal themselves once works begin.
On this project, the harder path was the right one. The retained buildings carry the character of the place in a way new construction couldn't have. Holding decisions like this through a complex multi-year project is the work of client-side projectleadership.
The hospitality program at Burradoo Park Farm is led by a nationally-recognised operator, integrated into a working farm rather than imposed on top of it. The result is a destination that operates as a real piece of agricultural infrastructure — and a place visitors return to.
The food grown on the farm is served in the hospitality precinct. The glasshouses, kitchen garden, and open-field production are all in active use, supplying the kitchens directly. The operation works in both directions — the working farm gives the visitor experience integrity, and the visitor experience makes the farm commercially viable.
Across the precinct, the small decisions add up. Materials, light, finish, plantings, the way one space leads to another. None of it is accidental, and none of it is decorative. The craft of the place is what visitors register without naming.
The renewable energy infrastructure was a structural element of the project, not a bolt-on. The groundmounted solar array, integrated into the working farm, supplies the energy demand of the precinct. The ESD discipline ran through every decision — from material specification to building services to landscape management.
Burradoo Park Farm operates as a complete precinct. The Farmhouse. The Restaurant. The Bakehouse, The kitchen garden. The library. The insect institute. Each element has its own purpose and its own visitors — and the precinct as a whole is what makes the project genuinely different.
HBP's role as project lead spanned the full delivery—coordinating architects, engineers, consultants, and contractors across multiple buildings and precinct elements through the construction programme.
