Steensen Varming was first established in Australia by the Danish practice in 1957, following success in winning the commission to design the Sydney Opera House with Jørn Utzon.

The Opera House architects and engineers were in agreement from the beginning that it would be unthinkable to construct a boiler chimney stack or a cooling tower, thus ruling out two usually necessary pieces of equipment for large-scale air conditioning.  The solution offered by Steensen Varming was to use a heat pump system, utilising water from the harbour as the cooling agent: a truly elegant and efficient solution, even by today’s standards.

Steensen Varming continued as the mechanical consultants after Utzon resigned in 1966, ultimately delivering the design, documentation, contract administration and detailed site supervision of all mechanical, hydraulic and fire protection services, including the controls/supervisory system.

The design innovation and technical expertise demonstrated in this unique landmark project subsequently led to the awarding of other projects in Australia to the Steensen Varming practice. As a result, Steensen Varming was permanently established on these shores, becoming incorporated in Australia in 1973.

The Australian practice has continued in the Steensen Varming tradition of providing creative and technically innovative design solutions, through close consultation with the client, architects and other design team members. The continued success of this approach is illustrated by the successful delivery of a number of high profile projects and the establishment of affiliated offices throughout Australia, together with the recognition of numerous local and international industry awards.

Our history and continued affiliation with the Varming Alliance, which includes practices in London and Dublin, enables us to benchmark our service against the best International professional consultancy organisations. The cooperation and exchange of knowledge between these individual practices provides each practice with skill and inspiration from outside. Joint activities and development provide a higher level of competence and capacity than the individual practice could master alone. Steensen Varming offers a world-class service to all our clients. To achieve this we continue to keep abreast of the trends and demands of our industry whilst maintaining our traditional attention to detail.

Our strong ties with academia and industry ensure our design practice continues to be innovative, practical and appropriate. Steensen Varming regularly contributes to industry publications, seminars and conferences, on both an individual and organisational level, and to further encourage the knowledge and appreciation of a holistic approach to building design, we have recently republished Reyner Banham's inspirational book "The Architecture of the Well-tempered Environment".

Steensen Varming is committed to positively contributing to minimizing the impact on the local and global environment. To this end we have implemented procedures which satisfy the requirements of ISO 14001 "Environmental Management Systems" and actively reduce the reliance on non-sustainable resources through environmentally sensitive and responsible design, practices and procedures.

Steensen Varming was at the vanguard of implementing an accredited Quality Assurance System complying with ISO 9001. We have held this accreditation continuously since 1993. We continue to improve our systems to reflect current technical and management procedures, to ensure our service delivers best value and quality.

Steensen Varming's experience covers both the private and public sectors, encompassing a diverse range of projects from major institutional and commercial developments, to sensitive cultural and natural heritage sites. This broad experience-base ensures that for each unique project, Steensen Varming will provide innovative, responsive and responsible design solutions.

Steensen Varming provides highly skilled and motivated individuals and teams, offering services in the following disciplines:

      Mechanical Building Services Engineering

      Electrical Building Services Engineering

      Passive / Low Energy and Environmentally Sustainable Design

      Lighting Design

      Daylighting

      Renewables, Power Generation, Co-generation and District Energy

      Specialist Environment and Climate Control

      Building and System Performance Modelling

      Engineering Project Management

      Communications & IT

      Vertical Transportation

      Building Envelope Analysis / Façade Engineering

      Specialist Gases