Main Design Studio is a Melbourne/Naarm based creative practice. Bronwen and Frank realise creative projects across art installation, design and film, exploring playful ideas and the role of design in bringing forth a better world.
We believe great projects are best grown through sharing and collaborating. Ideas are serious but should be held lightly, treated playfully, and developed with sincerity and a twinkle in the eye.
We are in love with the wilderness and the city, practical and romantic, intrigued with the intricate ways history is folded into the contemporary, curated and spontaneous, and not bound to any particular medium.
Bronwen Main
— Founder
Bronwen has worked with prominent global and local cultural insitutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has extensive experience working with Melbourne’s leading architects and builders, working across heritage, residential, hospitality and cultural projects. Bronwen has taught at the University of Melbourne and Monash University in the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture.
Bronwen studied at leading universities in China & New York, including the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NYC. During this time, she researched with The Consortium for Research and Robotics, working with New York City’s largest industrial robot to research new modes of creative production.
Bronwen co-founded Main Studio to design at all scales to enrich people’s lives, from chairs and lamps to exhibitions, buildings and urban places. Bronwen’s close relationship with nature informs her love of natural materials and sensitivity to site and place.
Frank Burridge — Founder
Frank co-founded Main Studio because he is on a mission to transform our homes, schools and cities into zero-waste systems and thriving biodiversity hubs. Frank is driven by an inquisitive curiosity and a deep love for the natural world that makes life shimmer.
Frank has designed and delivered buildings and masterplans for leading schools in Australia, translating what the school believes about education into purposeful learning spaces that empower learners and teachers. Frank designs future-focused buildings that help prepare students to thrive in a changing world.
As a Teaching Associate at Monash University, Frank teaches aspiring architects to design building systems as extensions of ecosystems through close observation of plants, animals and landscapes, creating buildings that close the loop on wasted materials.