Second Edition is a Sydney based Architecture practice working across residential, retail and public spaces. We begin by looking closely at what is already there: what can be retained, repaired or adapted, and what a project genuinely needs to add.

We design with existing buildings and salvaged materials to make spaces that are useful, considered and respond to place.

About

Second Edition was established by Amy Seo and Shahar Cohen to explore a less wasteful way of building. Our work brings architectural design together with material sourcing and hands-on knowledge of how things are made, taken apart and put back to use.

Every project starts with an assessment of what can stay. We work with clients, builders and fabricators to find practical ways to retain existing fabric and integrate reclaimed materials into new work. Sometimes that means keeping a kitchen structure and changing only what is needed. Sometimes it means finding a new use for timber, stone or brick that would otherwise leave a site.

We also maintain a warehouse of salvaged materials. We use these materials in our own projects and make them available to other local architects and builders, helping useful resources find their next place.

Services

Architecture & Interiors

We design residential, retail and public projects, from alterations and additions to new spaces and interiors. We work closely with clients to understand how a place needs to function, then develop a design around its existing qualities and future use.

Retention and reuse are considered from the beginning, alongside the budget, construction process and everyday experience of the space.

Consultancy

We collaborate with other architects on larger projects to identify opportunities for retention and material reuse. This can include assessing what is already on site, developing reuse strategies, sourcing reclaimed materials and working through how they can be specified and built.

Material Sourcing

Our warehouse holds a changing collection of salvaged building materials available for use in projects beyond our own. We also work with builders, suppliers and fabricators to source materials for particular needs, subject to availability.

Team

Amy Seo

Nominated Architect #12632 (NSW)

Second Edition Director- Amy Seo.

Shahar Cohen

Caitlin Condon

Architect #13273 (NSW)

Carina Pannatier

Isabel Narvaez

Architect #801082

Articles and Events

Second Edition regularly gives lectures and appears on panel discussions at educational and cultural institutions. We aim to share our research and engage with the wider community across architecture and design.

Artichoke Magazine

Emerging Profile

2023

Houses Magazine

One to Watch

2023

e-flux Architecture

Marble and Salami

2024

Architecture Symposium:A Broader Landscape
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2022

Powerhouse Late: Architecture
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
2022

Paradise Journal
Issue 2- Learning to Unbuild
2022

Mining Waste: Designing in a Broken World
Rhode Island School of Design (Collapse Symposium), Online
2022

Union Magazine
Essay by Thomas Essex-Plath
2022