Brendan Gaffney

Director, Cox Architecture

Brendan completed his studies in architecture at the University of Queensland in 1990 and joined COX in 1997. He was appointed as a Director of the firm in 2007 and with close to 30 years of experience has developed an expertise across a range of areas including urban design, public buildings, transport infrastructure and high-density development. His explorations into design have taken him to some of the world’s great cities including Instanbul, Stockholm, Helsinki, London, Berlin, Singapore, Beijing and Hong Kong.

Brendan has led architectural teams on many of Cox’s most significant public, civic, urban renewal and waterfront projects including the New Farm Powerhouse Centre for the Arts, Cairns Cityport Master Plan, the Brisbane Convention Exhibition Centre Grey St Expansion, and the original Newstead Gasworks master plan. Brendan has designed and delivered over seventeen separate ferry nodes in Brisbane over the last 20 years, most recently the revolutionary Flood Recovery Ferry Terminals which incorporate world-first innovations in infrastructure resilience and equitable access. His specialist knowledge in this area allowed him to peer-review the new Cox-designed Barangaroo ferry terminal in Sydney. Brendan recently led a major architectural and urban design team for the 6-month intensive design phase on the Centriq Consortium’s Cross-River Rail bid solution, coordinating the inputs of over 20 supporting consultancies.

Brendan believes that the city is our greatest cultural achievement and therefore has a passion for collaboration on city design, to ensure that every project fully explores the potentials of urban connectivity, legibility, civic face, activation and a generosity in what it can offer back to the urban domain. At COX, Brendan has been able to apply his dedication to the city across projects of a scale both large and small.