Following an international expansion, Design Partnership Australia has embraced a new focus and rebranded itself for the future. 

With an illustrious career in South Africa and a frequent speaker at DAS CPD events, Callie van der Merwe and Design Partnership are well known in the architectural and design fraternity.  

Founded in South Africa in 1997, Design Partnership expanded successfully with offices into Australia in 2016. In 2023 with a great portfolio of work now under their belt locally as well as in Dubai, an opportunity presented itself to open an office in Dubai as well. However, with this new expansion they were mindful not to repeat the same mistake made coming into Australia and decided that the time had arrived to establish a new identity. Callie van der Merwe explains in an exclusive interview why Design Partnership Australia and Dubai is now known as COOOP. 

Future forward 

Now based in Sydney Australia, Van der Merwe explains that the team wanted fresh energy and a departure from the old identity. “Something like the artist formerly known as Prince,” he jokes.  

In considering the new name, it was important that it should be a soundbite that could cut through the clutter. Acknowledging the power of modern technology, the team felt that the name Design Partnership did not track on search engine optimisation (SEO) very easily, as the name consists of two generic soundbites, being design and partnership. 

Callie van der Merwe

Unique identity 

It was important to choose a name and an identity that a new market would notice – one that would not be confused with any other design company. “There are dozens of Design Partnerships worldwide. There are five derivatives just here in Australia alone, which made it almost impossible to establish the kind of gravitas that Design Partnership South Africa managed to attain and is still growing on very successfully year on year,” explains Van der Merwe. 

Strategy and intent 

The COOOP studio applies human behavioural knowledge to design and curate highly successful social spaces within the built environment. “We wanted a new soundbite to accompany the two strategic design approaches we use, namely Design-for-Behaviour and EnviroHacking,” says Van der Merwe.  

“Lastly, we wanted a soundbite that would signify our desire to CO-OP with other people and other companies. Thus, CO-OP became COOOP.” 

The official launch of COOOP represents an amalgamation of companies, including Design Partnership Australia, Archi-tex and EA Consulting Pvt Ltd. Together with Dubai Managing partner Marcus Wilkins, the expansion into this territory also afforded Australian senior associates Roberto Zambri and Calvin Janse van Vuuren to step in as decision makers and partners. 

For more information, contact COOOP Design Studio: 

Email: info@cooop.co 

Website: www.cooop.co