City tours for lovers of architecture, design, culture and ideas.
Experience Sydney through the eyes of an architect.
Aimed at the level of the expert-enthusiast, our tours explore ideas through architecture, offering an interface between in-depth knowledge and the wider design-conscious community.
Architecture is our lens and Sydney’s best buildings, landscapes and public art works are our protagonists, as we discuss the city in terms of the forces that shape it over time; culturally, politically, economically, environmentally, historically.
Conversations are informal, each tour driven by particular themes and threads that attempt to decode the city whilst stimulating new ways of thinking about and seeing Sydney.
Get SAW feet. Sydney will never look the same again. We promise!
Public Walking Tours
We run tours throughout the year.
Check Tour Calendar below for our public program.
The City, Sydney
The perfect city introduction - this tour reveals the patterns and forces shaping Sydney with a focus on four contemporary masterpieces.
$65 | 2.5 hours
Utzon
The amazing, visionary world of Sydney Opera House architect Jørn Utzon.
An architectural tour de force!
$75 | 3 hours
Harbourings
Getting beyond the postcard view of Sydney and her two shimmering icons. The harbour will be our guide - conceptually and literally.
$75 | 3 hours
Modern Sydney
Guided by the spirit of interwar modernity, this tour cuts a path from Anzac Memorial to
Sydney Opera House.
$75 | 3 hours
The Track
A pedestrian artery for thousands of years connecting salt water and fresh, George Street is now Sydney’s meandering spine.
$65 | 2.5 hours
Regeneration of Chippendale
The transformation and regeneration of Chippendale over the last decade has been nothing short of spectacular.
$65 | 2.5 hours
Public Bicycle Tour
Three-Suburbs South Bike Tour
An insiders’ tour of the inner-city villages of Redfern, Surry Hills and Waterloo — with a two-wheeled, architectural twist!
$105 | 4 hours
Public Tour Calendar
We add dates to our program seasonally.
If the dates don’t suit you, please get in touch. We may be able to add a tour to the program - particularly if you ask nicely.
We’re currently on a winter break - our public program begins again in August.
Private Group Tours
If you have a large group, special request or particular interest then a Private Group Tour is for you.
Across the year, we conduct tours for school and university groups, professional and cultural organisations, social groups and individuals.
Tours can be based on one of our public tours, or they can be based on a particular theme like urban renewal, sustainability, gentrification, city-making, contemporary architecture & public art, or housing affordability.
Tours can be on foot, on bikes or out of town.
Our aim is to immerse you in the design culture of Sydney and share the city’s most inspiring and provocative contemporary architecture, art and landscape projects.
Sydney Mini-City Guide
We love a challenge, and we love a good ol’ constraint and ours was to squeeze everything we love about Sydney onto one A4 sheet of paper.
This was the question we asked ourselves. What would someone passionate about architecture and design want to know about Sydney? This someone loves food, great coffee, beautiful spaces and is on the hunt for unique and special experiences that only Sydney offers.
Walking is obviously important, great streets are super-important - little clusters where there is amazing architecture, great cafe’s, perhaps a small gallery, a well-loved local restaurant an old cemetery that has incredible views or a shop that is just so beautiful it has to be experienced to be believed all in close proximity…
It wasn’t easy, god no, and we had to resort to a very small font (sorry!), but we managed to cram what we recon are Sydney’s most precious and unique places and experiences onto a sheet of paper. Hey presto – our Sydney Mini-City Guide!
We don’t sell them, oh no no - we fold them lovingly, stamp them and give them away to the brave souls that join one of our urban expeditions.
5 star on tripadvisor
4.9 star on Google
“Intelligent, articulate and energetic guides, offering insight into architecture’s non-visible world of unbuilt designs, political tensions and historical twists.
Recommended, three hats.”
— Elizabeth Farrelly. Sydney Morning Herald
“Stands out as the best set of architecture tours I've done. Excellent fusing of architecture appreciation with the historical context: political forces and battles that shaped the city. Accessible, and very engaging, from tour guides that are obviously passionate and well-researched.”
— Mark Hansen. Google review
“Lewis leverages enough intellectual weight and industry asides to satisfy the pointy heads - while giving the design illiterate concepts we can understand. He effortlessly compresses two centuries of history, geography, sociology, architecture and art into two hours.”
— Lisa Dabscheck. Sydney Morning Herald