produce density on a site where a lot of developers would just say no
In the quiet inner suburbs of Canberra, a design-led developer is testing a quiet proposition: that architectural quality, applied with discipline to constrained urban land, can justify both the difficulty and the premium. Sculptd's twin apartment filings in Turner — one a seven-unit building on a generous block, the other a three-apartment exercise in density on a site most developers would abandon — are less about volume than about intention. The pairing is strategic, sharing a builder and a design collaborator to multiply efficiency and coherence. What unfolds here is a small but considered argument that infill urbanism, done well, is not a compromise but a choice.
- A developer new to Canberra's market is staking its reputation on two simultaneous projects in the same suburb, with no margin for one to rescue the other if the market turns cold.
- The smaller site — just 510 square metres — represents the kind of constrained parcel that routinely defeats developers, making Sculptd's ambition to extract three luxury apartments from it a genuine test of nerve and design.
- By locking a single builder across both sites, the firm is engineering cost efficiencies that depend on timing and coordination holding — a calculated bet that proximity translates into savings.
- An untested architect-developer collaboration produced designs both parties describe as synergistic, but the market will deliver its own verdict when three-million-dollar apartments go to sale.
- Sculptd is positioning itself as a long-term player in Canberra's inner north and south, where land costs are high but so is the appetite for quality — a strategy that only works if buyers consistently agree that design justifies the price.
Justin Tonti's development firm Sculptd has filed plans for two apartment buildings in Turner, a suburb two kilometres north of Canberra's city centre, separated by barely half a kilometre. The first, Clay, proposes seven apartments across four storeys on a 1045-square-metre block at Forbes Street — a mix of three- and four-bedroom homes with basement parking, a ground-floor courtyard, plunge pool, and a facade finished in sand-toned render and frameless glass balustrades. The second, Ora, occupies a far tighter 510-square-metre site on Wedge Crescent, delivering one luxury apartment per floor across three levels, each priced at three million dollars. Tonti is candid about the challenge: most developers, he says, would walk away from a block that small.
The pairing is deliberate. By engaging a single Canberra builder for both projects, Sculptd captures construction efficiencies — shared excavation, shared mobilisation — that would evaporate if the jobs were treated separately. Tonti, who holds architecture degrees from the University of Canberra nearby, brought in local architect Nathan Judd for the design work, a collaboration neither had attempted before. Both describe the outcome as something greater than the sum of its parts, a dynamic Tonti's architectural background helped sustain without tipping into interference.
Interiors receive the same attention as facades. Sculptd is working with Canberra practice Capezio Copeland to develop complete interior packages rather than the standard palette selections that pass for finish quality in most apartment developments. The ambition is coherence at every scale.
Tonti and co-founder Craig Chapman, a real estate partner based in the adjacent suburb of Dickson, are building a pipeline focused on infill sites across Canberra's inner north and south. The logic is straightforward: established suburbs command higher land costs, but they also offer something greenfield edges cannot — neighbourhoods where demand already exists and architectural quality can command a genuine premium. Whether buyers will consistently validate that equation remains the open question Sculptd is now asking the market to answer.
Justin Tonti's design-led development firm Sculptd is starting where it knows best: two blocks in Turner, a quiet suburb two kilometres north of Canberra's city centre. The company has filed plans for a pair of apartment buildings that sit barely half a kilometre apart, a proximity that matters more than geography alone might suggest.
The first project, called Clay, occupies a 1045-square-metre block at 17 Forbes Street. It's a four-storey building holding seven apartments—four with three bedrooms, three with four—arranged around 1302 square metres of living space. A basement carpark with 19 spaces sits underneath. The ground-floor apartment opens onto a courtyard with a plunge pool. The facade wraps in frameless glass balustrades and rendered walls in sand tones, the kind of detail work that signals intention. To build it, Sculptd will demolish an existing single-storey brick and tile house. Public comment closes May 14.
Half a kilometre away, at 3 Wedge Crescent, sits Ora—a three-level development with one apartment per floor, priced at three million dollars. The site is smaller, just 510 square metres, which Tonti describes as genuinely constrained. "You could barely do a couple of townhouses," he said. "What we've essentially tried to do there is produce density on a site where a lot of developers would just say: 'No, this is completely too hard.'" This project also includes a basement carpark and a ground-floor plunge pool.
What makes this pairing strategic is not sentiment but economics. By contracting a single builder for both projects, Sculptd gains construction efficiencies that wouldn't exist if these were separate jobs. "Dig one hole, bring the excavator over, dig the next one," Tonti explained. The company has already worked through detailed cost breakdowns with a Canberra-based builder experienced in the inner north, so there are no surprises waiting in the numbers.
Tonti brought in architect Nathan Judd, a Canberra-based designer he hadn't worked with before, to lead the design work. The collaboration proved generative. "If it was with another individual project architect, I don't think we would have had the same outcome," Judd said. Tonti, who holds both a bachelor's and master's degree in architecture from the University of Canberra—itself located two suburbs away—stayed hands-on without micromanaging. The result, Judd suggested, was synergy that multiplied rather than merely added.
Interiors matter as much as exteriors in Sculptd's approach. The firm is working with Capezio Copeland, a Canberra interior design practice, to move beyond standard colour palettes. Instead of picking light, dark, and neutral tones and calling it done, they're designing complete interior packages—what Tonti calls "home packages." It's a deliberate choice to embed quality at every scale.
Tonti and his co-founder Craig Chapman, a partner at real estate firm MARQ in the adjacent suburb of Dickson, are targeting infill sites across Canberra's inner north and south. The economics are clear: land in these established suburbs costs more per square metre than greenfield sites on the city's edge, but that premium buys something developers can't manufacture elsewhere—the ability to embed architectural quality into neighbourhoods where people already want to live. For Sculptd, that trade-off is the entire point. The question now is whether the market agrees.
Notable Quotes
We're creating full interior designs, almost like home packages, rather than just colour schemes.— Justin Tonti, Sculptd founder
If it was with another individual project architect, I don't think we would have had the same outcome.— Nathan Judd, architect
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why start with two projects in the same suburb instead of spreading risk across different locations?
Construction efficiency. When you're building two projects half a kilometre apart with the same builder, you're not mobilizing equipment twice, you're not negotiating two separate contracts. You dig one hole, move the excavator, dig the next. It's basic but it matters on the margins.
The Ora site sounds genuinely difficult—510 square metres is tiny. Why take it on?
Because most developers would walk away. Tonti sees that constraint as an opportunity to prove something: that you can create real density and real quality on land that looks impossible. It's a statement as much as a business decision.
You mentioned the interior design approach is different. How so?
Instead of picking three colours and calling it a scheme, they're designing complete living environments—what goes where, how it flows, what the experience actually feels like. It's treating the apartment as a whole object, not a box with walls.
Tonti brought in an architect he'd never worked with before. That's risky.
It is, but he stayed involved without controlling. The architect said the collaboration created something neither could have made alone. Sometimes the best work happens when you bring in someone new and then get out of their way.
What's the real bet here—is it about the buildings or about the strategy?
Both. The buildings need to be good enough to justify the land cost. But the strategy is about proving that inner-city infill, done well, can work in Canberra. If these two projects succeed, they're a template for everything that comes next.