High Cube: A Modular Café in Mudgee Embracing Flexibility, Context and Community by Cameron Anderson Architects
Located on the edge of an industrial and residential zone in regional New South Wales, High Cube by Cameron Anderson Architects offers a flexible and thoughtful take on modular café design. Made primarily from repurposed shipping containers, the project was conceived as an adaptable, low-risk development that could evolve over time. In this interview, Cameron discusses the thinking behind the design, the role of prefabrication, and how the project responds to both its site and its community.
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Photography by Amber Hooper
Regional practices often carry a quiet advantage—the ability to design with lived-in knowledge of place. How does Cameron Anderson Architects’ regional footing inform a project like High Cube?
As a Mudgee-based studio with team members spread across Orange, Wagga and Wollongong, Cameron Anderson Architects bring a deep familiarity with regional construction conditions and community expectations. Their projects are defined not just by refined design outcomes, but by longstanding client relationships and a collaborative approach. For High Cube, this meant working closely with consultants, builders and specialist fabricators to ensure a prefabricated design that felt grounded in its location while remaining agile enough to evolve.
High Cube doesn’t shy away from its industrial DNA—in fact, it amplifies it. What led to such a confident architectural gesture in a transitional fringe site?
The project sits at the junction of industrial and residential zones, a threshold that’s often treated as buffer. Instead, High Cube defines it. The stacked shipping containers—robust, unapologetic—create a bookend to the industrial area and establish a strong presence along the road. Yet the edge they create is not a wall but a filter—permeable, accessible and spatially deliberate. This formal clarity provides structure while preserving a sense of openness and engagement with the site’s mixed-use surroundings.
The project balances modular pragmatism with moments of softness and generosity. How did you approach the spatial planning to serve such a diverse user group?
From the outset, the design allocated specific functions to individual containers—minimising invasive modifications and maintaining each unit’s structural integrity. This clarity of program extended beyond the containers themselves. To the North, play and dining areas are scaled down with warmer materials and a softer spatial rhythm—catering to children and families. The configuration ensures these zones are distanced from roads and parking, oriented for sunlight, and offer excellent visibility for parents. It’s a calibrated response to both context and us
Prefabrication is often touted for its speed and efficiency, but High Cube reveals a deeper level of technical craftsmanship. What did it take to make the system work on-site?
The prefabrication process required rigorous coordination. A test assembly and check measure were conducted at the factory prior to delivery, with footing locations on site allowing for minimal tolerance. The architect, structural and civil engineers, environmental consultant, builder and trades worked in lockstep with the container company to ensure seamless installation. It was a choreography of disciplines—each one critical in bringing the modular vision to life with precision and adaptability
Many cafés centre around a contained, inward-looking model. High Cube flips that expectation. What drove the decision to open it so boldly to the landscape?
Rather than enclosing activity within four walls, High Cube turns outward—toward a generous grassed area that becomes the site’s true anchor. This space can host anything from quiet one-on-one catchups to expansive children’s events. The choice to reduce indoor seating in favour of flexible external space was both economical and experiential, offering a setting where movement, noise and informality are welcomed. It’s a café that behaves more like a park—an architectural gesture that privileges openness over enclosure.
If adaptability was the brief, High Cube delivers it almost literally—unbolt, move, repurpose. But beneath the modularity is a deeper idea: that architecture can embrace change without losing identity. Was this the ambition?
Absolutely. While the use of shipping containers lends itself to literal mobility, the true flexibility lies in how High Cube was conceived—compartmentalised, functionally autonomous, and spatially agile. The containers retain their integrity, the spaces serve multiple configurations, and the building can be reimagined in parts or as a whole. This isn’t just prefabrication for convenience—it’s an architecture of future-proofing. The design accepts that its current use may evolve, and instead of resisting change, it’s built to accommodate it.
250321_High Cube – Google Docs
Project Team
Architect and interiors – Cameron Anderson Architects Builder – Ryan McGregor Constructions Structural Engineer – Barnson Photographer – Amber Hooper
