Turn Key Tanks Concrete Built Acrylic Panels Artificial Rock

Gordon Stuart inspecting a sand filter — age 86.

Early refugium filter — Jersey, Channel Islands, circa 1953.

Aquarium window being propped while sealed into place — 1953.

Reefscape Rock™ — in development since 2009, and in every Reefscape installation since.

Craig Stuart — Founder

Susanne Liebreich — Project Manager & Designer

Stefan Gfrerer — Construction Manager

Kirsten Koci & Alex Osmond — Melbourne Office

Heritage

Gordon Stuart established Stuart Marine in Jersey, Channel Islands in 1952 — a marine engineering consultancy that built its first commercial aquarium the following year. The practice grew steadily through the 1950s and 60s, developing filtration systems, acrylic viewing panels and biological substrates at a time when commercial aquarium design was in its infancy. The knowledge accumulated over those decades was not written into textbooks. It was passed from father to son.

Craig Stuart grew up inside that practice. The materials, the biology, the engineering logic of how water behaves in a built environment — these were not things he studied. They were things he absorbed. When he established Reefscape Australia in Melbourne in 2008, he brought with him a working knowledge that no academic programme produces and no number of years in the industry replicates without that foundation.

In 2010 Reefscape received an Australian Government R&D grant to develop Reefscape Rock™ — the proprietary substrate that would become the practice’s most significant innovation. By 2012 a range of acrylic tank and refugium designs had been copyrighted. By 2015 Reefscape had opened offices in Bangkok and been appointed to its first public aquarium commission.

The practice today operates across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Australia — designing, supplying and installing aquatic environments from private residences to five star hotel installations. The heritage is real. So is the work.

Craig Stuart — Founder

Craig is an aquatic architect, designer and builder with over 30 years of experience across aquariums, underwater restaurants, acrylic pool installations and marine reef environments. He holds degrees in Engineering and Architecture from the University of the West of England.

He has designed and delivered installations in Australia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa — from private residential commissions for some of Thailand’s most prominent families to five star hotel installations in Riyadh. He is currently based on Koh Phangan, Thailand, where he leads Reefscape’s construction operations and continues to develop the biological and material science that distinguishes Reefscape’s work from conventional aquatic contractors.

When he is not on site he is in the water — diving the reefs of Thailand and Indonesia and doing the research that makes the work honest.

Susanne Liebreich — Project Manager & Designer

Susanne manages the design and project delivery side of Reefscape’s Thailand operations. Precise, calm and quietly formidable — the velvet hammer — she is the person who turns Craig’s concepts into programmes that actually work on the ground. She is also a qualified diver with a genuine love of the ocean that informs everything she does within the practice.

Stefan Gfrerer — Construction Manager

Stefan oversees construction operations on Reefscape’s active project sites in Thailand. He manages the on-ground team, coordinates with subcontractors and suppliers, and ensures that what is drawn and specified is what gets built. His background spans complex construction environments across multiple countries and his standards on site are exactly what a practice building in water requires.

Kirsten Koci & Alex Osmond — Melbourne Office

Kirsten and Alex hold the fort at Reefscape’s Melbourne office — handling enquiries, administration and the day-to-day business of running an Australian entity from the other side of the world. They are the first point of contact for Australian clients and the reason things don’t fall through the cracks.