If architecture does not change the way the ninety-seven percent live, then it only emphasises the difference between the have’s and the have-nots and therefore is ultimately destructive upon the very culture it seeks to impact. – Anthony Rigg of Bleuscape Design
Monotony and plainness are rarely considered as factors supressing the Australian psyche. But consider for a moment that most project homes built in estates are by and large the same across the continent. Could we be contributing to what Alain De Botton calls ‘Status Anxiety’? He suggests that our level of satisfaction in life is […]
If you are a regular fan of the Australian reality cooking show ‘Masterchef’ you would know that last week George Calombaris cooked an amazing restaurant quality dish by using just one core ingredient, corn. Through his creativity and knowledge of a singular product we saw him manipulate it in ways not many of us would […]
At the centre of the housing debate there is this seemingly never ending ethical dispute between profit verses environmental sensitivity. It has forced me to reflect on how we might have arrived at this point which, in my mind, could have been avoided. Institutionalisation means: to physiologically make part of a structured and usually well-established […]
Our interest in modular and prefabricated systems has seen us embark on a very interesting design journey. It has lead us to believe that the parameters produced by building with prefabrication and/or modular systems can elevate the experience of living and at the same time produce outcomes that cost no more than the project home alternatives. […]
I remember well the first time I experienced first hand a home designed not for its looks but rather for the experience within. It was my birthday and my wife Jaki had brought me a seat on a bus to an architecture tour. With many other people we travelled to a number of beautiful well known […]
If you are keeping your finger on the pulse, like us you would be noticing that 2011 is ushering in a level of innovation across the board within the construction industry, this appears to be happening mainly out of necessity more than anything. It is coming as a result of rising building costs, availability of […]
The well know saying “We are what we eat” obviously talks about one’s physical health in relation to food consumption but what about “We are what we build.” Let’s think about this for a moment, if we construct homes that have their planning arrangements centred on unknown future circumstances that often take the safest, most […]
Kent Nordin, senior executive and general manager of Ikea Australia presented a lecture hosted by the Historic Houses Trust back in 2007 under the title of ‘Out of the Box’. He said, “In Europe Ikea’s prefab houses are designed to be affordable for a single parent on the equivalent of a nurse’s wage, when we […]