Design Tips – Thermal Mass

           Thermal mass is a critical component of passive solar design, and probably the most misunderstood. The role of thermal mass is to effectively stabilise interior temperatures at all tims of the year, and this at zero running cost, which makes it most attractive. But how does it work? 1.       What is thermal mass? We […]

Read more

The Crossroad Idea

For decades, the ‘Project Home’ has essentially remained the dominant model of housing for the Australian population. Ninety-seven percent of all houses built in our nation are hammered up by companies who base floor plans, construction methods and finishes on price points and profit margins rather than a response to environment and to maximised liveability […]

Read more

‘Grand Designs’ – An Insight Into How The Europeans Build

For anyone with an interest in design and building, Kevin McCloud’s latest series of ‘Grand Designs’ being shown on the ABC at 7:30pm on Sundays provides an insight into the world of better built and high thermal performance housing. While more extreme temperatures have driven the refinement of building systems in Europe and the US, […]

Read more

Cross Laminated Timber in Australia

CLT or ‘Cross Laminated Timber’, as it is known is not a new building material, its use in Europe throughout construction is widely recognized and implemented. However, recent innovations in its use has seen projects like Waugh Thistleton Architect’s’ Murray Grove scheme’ in the UK emerge. The Murray Grove building is a 9 story structure […]

Read more

One core ingredient

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 […]

Read more

The professions offerings

Recently VicUrban, the Victorian Government’s land and development agency, commissioned seven well known Australian architectural practices and volume home builders to collaborate in the design and construction of 5 houses that offer a sustainable/affordable alternative to the current project home offerings. These designs have now been constructed and right ups published. The project is called […]

Read more

The design journey

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.  […]

Read more

The manifestation of relevance

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 […]

Read more

The impact of architecture for place

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 […]

Read more