WORKS

 

PLACE

Western Australia offers a uniquely liveable environment, and an astonishingly varied array of flora and fauna. We are lucky to live where we do.

Architectural spaces are best when they have connection to the outdoors. Studies have shown the health benefits of designing buildings that open out to their natural surroundings.

We strongly believe in designing buildings that provide the occupants direct engagement with their external environment even when they are inside.

We use earth-bound materials, alternate between elevated and on-grade planes to emphasise connection, and re-introduce our unique flora back into our buildings. We believe that our buildings should be about our place in the world.

We are proudly Western Australian and connect each building to our unique surroundings.

 

TIME

Our buildings are inevitably Influenced by the time in history at which they are built.

We believe that we should be using the best available building materials and techniques for each particular architectural problem.

We have used SIPS (structurally insulated panels), various forms of insulation, advanced epoxy adhesives, geo-thermal heating and prefabrications to achieve excellent architectural results.

We believe in well resolved detailing and material choice to improve the durability of buildings to alleviate the burden of maintenance on an owner.

Buildings that deteriorate are costly financially and costly environmentally.

We believe in careful detailing and design to preserve the building, stretching its lifecycle over an extended period of time and reducing its overall impact.

 

PEOPLE

We live our lives in our buildings, and so it follows that we should be designing the most suitable buildings for the way we want to live.

Buildings must enhance the lives of occupants. They must reconnect those people with the environments around them.

Architecture cannot be blind to history and culture. People are made of their stories; and our architecture is woven into the fabric of our identities.

We believe that architecture should learn from the past and inform the future. In Western Australia we have all but forgotten a traditional vernacular that deals with sun shading, heat, and landscape. We believe that there are lessons to be learnt.

 

ENVIRONMENT

We believe strongly that buildings should be designed to require the minimum possible amount of energy to maintain.

Passive design, achieved through the manipulation of the building to take advantage of sun angles, wind directions and material properties need not be costly but requires thoughtful consideration throughout the design process.

We design buildings that require little to no heating or cooling. We have completed buildings completely off-grid.

To achieve this outcome, the designs have all been carefully considered from a passive energy perspective.

We design around an understanding of the occupation patterns of the building. This allows heat and cool to be distributed to the appropriate spaces at the appropriate times of the day.

When combined with careful placement of thermal mass and insulation our buildings maintain comfortable living environments without significant energy inputs.

 

BIODIVERSITY

The south-west of Western Australia is considered one of the world’s major biodiversity hotspots, including 8000 plant species that are found nowhere else on earth.

Many of these plants are threatened by continued development and environmental pressures. They are homes to endemic fauna, and they are usually visually stunning.

We believe that our buildings should be informed by our flora; adopting their fine, dry details, but we also believe that our buildings can be a refuge to endemic species, and help to promote local biodiversity.