Talking Architecture & Design

Winner of the Emerging Architect/Designer category at the 2021 Sustainability Awards David Coates lives and breathes sustainability and has been delivering beautiful buildings that perform to an exemplar level in both sustainability and practicality. 

David, who founded and runs  Sustainable Building and Design Pty Ltd, specialises in sustainable renovations, but has a keen eye for design and detail creating his brilliant dwellings all from scratch. 

All projects have sustainability at the forefront of their designs as David works his artistic magic closely with his clients to achieve brilliant results to minimise overall energy consumption and reduce wastes.

David’s vision is all about efficiency of performance and reusing and upcycling. His projects achieve high end energy efficiency ratings in the NatHERs score system, and as well as energy efficiency, his projects regularly contain old building materials upcycled form their former dwellings.

In this broad-ranging and frank interview, he talks about where we are with building sustainability and how we as a country need to ramp things up if we want a better world for our children.

This podcast is brought to you in association with Caroma, proud sponsors of the Residential Series of podcasts.  For more information on Caroma, please go to: https://www.caroma.com.au

The People Parkers recycled plastic mobile parklet facilitates the rapid, sustainable and considered reimagining of car parking spaces and roadways into temporary outdoor dining quarters. 

Roadways are public space and this product is a tactical mechanism to temporarily relocate this space and inform options for long term changes of use.

 In 2015 People Parkers was born out of Glebe Point Road Trial Parklet Program which was a case study of how parklets could be used to improve amenity, community and business outcomes along Glebe point road. 

The aim was to provide a suite of products that could be employed anywhere to demonstrate how a street could be more than a place to park a vehicle which is and will be an essential question as we progress to car-share and shared autonomous vehicles in the future.

We talk to Kris Spann, president of the Glebe Chamber of Commerce, winner of the NSW Business Chamber Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and founder of People Parkers, who we've dubbed the 'Banksy of Australia's public retail spaces' for his amazing work in the congested streets of Sydney's inner-west.

This podcast was brought to you in association with Stormtech  proud sponsors of our 2022 Commercial series of podcasts.

Interface Product Development Manager Jan Peter van Deutekom, or JP as he's known talks about the flooring maker's approach to product management and concept design to support its many customers.

JP gives us a global perspective of how to approach designing products with sustainable thinking as well as how its possible to design products that will suit the needs of many diverse markets around the world.

This podcast was brought to you in association with Interface, proud sponsors of the Sustainability series of podcasts. For more information on Interface, please go to www.architectureanddesign.com.au/suppliers/interface-aust

Dr Davina Jackson is an international writer and promoter of creative applications of post-internet technology for urban development, and pan-Pacific architecture, geography and history. 

Her latest book is Australian Architecture: A History (Allen & Unwin, 2022).

In this revealing interview, Dr. Jackson  talks about Australian architecture and its history, the intrinsic value of Indigenous architecture, where she thinks sustainability is really going and what her latest book on the built environment is all about.

Kim Chadwick is the Director of Australian Trend Forecast and the creator of the Designer Colour Wheel.

During 30 years in the design industry, Kim has chosen the colours of the inherently Australian corrugated roofs for Colorbond, hand selected colours for Wattyl and Dulux, created bathrooms for Laminex, curated complete house solutions for Brickworks Building Products, developed product style guides for Officeworks, and trends for Australia.

Kim has written trend columns the Paint Quality Institute, published trend forecasts for Colourways, won best stand at Designex for Caesarstone and best overall renovation and addition, HIA Victoria, for her own home.

Kim talks with us about what exactly is colour, how it affects our designs and how it affects us in our homes and places of work.

This podcast is brought to you in association with Caroma, proud sponsors of the Residential Series of podcasts.  For more information on Caroma, please go to: https://www.caroma.com.au

The managing director of Stormtech, Troy Creighton explains how now  re-adapting commercial technology for use in residential setting is becoming more commonplace.

The main technology we are talking about here revolves around  the management of water and how this is becoming a vital part of many buildings and/or precinct design strategy.

Troy also describes some of his latest commercial projects where water management technology has been repurposed for use in a residential setting.

This podcast was brought to you in association with Stormtech  proud sponsors of our 2022 Commercial series of podcasts.

We speak with ZED principal Engineer and CEO, Ahmed El Safty, the visionary behind the new technology. 

He and his team of postdoctoral researchers and engineers have been developing the PowerCap technology for more than a decade. The PowerCap Hybrid Graphene battery is a sustainable energy storage system  that lasts two to three times longer than standard Lithium batteries. 

It also provides up to ten times more power density – this means the energy is delivered instantly, important when powering mobile devices likes electric vehicles. 

But how will this unique, new green technology change the way we live and work?

Jayne Harrison is Founding Director of JDH Architects and has been at the helm since its inception in 2003. Through her leadership, and pioneering vision, JDH has delivered an extensive portfolio of education and community projects and a hard-earned reputation as one of Australia’s most creative and dynamic architecture firms.

As a  leading voice advocating resilient and responsible architecture and building methodologies, Jayne explains why she believes in a better way to practice her profession, where people and the environment are the cornerstones of good design,  and why she looks towards long lasting solutions that support a responsible and resilient thriving future, the built environment, and the communities they serve.

Luke Johnson from Architectus  is a highly-skilled designer who has worked throughout Australia, Japan and Europe on arts and cultural, education, residential, transport, health and workplace sector projects.

In this wide-ranging interview, Luke talks about where design is going, how education design has become his passion and why we need embrace sustainable design sooner rather than later.

This podcast was brought to you in association with Alspec,  proud sponsors of our 2021 Commercial series of podcasts. 

Rob Bryant, Executive Vice President of APAC, InEight explains how emerging technologies such as digital twin concepts can minimise carbon emissions for existing and future projects, improve Australia’s sustainability efforts and encourage sustainable behaviours and can also ultimately lead to the built sector achieving net zero faster.

Bryant also explains what these new technologies mean for the future of the architecture profession in Australia.