00:00:04
Speaker 1: This is an our media podcast. It didn't matter about the house, it was the community. And so they went looking and visited all different suburbs and found a community that they wanted to be part of. And she said, I love the fact that now I can open my window and I can smell the burnt toast next door, or I can hear the mom down the street shouting at her kids, and that makes her feel alive.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: She can go.
00:00:31
Speaker 1: Outside and talk to the neighbors. And it is so important when you're talking to clients. Is this something you need to bring up with them or are they coming to you saying we want to build community. Welcome to the edit where we open the door on the homes, habits and tiny decisions that make a house feel like a home. Today's episode it's a little bit different and a whole lot of fun. This year, Home Beautiful was lucky enough to attend Metracon's National Love of Design Summit, where we had our minds opened by some of Australia's leading thinkers and makers in home and design. And because we can never help ourselves, we hijacked the panel, I hosted and recorded it as a live bonus episode of the edit. No question was too big or too small. From when to push a trend your client isn't quite ready for to why being able to smell your neighbor's burnt toast might just be the secret to a happier home. So who was in the room with me? Alie Wheelan principle and design lead at Melbourne's Breathe Architecture, the studio behind the game changing Nightingale housing projects proving that sustainable community first apartments are exactly where people want to live. Michael Leong, architect and co founder of Byron Bays Balanced Earth, Australia's Hemp Creek pioneers building naturally healthy homes the way communities used to do together. Neil Hipwell, carpenter turned designer and builder and the founder of Future Flip, the team behind some of the most jaw dropping homes on the New South Wales coast, including Solstice, this year's HIA Australian Custom Built Home of the Year and James Treble interior designer, color expert and familiar face from your Television with three decades across building, real estate and design. Fresh off the plane from Milan Design Week. This is part one of two in this episode, what it really feels like to push boundaries with clients, with councils, even with the banks, and why a beautiful home is about so much more than how it looks. There's a basement golf simulator that's brought a whole street together, a skate bowl built for rainy days, and a very strong case for waving at your neighbors through the window. Part two where I hand the microphone to the audience and we get into the future of Australian homes and right here in your feed soon. So settle in and let's join the panel. We're going to have a chat and actually I've got a little confession. We're also Home Beautiful to hijacking this panel, so we're going to record it as a video podcast.
00:03:24
Speaker 3: Or Home Beautiful Management.
00:03:29
Speaker 1: So thank you very much. Welcome to the panel, Welcome to the edit. All right. So I am going to kick off with a couple of questions, but to set this up, feel free to answer all together, bounce off each other. The first thing I want to ask is each of you, in your own way pushes boundaries, some of you outside of design as well.
00:03:56
Speaker 3: She's talking about you.
00:03:59
Speaker 1: But what I what I'm really interested to know is how does that feel? Because it can be quite scary. Is it scary? Are you nervous when you push the boundaries through your work? Is it thrilling? Ali, let's start with you.
00:04:15
Speaker 4: I think it's probably more frustrating because a lot of big change it takes political conversations or really frustrating conversations that are totally outside the world of architecture to make change in how we live. But then it's really rewarding. You see when you see the impact that you can have on people's lives. Get a lot of live feedback from residents about what they like and what they don't.
00:04:38
Speaker 1: Like, how do they deliver that were used Our office.
00:04:40
Speaker 4: Used to be in the bottom of one of our buildings in Brunswick. I know when you come box on the window, you've got to take the good with the bad, right, Like, we're open to feedback because we are challenging boundaries. We're not always going to get it right, so we're really receptive to that feedback. But it's also really nice to hear about the positive impacts it can happen, you know, Like I was talking about older single women being able to reinento housing markets some of those women have just totally changed their lives, and so that's really rewarding.
00:05:06
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Michael, Ana, you were I was going to say, alluding to maybe not so much alluding but the bureaucracy and approvals and certifying. How do you feel knowing that you are going to get pushed back by pushing a boundary? How do you feel when you first answer the question? I must say I felt. I feel inspired by what we do? Yeah, everyone I talked to It kind of sells itself.
00:05:33
Speaker 2: And I think the bureaucratic systems that we exist in are just there to be pushed. If we're not pushing it, and as a collective, if we're not pushing it, then how we're going to implement the change that we also badly want. So you have to be inspired, you have to be enthusiastic, you have to be joyful about it. I've worked in mainstream architecture, building big houses and luxurious things all over the world, and it just doesn't flat my boat anymore. You know, my soul searcher for something else, and I enjoy what I do and I believe what I'm doing absolutely.
00:06:05
Speaker 1: Neil, how about you, because you would have had some discussions with local councils. I'm sure, yep, how did they go?
00:06:15
Speaker 3: Tell us?
00:06:16
Speaker 5: So for me, I started as a builder at Carpenter, and then I saw most of the problems within the industry were based on design not being innovative and not adapting to what where we need to go. Because materials change, they become less available, they become too expensive, trades become obviously almost obsolete in some settings. So for me, I was always innovating new ways to go. Okay, we can't get a jeprocer, let's just do off on concrete. I don't need to put any JEP rock in. It looks great. I've eliminated some material out of the building. Yeah, So that evolved into a lot of other things. For me, different roadblocks were happening and have to sort of get the right consultants on board and negotiate. But I think as designers it's important to keep pushing the boundaries and looking at ways to build, because if your houses are boring, you're basically like my whole business has been built around pushing those boundaries and making my houses look different to the next and kind of starting trends and things like that, and it ultimately means more profit, more work. So yeah, it is a.
00:07:28
Speaker 1: Good absolutely definitely. Now, James, I think you can push the boundaries in it.
00:07:36
Speaker 3: Don't make it smart innuendo.
00:07:42
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you about pushing boundaries with customers. So you gave us a fantastic rundown on Milan twenty twenty six, taking those trends and bringing them back to really sell them into brands that you work with and also homeowners, customers clients. How do you know when to push a trend and how do you know when they're just not ready?
00:08:11
Speaker 6: The word trend I'm actually a little bit allergic to I watch it. I sort of talk about it as a journey in the EBB and flow of finishes colors as some little says, there's no such thing as a new color. Every colour's been here forever, right, It's just how we use it. I definitely agree with Neil. I think it's actually our job as a designer, as a creative to push boundaries. It's about how we do that, otherwise we'll end up doing something repetitive. With design, it's about getting the ideas. But I have to wear I talk about two hats when I'm with clients, especially when I'm with a builder or a developer, because they are talking about money. So I started life as a real estate agent and I look with the real estate eye, does it hold value, does it suit the property? Will it date well? Can I sell this to a maximum amount of people? And then I put the design hat on as well and say, with that in mind, how does it fit this project, who's going to be living there? What colors are? Is it visually interesting? And I think that you can push the boundaries and suggest strongly colors or textures or finishes in ways that could be edited later, perhaps because fixed drawing or in flooring can be at an expense, but furniture and artwork easily to still open up the doors for the conversation and opportunity. So I actually think it's our job to do that and just read the rumor as to how crazy you can go. And sometimes that conservative lady in Tweed is secretly just waiting to go crazy, and she gets excited by that.
00:09:34
Speaker 3: So I think it's important absolutely.
00:09:37
Speaker 1: I know in magazines, when we see a look coming through, I'll be honest, sometimes we will hold off on publishing for a good twelve months. Sometimes eighteen months, because we know our audience isn't ready, and we might start playing with it within the magazine and in the photo shoots, but we certainly wouldn't put it on the cover because it'll just freak them out. But we want to educate and feed it through slowly. Think about when's the last time you pushed boundaries in your own jobs. It's uncomfortable, but it's exciting, and I think beyond today, it's something to really keep in mind. That that idea of the idea that will get you fired, but don't get fired. How far could you push if your boss was willing and accepting. Alie, I was thinking about what you were saying with the social element of design, And recently I interviewed Steph Attavia and for anyone who doesn't know, she is an architect. She owns Japandia State and she was also a contestant on the block and she won with her husband, and she won't mind me sharing this, but after the block she went through a really low period. She felt really, really low, and it took quite a while for her to come out of it. And what she and her husband realized is they needed to sell their house. They come off the high of winning the block, and you'd think this is the best thing ever. But they sold their house and wanted to buy somewhere new, and she said, it didn't matter about the house, it was the community. And so they went looking and visited all different suburbs and found a community that they wanted to be part of. And she said, I love the fact that now I can open my window and I can smell the burnt toast next door, or I can hear the mom down the street shouting at her kids, and that makes her feel alive. She can go outside and talk to the neighbors. And it is so important when you're talking to clients. Is this something you need to bring up with them, or are they coming to you saying we want to build community.
00:11:51
Speaker 4: I mean, I think we've looked at such frictionless living. You know that there's no point of friction between the superman and putting the food in your fridge. So there's no moment where you sort of stop on that journey and experience some friction finding your keys getting in your front door. That mean there's a moment to pause. You know, we're in such a rush to get from A to B that I think, you know, we're almost introducing friction into the process, making you get out of your car before you're in the garage, making you take the stairs instead of the lift, you know, making you walk up to the or to catch the lift up to the rooftop to do your laundry. Those moments of friction, they are minor inconveniences which add a great deal of value to people's lives. And I think that's kind of not coherent with the most effortless, seamless way of living. But it's also beautiful and connected in a lot of ways, and so I think it's it's not necessarily something that we educate people on so much as something that actually people buy into and really care about, like people are actively seeking out social connection. We had an Awards jury come through. I believe it was nighting Out of the Commons, the predecessor to nighting Gale One and the Commons looks much like Nightingale in terms of aesthetic. It's pretty raw, it's robust. This was a very different aesthetic to what apartments were being delivered as then. It wasn't white, clean surfaces, you know, pristine it was it had a bit of friction, it had a bit of grit to it. It had really beautiful materials that were natural living materials, and we won the National Award for Housing that year. We were up against some incredible projects and when we asked the jury you know why that was the case, they said, people seem to genuinely enjoy living here. You know, like a beautiful home isn't just about aesthetics. It's about a place that you know that is more than just what it looks like.
00:13:49
Speaker 1: Absolutely, your places in a way also designed for community, I mean a different kind. You got your bucks parties and your family weekends away. Was that in intentional?
00:14:01
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean on Bunker and Banks and Bunker, Jering Gong and Jimmy Doo, the properties that we airbnb, they were definitely purpose built for people to enjoy themselves and come together and for families to have eightyeth birthdays and cater to all of those moments. But to be honest on all of our projects, I guess it's at a different scale at the moment where the I mean, we've been fortunate enough to build some really high end, expensive houses and one of the things the owner for the house we just won the house of the year for which was Solstice. He's like, I love playing golf. My neighbors love playing golf. Let's still golf simulator. And he's always like, every time I go there, he's down there with his neighbors playing golf in.
00:14:46
Speaker 1: That is my husband's dream.
00:14:49
Speaker 5: And we we're building our house at the moment in Byron, and you guys have had pretty good weather, but it normally just gets pretty rainy here and they're other than gone to the past taking the kids surfing. There's not much to do in the rain. So we did a really big basement with a skate bowl and like stuff for the kids to do down in the basement and bringing all the friends that live in the street. They can come and hang out and have fun in the house, and the neighbors can come and we can chat to the neighbors when you know they're picking our kids up. And I guess it's the total opposite in terms of like getting out into the community, as you know, but having that luxury of having a little bit more budget to go and do some cool stuff like having a wellness.
00:15:30
Speaker 4: But it's inviting people in. Yeah, it's just inviting that interaction and providing a space for it. Yeah, and providing opportunity is you know that it's important. It's really important.
00:15:40
Speaker 5: Yeah, like where we're living now, where we literally just have boxes everywhere, and you know, our friends are like, should we come around for a barbecue? And let's just go to your house. So it's kind of cool to design houses that you really want people to come around. There's comfortable and everyone likes being there, and there's places to kind of gather and talk, can dance or whatever whatever you're into.
00:16:03
Speaker 2: I think in the world that we do, we try and create community through the process of building. So you saw in some of the photos. We'll do a shout out on Instagram or Facebook and we'll get a huge amount of volunteers come and it's like the old barn raising processes where everyone comes together to build your house. And within the business that we developed over the last ten years, we would all go to each other's houses and help with the hem cree and help with the construction. And having children involved in that as well is an inspiring process. But it makes the house feel like it's part of you. You know, you've had a hand in creating this, and it's a much more seamless kind of community.
00:16:42
Speaker 1: I feel absolutely from James.
00:16:45
Speaker 6: From a regulation point of view, I do not understand why counsels want to put privacy screens on windows on houses because they're worried about us looking from one window to the next door neighbor for privacy when the reality of this block, especially in new est states where they're squeezing sometimes these lots are three fifty or four hundred square meters. What am I going to see? And you know, we grew up like John, I'm a twin. I mentioned it before, but you know, we would lift up the Venetian blinds anyone know who that what they are, and put our head on the glass and wave to missus Labres because we could see her next door on her clothesline, and she would wave at us, and she.
00:17:22
Speaker 3: Knew who were weare, and we knew who we were, and that.
00:17:24
Speaker 6: Was like utterly exciting to a five year old, like so exciting, and that was connectivity without us having barbacues and friends together.
00:17:31
Speaker 4: Seventeen hundred sill height where you can't see.
00:17:33
Speaker 3: Correct at the top of correct.
00:17:35
Speaker 6: So instead of that, the window heights are raised to make the head height the same, but the base coming up and so these little highlight windows in bedrooms, like and then you wonder why your thirteen year old daughter has mental health because she doesn't get any vitamin D Like it's it's really confronting, and that's a regulation from council.
00:17:52
Speaker 3: Like what am I gonna?
00:17:53
Speaker 1: Am?
00:17:53
Speaker 6: I gonna sit there with a chair and eat popcorn and just stare at the neighbor's next door like ring.
00:17:58
Speaker 3: The police like it does. Agility of people doing that.
00:18:02
Speaker 2: Who's living next to your fellows living next to you? I probably would have a private same.
00:18:06
Speaker 6: You would not you've been knocking, not like coming over. His neighbors comes because they want to go. Let's check out what Neil and his wife have done on their next house and the same.
00:18:14
Speaker 3: My barbecues are fantastic.
00:18:17
Speaker 2: It would be very interesting to look into your apartment.
00:18:20
Speaker 1: Another type of community I think is quite interesting to share is the Australian community at Milan Design Week, because it's everybody goes over.
00:18:32
Speaker 6: It's increased. Yeah, yeah, there was a particular lady if she's watching the podcast or know who she is, because we saw a come up on instant and she goes, I'm so exciting to be here at the Domo and we're going it's the Dwellmore.
00:18:44
Speaker 3: It's like a cathedral, don't call it a domo.
00:18:48
Speaker 6: I think it's exciting for Australians to see what's happening. I think it's changed where we have that little syndrome of you know, remember when the TV week logos used to be on, We've always had to have international stars come. And now the international stars coming are Australian stars who have done well overseas and they come back and that's something that we need to celebrate. And you know, through architecture here, you know you've got amazing architectural forms in different in different spaces. We celebrate what is Australian and we know we have good looking homes. We have a community here, we have a political safety and a community where mostly we can all be ourselves. And then to relate the architecture that we create. And then we get this melting pot where it doesn't the kids know they're introduced to food smells from nextdoor that you mentioned, or the culture from that family that that creates community. Doesn't it like it's exciting. Otherwise it's a plate of mashed potato. You know, you need mixtures to make the meal interesting, to make our lives interesting.
00:19:50
Speaker 1: And back to what you're saying about Australians in Milana, I think it's really interesting to note as well, it's not just us going there to get ideas. Australia design is really recognized worldwide. It's appreciated and it really it carries weight. We clearly do some impressive work and it is noticed and it is held up as world standard.
00:20:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think because of our natural environment that we live in. I mean, look at bar and Bay. All of our houses are quite naturally off grid. There are naturally off grid septics. So in other countries through Europe, where it's high density, you don't get that opportunity. And I think people from outside looking in see the environments they sit in and see that the nature. They're disconnected from towns and in more beautiful settings, and they feel inspired by that.
00:20:47
Speaker 1: And that feels like the perfect place to pause. This was part one of our bonus episode from Metracon's Love of Design Summit. Ali Wheeler, Michael Leong, Neil Hippel and James Treble on pushing boundaries and on building homes that build community. A huge thank you to our panel for sharing so openly, and to Metricon for welcoming home beautiful into a room so full of ideas. But wh're not done. In Part two, I hand the microphone to the audience, and no question is too big or too small? What will Australian homes look like in ten or twenty years, how do we get more young people into their first homes? How much technology actually belongs in a house? And the question so big it nearly stumped the entire panel. That's coming soon right here in this feed. In the meantime, our regular episodes of the Edit keep coming. More house tours, home confessions, tiny upgrades and mystery draw reveals. Follow the Edit wherever you're listening so you don't miss a thing. See you inside the next one.
Speaker 1: This is an our media podcast. It didn't matter about the house, it was the community. And so they went looking and visited all different suburbs and found a community that they wanted to be part of. And she said, I love the fact that now I can open my window and I can smell the burnt toast next door, or I can hear the mom down the street shouting at her kids, and that makes her feel alive.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: She can go.
00:00:31
Speaker 1: Outside and talk to the neighbors. And it is so important when you're talking to clients. Is this something you need to bring up with them or are they coming to you saying we want to build community. Welcome to the edit where we open the door on the homes, habits and tiny decisions that make a house feel like a home. Today's episode it's a little bit different and a whole lot of fun. This year, Home Beautiful was lucky enough to attend Metracon's National Love of Design Summit, where we had our minds opened by some of Australia's leading thinkers and makers in home and design. And because we can never help ourselves, we hijacked the panel, I hosted and recorded it as a live bonus episode of the edit. No question was too big or too small. From when to push a trend your client isn't quite ready for to why being able to smell your neighbor's burnt toast might just be the secret to a happier home. So who was in the room with me? Alie Wheelan principle and design lead at Melbourne's Breathe Architecture, the studio behind the game changing Nightingale housing projects proving that sustainable community first apartments are exactly where people want to live. Michael Leong, architect and co founder of Byron Bays Balanced Earth, Australia's Hemp Creek pioneers building naturally healthy homes the way communities used to do together. Neil Hipwell, carpenter turned designer and builder and the founder of Future Flip, the team behind some of the most jaw dropping homes on the New South Wales coast, including Solstice, this year's HIA Australian Custom Built Home of the Year and James Treble interior designer, color expert and familiar face from your Television with three decades across building, real estate and design. Fresh off the plane from Milan Design Week. This is part one of two in this episode, what it really feels like to push boundaries with clients, with councils, even with the banks, and why a beautiful home is about so much more than how it looks. There's a basement golf simulator that's brought a whole street together, a skate bowl built for rainy days, and a very strong case for waving at your neighbors through the window. Part two where I hand the microphone to the audience and we get into the future of Australian homes and right here in your feed soon. So settle in and let's join the panel. We're going to have a chat and actually I've got a little confession. We're also Home Beautiful to hijacking this panel, so we're going to record it as a video podcast.
00:03:24
Speaker 3: Or Home Beautiful Management.
00:03:29
Speaker 1: So thank you very much. Welcome to the panel, Welcome to the edit. All right. So I am going to kick off with a couple of questions, but to set this up, feel free to answer all together, bounce off each other. The first thing I want to ask is each of you, in your own way pushes boundaries, some of you outside of design as well.
00:03:56
Speaker 3: She's talking about you.
00:03:59
Speaker 1: But what I what I'm really interested to know is how does that feel? Because it can be quite scary. Is it scary? Are you nervous when you push the boundaries through your work? Is it thrilling? Ali, let's start with you.
00:04:15
Speaker 4: I think it's probably more frustrating because a lot of big change it takes political conversations or really frustrating conversations that are totally outside the world of architecture to make change in how we live. But then it's really rewarding. You see when you see the impact that you can have on people's lives. Get a lot of live feedback from residents about what they like and what they don't.
00:04:38
Speaker 1: Like, how do they deliver that were used Our office.
00:04:40
Speaker 4: Used to be in the bottom of one of our buildings in Brunswick. I know when you come box on the window, you've got to take the good with the bad, right, Like, we're open to feedback because we are challenging boundaries. We're not always going to get it right, so we're really receptive to that feedback. But it's also really nice to hear about the positive impacts it can happen, you know, Like I was talking about older single women being able to reinento housing markets some of those women have just totally changed their lives, and so that's really rewarding.
00:05:06
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Michael, Ana, you were I was going to say, alluding to maybe not so much alluding but the bureaucracy and approvals and certifying. How do you feel knowing that you are going to get pushed back by pushing a boundary? How do you feel when you first answer the question? I must say I felt. I feel inspired by what we do? Yeah, everyone I talked to It kind of sells itself.
00:05:33
Speaker 2: And I think the bureaucratic systems that we exist in are just there to be pushed. If we're not pushing it, and as a collective, if we're not pushing it, then how we're going to implement the change that we also badly want. So you have to be inspired, you have to be enthusiastic, you have to be joyful about it. I've worked in mainstream architecture, building big houses and luxurious things all over the world, and it just doesn't flat my boat anymore. You know, my soul searcher for something else, and I enjoy what I do and I believe what I'm doing absolutely.
00:06:05
Speaker 1: Neil, how about you, because you would have had some discussions with local councils. I'm sure, yep, how did they go?
00:06:15
Speaker 3: Tell us?
00:06:16
Speaker 5: So for me, I started as a builder at Carpenter, and then I saw most of the problems within the industry were based on design not being innovative and not adapting to what where we need to go. Because materials change, they become less available, they become too expensive, trades become obviously almost obsolete in some settings. So for me, I was always innovating new ways to go. Okay, we can't get a jeprocer, let's just do off on concrete. I don't need to put any JEP rock in. It looks great. I've eliminated some material out of the building. Yeah, So that evolved into a lot of other things. For me, different roadblocks were happening and have to sort of get the right consultants on board and negotiate. But I think as designers it's important to keep pushing the boundaries and looking at ways to build, because if your houses are boring, you're basically like my whole business has been built around pushing those boundaries and making my houses look different to the next and kind of starting trends and things like that, and it ultimately means more profit, more work. So yeah, it is a.
00:07:28
Speaker 1: Good absolutely definitely. Now, James, I think you can push the boundaries in it.
00:07:36
Speaker 3: Don't make it smart innuendo.
00:07:42
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you about pushing boundaries with customers. So you gave us a fantastic rundown on Milan twenty twenty six, taking those trends and bringing them back to really sell them into brands that you work with and also homeowners, customers clients. How do you know when to push a trend and how do you know when they're just not ready?
00:08:11
Speaker 6: The word trend I'm actually a little bit allergic to I watch it. I sort of talk about it as a journey in the EBB and flow of finishes colors as some little says, there's no such thing as a new color. Every colour's been here forever, right, It's just how we use it. I definitely agree with Neil. I think it's actually our job as a designer, as a creative to push boundaries. It's about how we do that, otherwise we'll end up doing something repetitive. With design, it's about getting the ideas. But I have to wear I talk about two hats when I'm with clients, especially when I'm with a builder or a developer, because they are talking about money. So I started life as a real estate agent and I look with the real estate eye, does it hold value, does it suit the property? Will it date well? Can I sell this to a maximum amount of people? And then I put the design hat on as well and say, with that in mind, how does it fit this project, who's going to be living there? What colors are? Is it visually interesting? And I think that you can push the boundaries and suggest strongly colors or textures or finishes in ways that could be edited later, perhaps because fixed drawing or in flooring can be at an expense, but furniture and artwork easily to still open up the doors for the conversation and opportunity. So I actually think it's our job to do that and just read the rumor as to how crazy you can go. And sometimes that conservative lady in Tweed is secretly just waiting to go crazy, and she gets excited by that.
00:09:34
Speaker 3: So I think it's important absolutely.
00:09:37
Speaker 1: I know in magazines, when we see a look coming through, I'll be honest, sometimes we will hold off on publishing for a good twelve months. Sometimes eighteen months, because we know our audience isn't ready, and we might start playing with it within the magazine and in the photo shoots, but we certainly wouldn't put it on the cover because it'll just freak them out. But we want to educate and feed it through slowly. Think about when's the last time you pushed boundaries in your own jobs. It's uncomfortable, but it's exciting, and I think beyond today, it's something to really keep in mind. That that idea of the idea that will get you fired, but don't get fired. How far could you push if your boss was willing and accepting. Alie, I was thinking about what you were saying with the social element of design, And recently I interviewed Steph Attavia and for anyone who doesn't know, she is an architect. She owns Japandia State and she was also a contestant on the block and she won with her husband, and she won't mind me sharing this, but after the block she went through a really low period. She felt really, really low, and it took quite a while for her to come out of it. And what she and her husband realized is they needed to sell their house. They come off the high of winning the block, and you'd think this is the best thing ever. But they sold their house and wanted to buy somewhere new, and she said, it didn't matter about the house, it was the community. And so they went looking and visited all different suburbs and found a community that they wanted to be part of. And she said, I love the fact that now I can open my window and I can smell the burnt toast next door, or I can hear the mom down the street shouting at her kids, and that makes her feel alive. She can go outside and talk to the neighbors. And it is so important when you're talking to clients. Is this something you need to bring up with them, or are they coming to you saying we want to build community.
00:11:51
Speaker 4: I mean, I think we've looked at such frictionless living. You know that there's no point of friction between the superman and putting the food in your fridge. So there's no moment where you sort of stop on that journey and experience some friction finding your keys getting in your front door. That mean there's a moment to pause. You know, we're in such a rush to get from A to B that I think, you know, we're almost introducing friction into the process, making you get out of your car before you're in the garage, making you take the stairs instead of the lift, you know, making you walk up to the or to catch the lift up to the rooftop to do your laundry. Those moments of friction, they are minor inconveniences which add a great deal of value to people's lives. And I think that's kind of not coherent with the most effortless, seamless way of living. But it's also beautiful and connected in a lot of ways, and so I think it's it's not necessarily something that we educate people on so much as something that actually people buy into and really care about, like people are actively seeking out social connection. We had an Awards jury come through. I believe it was nighting Out of the Commons, the predecessor to nighting Gale One and the Commons looks much like Nightingale in terms of aesthetic. It's pretty raw, it's robust. This was a very different aesthetic to what apartments were being delivered as then. It wasn't white, clean surfaces, you know, pristine it was it had a bit of friction, it had a bit of grit to it. It had really beautiful materials that were natural living materials, and we won the National Award for Housing that year. We were up against some incredible projects and when we asked the jury you know why that was the case, they said, people seem to genuinely enjoy living here. You know, like a beautiful home isn't just about aesthetics. It's about a place that you know that is more than just what it looks like.
00:13:49
Speaker 1: Absolutely, your places in a way also designed for community, I mean a different kind. You got your bucks parties and your family weekends away. Was that in intentional?
00:14:01
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean on Bunker and Banks and Bunker, Jering Gong and Jimmy Doo, the properties that we airbnb, they were definitely purpose built for people to enjoy themselves and come together and for families to have eightyeth birthdays and cater to all of those moments. But to be honest on all of our projects, I guess it's at a different scale at the moment where the I mean, we've been fortunate enough to build some really high end, expensive houses and one of the things the owner for the house we just won the house of the year for which was Solstice. He's like, I love playing golf. My neighbors love playing golf. Let's still golf simulator. And he's always like, every time I go there, he's down there with his neighbors playing golf in.
00:14:46
Speaker 1: That is my husband's dream.
00:14:49
Speaker 5: And we we're building our house at the moment in Byron, and you guys have had pretty good weather, but it normally just gets pretty rainy here and they're other than gone to the past taking the kids surfing. There's not much to do in the rain. So we did a really big basement with a skate bowl and like stuff for the kids to do down in the basement and bringing all the friends that live in the street. They can come and hang out and have fun in the house, and the neighbors can come and we can chat to the neighbors when you know they're picking our kids up. And I guess it's the total opposite in terms of like getting out into the community, as you know, but having that luxury of having a little bit more budget to go and do some cool stuff like having a wellness.
00:15:30
Speaker 4: But it's inviting people in. Yeah, it's just inviting that interaction and providing a space for it. Yeah, and providing opportunity is you know that it's important. It's really important.
00:15:40
Speaker 5: Yeah, like where we're living now, where we literally just have boxes everywhere, and you know, our friends are like, should we come around for a barbecue? And let's just go to your house. So it's kind of cool to design houses that you really want people to come around. There's comfortable and everyone likes being there, and there's places to kind of gather and talk, can dance or whatever whatever you're into.
00:16:03
Speaker 2: I think in the world that we do, we try and create community through the process of building. So you saw in some of the photos. We'll do a shout out on Instagram or Facebook and we'll get a huge amount of volunteers come and it's like the old barn raising processes where everyone comes together to build your house. And within the business that we developed over the last ten years, we would all go to each other's houses and help with the hem cree and help with the construction. And having children involved in that as well is an inspiring process. But it makes the house feel like it's part of you. You know, you've had a hand in creating this, and it's a much more seamless kind of community.
00:16:42
Speaker 1: I feel absolutely from James.
00:16:45
Speaker 6: From a regulation point of view, I do not understand why counsels want to put privacy screens on windows on houses because they're worried about us looking from one window to the next door neighbor for privacy when the reality of this block, especially in new est states where they're squeezing sometimes these lots are three fifty or four hundred square meters. What am I going to see? And you know, we grew up like John, I'm a twin. I mentioned it before, but you know, we would lift up the Venetian blinds anyone know who that what they are, and put our head on the glass and wave to missus Labres because we could see her next door on her clothesline, and she would wave at us, and she.
00:17:22
Speaker 3: Knew who were weare, and we knew who we were, and that.
00:17:24
Speaker 6: Was like utterly exciting to a five year old, like so exciting, and that was connectivity without us having barbacues and friends together.
00:17:31
Speaker 4: Seventeen hundred sill height where you can't see.
00:17:33
Speaker 3: Correct at the top of correct.
00:17:35
Speaker 6: So instead of that, the window heights are raised to make the head height the same, but the base coming up and so these little highlight windows in bedrooms, like and then you wonder why your thirteen year old daughter has mental health because she doesn't get any vitamin D Like it's it's really confronting, and that's a regulation from council.
00:17:52
Speaker 3: Like what am I gonna?
00:17:53
Speaker 1: Am?
00:17:53
Speaker 6: I gonna sit there with a chair and eat popcorn and just stare at the neighbor's next door like ring.
00:17:58
Speaker 3: The police like it does. Agility of people doing that.
00:18:02
Speaker 2: Who's living next to your fellows living next to you? I probably would have a private same.
00:18:06
Speaker 6: You would not you've been knocking, not like coming over. His neighbors comes because they want to go. Let's check out what Neil and his wife have done on their next house and the same.
00:18:14
Speaker 3: My barbecues are fantastic.
00:18:17
Speaker 2: It would be very interesting to look into your apartment.
00:18:20
Speaker 1: Another type of community I think is quite interesting to share is the Australian community at Milan Design Week, because it's everybody goes over.
00:18:32
Speaker 6: It's increased. Yeah, yeah, there was a particular lady if she's watching the podcast or know who she is, because we saw a come up on instant and she goes, I'm so exciting to be here at the Domo and we're going it's the Dwellmore.
00:18:44
Speaker 3: It's like a cathedral, don't call it a domo.
00:18:48
Speaker 6: I think it's exciting for Australians to see what's happening. I think it's changed where we have that little syndrome of you know, remember when the TV week logos used to be on, We've always had to have international stars come. And now the international stars coming are Australian stars who have done well overseas and they come back and that's something that we need to celebrate. And you know, through architecture here, you know you've got amazing architectural forms in different in different spaces. We celebrate what is Australian and we know we have good looking homes. We have a community here, we have a political safety and a community where mostly we can all be ourselves. And then to relate the architecture that we create. And then we get this melting pot where it doesn't the kids know they're introduced to food smells from nextdoor that you mentioned, or the culture from that family that that creates community. Doesn't it like it's exciting. Otherwise it's a plate of mashed potato. You know, you need mixtures to make the meal interesting, to make our lives interesting.
00:19:50
Speaker 1: And back to what you're saying about Australians in Milana, I think it's really interesting to note as well, it's not just us going there to get ideas. Australia design is really recognized worldwide. It's appreciated and it really it carries weight. We clearly do some impressive work and it is noticed and it is held up as world standard.
00:20:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think because of our natural environment that we live in. I mean, look at bar and Bay. All of our houses are quite naturally off grid. There are naturally off grid septics. So in other countries through Europe, where it's high density, you don't get that opportunity. And I think people from outside looking in see the environments they sit in and see that the nature. They're disconnected from towns and in more beautiful settings, and they feel inspired by that.
00:20:47
Speaker 1: And that feels like the perfect place to pause. This was part one of our bonus episode from Metracon's Love of Design Summit. Ali Wheeler, Michael Leong, Neil Hippel and James Treble on pushing boundaries and on building homes that build community. A huge thank you to our panel for sharing so openly, and to Metricon for welcoming home beautiful into a room so full of ideas. But wh're not done. In Part two, I hand the microphone to the audience, and no question is too big or too small? What will Australian homes look like in ten or twenty years, how do we get more young people into their first homes? How much technology actually belongs in a house? And the question so big it nearly stumped the entire panel. That's coming soon right here in this feed. In the meantime, our regular episodes of the Edit keep coming. More house tours, home confessions, tiny upgrades and mystery draw reveals. Follow the Edit wherever you're listening so you don't miss a thing. See you inside the next one.
