Table of contents for #108 Mar-Apr 2026 in Green Magazine

As Australia faces increasingly extreme weather conditions, designing homes that are both healthy and resilient has never been more important. From energy efficiency and low maintenance to fire resistance and indoor air quality, the materials we choose play a crucial role in shaping long-term wellbeing and sustainability. Brickworks’ locally made clay bricks offer a proven pathway to achieving these goals — combining durability, natural performance, and enduring beauty with minimal environmental impact. What are the key beneficial properties of bricks? Durability and circularity are key principles of sustainable design and manufacturing. Bricks are among the most durable building materials available and are backed by a 100-year warranty on colourfastness and durability. Unlike many lightweight materials, brick requires little to no ongoing maintenance — it doesn’t need painting, won’t warp or…

Newcastle-based studio MAPA is a meeting of minds – a bringing together of art and architecture that elevates both disciplines. Ten years after officially founding MAPA, Heidi Axelsen (art) and Hugo Moline (architecture) reflect on a creative approach that emphasises sustainability, inclusivity, equity and community consultation. Heidi’s approach to art combines creativity and community. The daughter of artists, she moved from Bellingen to Sydney after school for a degree in arts management, before an exchange in Italy inspired her to do a second degree in sculpture at the National Art School. But it was her first job in community cultural development at Fairfield City Council that taught her about making work in connecton with people and public places. “That was an amazing experience in the most culturally diverse area in…

Over 20 years ago, the small Japanese mountain village of Kamikatsu issued a Zero Waste Declaration, becoming the first Japanese municipality to commit to recycling or reusing waste rather than incinerating it or sending it to landfill. Now, the town recycles around 81 per cent of its waste. Completed in 2020, the Kamikatsu Zero Waste Center, designed by Tokyo-based studio Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP, became a turning point in the town’s zero waste journey. For a couple of reasons, locals nicknamed the centre ‘WHY’ – both for what it looks like and what it represents. The most literal reason – yet perhaps not the most obvious, given it’s only perceivable from above – is that the building is shaped like a question mark. Understanding that this wasn’t just to become…

How we accommodate more people in urban areas is the ongoing question. In this issue we look at five architect-designed multi-residential solutions that are less expensive, more inclusive and use renewable and environmentally sound resources and materials. Our four house projects include an experimental and beautiful home and office for its architect owners, the reinvention of a Newcastle terrace, the untangling of a Victorian into a multigenerational hub, and a grounded and simple home in the Tassie bush. Imagine if your suburb had a recycling facility that dealt with every piece of waste that resulted from your consumption. In the prefecture of Kamikatsu in Japan the Zero Waste Centre does just that. Sorting everything, prohibiting problematic materials and in the process inspiring a community of creatives. In New Zealand a…

Rose Terraces by Luigi Rosselli Known for his higher-end residential projects, Sydney architect Luigi Rosselli’s latest project is Rose Terraces, a low-cost, prefab, built-to-rent property consisting of four terraces in Bondi Junction. The project is built from prefabricated cross-laminated timber (CLT), a time-saving construction method that also sequesters carbon. Made from layers of wood that are glued and compressed to form a hard and insulating timber, CLT was more expensive than traditional studwork, but saved money elsewhere in the build. Australia currently has two factories producing CLT and others manufacturing glue-laminated beams and components, and this project uses CLT from XLAM. The 173 cubic metres of CLT used was grown in approximately 29 minutes and stores 80.63 metric tonnes of CO2 that would otherwise be in the atmosphere. The project…

LOCATION DHARUG COUNTRY / LEURA / NSW • “I’m the most difficult client I’ve ever had,” laughs Ken Yeh, one half – with Carol Marra – of Sydney-based Marra and Yeh Architects as he ushers us out of the lightly misting spring rain into the house the couple designed and built as their own home in the Blue Mountains. Why the most difficult? Well, not all of it was Ken and Carol’s fault. The early difficulties came with the site itself. Having been subdivided from the neighbours, this slice of steeply sloping land had never been built on but had once been a market garden way back when horses were the main form of transport of fruit and veggies. This meant the soil was full of fertiliser, which is good…

LOCATION TURRBAL COUNTRY / NEW FARM / QLD • Whatever your excuse is to visit Brisbane, you can now stay in a home away from home and live like a local traipsing the back streets of Fortitude Valley and New Farm. And with the revitalising of the city, the easiest way to visit the arts precinct, the West End or the CBD is by foot and ferry. We spent three educational days in the not famous but becoming well-known Miss Midgley’s, located just up the hill from Fortitude Valley’s bustling James Street. This heritage-listed former private home was converted into a school in 1905 by Annie Midgley. Since purchasing the property in 2021, the new owners Lisa and daughter Eliza, who both studied and practised architecture, have transformed the property.…

Volcanic Handmade by ceramic artist Kate Bowman, the Igne Table Lamp is formed from stoneware clay, finished with an iron-rich volcanic rock glaze. Natural materials lend an organic presence, with ridged patterns adding textured depth. In her nipaluna/Hobart studio, she explores material storytelling and environmental narratives by transforming overlooked materials, including post-industrial byproducts like quarry dust, volcanic rock and hospitality waste. katebowmanceramics.com Deadstock Using 100 per cent Australian wool deadstock from an earlier collaboration with Geelong Weaving Mill, Dowel Jones have made a limited range of Woollen Throws. Woven and dyed in Geelong, the fabric is then cut, sewn and softly brushed in Melbourne to give the throws a voluminous, cosy finish. doweljones.com Dill Pickle Club Led by Workshop Architecture, Dill Pickle Club is Tasmania’s first listening bar, located on…

LOCATION AWABAKAL LAND / EAST NEWCASTLE / NSW • A lord, a well-known sea captain and now an artist and her family – these are just some of the people who have occupied a roughly 120-year-old terraced house on Awabakal land in East Newcastle. Titled Fort House, it is a building that is steeped in history, its character shaped not only by those who have lived there but also by the stories of its surroundings. Most significantly, it looks over sand hills that were formed when colonial settlers cleared all vegetation from the area to deter convicts from escaping from the prison. More than a century on, this clearing continues to create harsh conditions for those living nearby. It also means the house overlooks the harbour, ocean and city, which…

LOCATION MELUKERDEE COUNTRY / EGGS AND BACON BAY / TAS • Mayfly, leafless parson’s bands, slender pink-fingers … the conversation started (and ended) with orchids, such is Simon and Helen’s devotion to rehabilitating the site around their new home. Eggs and Bacon Bay, in southern Tasmania, abounds with them, and its bush/beach location is one reason they bought the 1.2-hectare site in 2008; a second is that their daughter had moved to Tasmania to study. The bay is named, it’s said, for the proliferation of red and yellow flowered native shrubs that cover the local slopes and burst into colour in early summer. After seeing the Archier’s SawMill House (Issue 45), close to where they were living in Beechworth, they were inspired by Chris Gilbert’s use of simple, local materials.…