climate
Events
“A journey into a whole new material world”: Plant Life at the NGV
Curator Ewan McEoin tells us about the NGV’s new exhibition on plant-based materials as alternatives to plastics, synthetic materials and other non-renewable resources.
Events
The inaugural Coastal Design Assembly is about to make landfall in Sydney
Sophie Lanigan, organiser of a new event centring on Sydney’s relationship to water, tells us what the event’s all about, who it’s for and why it matters today.
Project
A brick envelope shapes life in Kerala
In Thrissur, India, LIJO.RENY.architects has wrapped a family home in a perforated brick envelope that moderates heat, encourages natural ventilation and creates a series of layered indoor and outdoor spaces.
Project
Golden Avenue, brutal Brisbane
J.AR OFFICE’s hospitality venue in Brisbane strives to create a small oasis of shade and greenery amidst the concrete jungle of the city. Jared Webb tells us more.
Events
Melbourne Design Week 2026 expands design’s role
From robotics and Blak design to food, furniture and climate-responsive sportswear, Australia’s largest design event will return in May with more than 400 events across Melbourne.
Project
Re-imagining Bangkok’s urban landscape
A standout pavilion from this year’s Bangkok Design Week explores shade and light for people and place.
Workplace
New FK-led research bolsters the importance of adaptive reuse in workplace design
FK’s Nicky Drobis takes us through a recent poll of 1,000 office workers across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane that suggests a preference for reuse – despite an ‘awareness gap’.
Events
A straw odyssey: Australian architect heads to Europe for waste materials research
Byera Hadley Scholarship-winner Michael Jones is about to set off on a research trip across five countries. He tells us why his research focus, straw, is a sleeping giant in the context of climate crisis and built environment waste.
Ideas
Five years on: What The Pacifica taught us about vertical living
Designed by Plus Studio for Hengyi, The Pacifica reveals how climate-aware design, shared amenity and ground-plane thinking can reshape vertical living in Auckland.
Ideas
The evolution of Queensland’s interior design
As Plus Studio’s newly appointed Principal, Kate Ockwell discusses how the 2032 Olympics, climate-responsive design and a maturing design culture are reshaping Queensland’s interior landscape.
Ideas
HDR predicts seven megatrends to shape Australian architecture and design in 2026
In the New Year, architecture will be defined by its ability to orchestrate relationships between inside and outside, public and private, humans and ecology, and data and intuition.
Ideas
Eco Outdoor hosts Sydney panel on design, carbon and long-term value
Eco Outdoor recently brought together developers, sustainability experts and local architects such as Adam Haddow to discuss design fundamentals, carbon targets and long-term thinking.
News
Parliamentary Friends for Australian Urban Design reconvenes for the 48th Australian Parliament
The Parliamentary Friends reconvened at Parliament House, uniting political and professional leaders to champion architecture and design.
Ideas
Reimagining urban life through nature
In Naturalizing Architecture, Takada moves beyond biomimicry to propose a regenerative vision for the urban environment.
News
Australia’s 2025 national landscape winners
Community, Country and climate were centred at the 2025 Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) Awards in Lutruwita/Tasmania on 21st October.
News
The Commonwealth Association of Architects marks 60 years of design collaboration
Celebrating six decades of architectural excellence, the Commonwealth Association of Architects launches a year-long campaign.
Events
What is the role of design in a world in crisis?
At the World Design Congress in London, a simple idea threaded through two dense days: design is not an island. It moves inside wider systems of economics, policy, finance and ecology.
Events
Architecture as laboratory: Notes from the Venice Biennale with David Holm
In this comment piece, COX Principal David Holm reflects on Carlo Ratti’s curatorship in which climate, colonisation and gender equity took centre stage at the Venice Biennale.
Ideas
Comment: To reach net-zero, we must tackle the ‘too hard’ basket
In this comment piece by Dr Matthias Irger – Head of Sustainability at COX Architecture – he argues for an approach to design that prioritises retrofitting, renovation and reuse.
Events
“Architecture is always about more than form; it is about meaning”: In conversation with Lina Ghotmeh
As French-Lebanese Architect Lina Ghotmeh prepares for lectures in Melbourne and Sydney, we hear about the philosophy shaping her internationally celebrated practice.
Project
CLT cabin-hopping across Japan
Designed by PAN- PROJECTS, Earthboat is a series of mobile cabins set across the mountainous regions of Japan and built entirely with Japanese cedar CLT.
Events
NSW architect wins funding for coastal design
Nicole Larkin has been awarded the 2025 Marten Bequest, providing two years and $50k to research coastal resilience and adaptation.
Ideas
Australian Passivhaus Association clarifies one comprehensive standard
The Australian Passivhaus Association (APA) has released a guide outlining the process for achieving the international Passivhaus Standard, providing clarity on appropriate use of the term and the legal risks of incorrect assertions.
Events
Arts precinct garden research take landscape and ecology design to new levels
Led by Hassell and The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Campus, the Melbourne Arts Precinct Plant Trials will evaluate over 1,000 plants under extreme conditions.
Events
Highlights from Stockholm Design Week 2025
From bio-based innovations to circular design, this year’s fair redefined the role of materials in shaping the future of interiors as sustainable materials and a thoughtful approach to the impact of design on our world took centre stage.
Events
Climate crisis informs new graphic novel, Cabal
Andrew van der Westhuyzen, one of Australia’s pre-eminent creatives, has launched his debut book Cabal, the first in a series of illustrated science-fiction short story works.
Ideas
Newly released toolkit gives architects key strategies for climate-resilient design
Drawing on years of experience, Marra+Yeh Architects has made a new toolkit available online for everyone.
Project
Home Truth at NGV: Breathe confronts the elephant in the oversized room
Melbourne-based architects Breathe have constructed an unfinished house at the NGV that puts the question of house sizes in Australia on the agenda.
Events
Monumental Imaginaries: Energy transition and visual culture in the Hunter
This Tin Sheds Gallery exhibition delves into complexity and contradiction in the Hunter Region in the context of coal and climate crisis.
Ideas
Troy Uleman comment: Sydney Metro and why we need more great stations
The John McAslan + Partners Sydney studio lead and director writes on the importance of transport infrastructure.
Workplace
Video: Mass timber on the rise with Arup in Perth
Perth’s first timber hybrid office tower is complete, designed by – and home to – Arup in Western Australia.
Events
Light and materiality in outdoor spaces: Sally Evans reflects on Saturday Indesign panel
Sally Evans, Director at Nexus Designs, discusses outdoor lighting following her appearance as a panellist at Saturday Indesign.
Events
“Architecture is the silent scaffolding that enables the making and breaking of worlds”: Kabage Karanja Q&A
We caught up with Kabage Karanja, co-founder and co-director of Cave_bureau, ahead of the Living Cities Forum in Sydney and Melbourne.
Events
“We need to stop pretending it is for someone else to solve”: Carol Marra on climate crisis
We speak to architect Carol Marra following recent events focusing on climate-resilient design.
Events
The 2024 Sustainability Awards shortlist is here!
It’s a celebration of groundbreaking innovation in sustainable design – here’s your shortlist for the 2024 Sustainability Awards
Ideas
Balarinji comment: Designing with Country offers a unique opportunity for designers
In this comment piece, Indigenous Creative Lead at Balarinji, Johnny Bridges, discusses designing with Country and the environment.
Ideas
Comment: Innovative playground design sets new benchmark for outdoor play spaces
In response to climate change, landscape architect and TCL Adelaide Director Damian Schultz shares important design evolutions for global play spaces.
Ideas
“We just need to make the revolution irresistible”: A story about hemp
In the second of a two-part exploration of hemp in today’s built environment, we consider risk and reward.
Events
The age of hemp? Aesthetics, legalities and the promise of carbon-neutrality
In the first of a two-part exploration of hemp in today’s built environment, we consider aesthetics and why the material hasn’t been used more widely.
Ideas
Comment: The fight against mould
In this comment piece, Ashburner Francis Mechanical Engineer & ESD expert, Lara Bailey, reflects on her work with Australian architecture practices and the challenges facing design teams in the wake of soaring summers.
Events
Learning from the Global South with Tosin Oshinowo
The Nigerian architect was recently in Australia for Melbourne Design Week. We spoke to her about the power of design in cities such as Lagos.
Events
New crises, normal solutions: Innovative design prototypes on show at Powerhouse
Building on its beginnings in Melbourne Design Week, A New Normal is a new exhibition presented by Vivid Ideas Sydney at Powerhouse Ultimo.
Ideas
Bradfield City Centre, the climate-responsive masterplan aiming to green Western Sydney
Designed by TURNER, Hatch Roberts Day and Turf Design Studio, the Bradfield City Centre masterplan is the blueprint for a new CBD taking shape in Sydney’s west.
Events
Global crises and the architect’s social responsibilities under discussion at AIA Conference
Kate Goodwin, curator and Adjunct Professor (Architecture) at the University of Sydney, reports back from the AIA Conference in Melbourne.
Ideas
Hassell and GBCA on social value in the built environment
Building on a recent research paper, Helen Bell and Dr Brett Pollard discuss how social value is defined, its potential pitfalls, and why it matters.
Ideas
“A perfect example of the design of the future”: Patricia Urquiola and Mater in Milan
We spoke to Ketil Årdal, CEO of Danish green-tech design brand, Mater, as they unveiled the Alder collection at Milan Design Week.
Ideas
From cutting-edge projects to thoughtful interviews, seven stories on adaptive reuse
Adaptive reuse is all the rage across the design industry, and rightly so. Here, we present a selection of articles on this most effective approach to sustainability.
Workplace
Back to basics at Zero Gipps: First-principles sustainability with SJB and Verosol
Beau Fulwood and Alison Peach on returning to a low-tech, first-principles concept of design as a strategy to combat climate change.
Events
It’s design festival season! Melbourne Design Week asks us to ‘Design the world you want’
With over 300 events planned, the eighth edition promises another marathon week of design and its theme is at once a proposition of hope and an urgent call-to-arms.
Ideas
Radical logics of connectedness and circular economy with Chris Fox
We sat down with Chris Fox to speculate on the future of regenerative architecture, circular economy and experimenting with vegetation in and on buildings.
Ideas
Woods Bagot’s Russell Fortmeyer: Whose climate is it anyway?
In this comment piece republished from INDESIGN #90, Woods Bagot’s Global Sustainability Leader in Los Angeles brings questions of equality to design in the climate crisis.
Ideas
Comment: Tilt’s top three sustainability priorities for 2024
In this comment piece, Tim Phillips, Managing and Creative Director of Tilt Industrial Design, identifies three key initiatives for sustainability in 2024.
Events
WY-TO on well-being for all in tropical cities of the future
In a time of climate emergency, how can cities support and balance the needs of their people and the planet, while ensuring their prosperity?
Events
How do we imbue architecture with life?
The latest instalment of fjcstudio’s Truth and Lies talk series looked at ‘The Consciousness of Architecture and the Will of the Architect’.
Ideas
HDR outlines six megatrends for 2024
In a climate of innovation, HDR’s architecture practice has forecasted six trajectories of change that will have a transformative impact over the coming year and redefine city-shaping for the foreseeable future.
Events
Towards a regenerative landscape architecture with Phillip Withers
With a recent book on natural Australian gardens, we spoke with the Victorian landscape designer on what it means to take a truly holistic approach to the environment.
Ideas
T.C.L comment: Unlocking the potential of Brisbane’s creek catchments
Deb Robbins, T.C.L Brisbane Studio principal, shares her vision for a series of catchment ‘corridors’ to unify the city.
Events
Towards a golden age of Australian architecture?
On the eve of 2024, our new editor, Timothy Alouani-Roby, addresses an exciting yet provocative open letter to the Australian architecture community on the opportunities of an era.
Events
Exploring Australia with photographer John Gollings AM
A small exhibition with images by John Gollings AM is profoundly thought-provoking, extraordinarily beautiful and an event not to be missed.
Ideas
Rory Hunter: One man’s MODEL for build-to-rent
As he creates a template for the future, Rory Hunter envisages a type of build-to-rent that will deliver better lives for residents on every level.
Events
Buildings Breakthrough at COP28: Q&A with David Ness
UniSA Professor David Ness played a key role in a UN report on CO2 emissions relating to buildings, construction and urban growth which underpins the Buildings Breakthrough official launch at COP28 in Dubai.
Project
The awards keep coming for Quay Quarter Tower
This time, it’s the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) which has recognised the Sydney building as Best Tall Building Worldwide.
Events
An unprecedented inquiry into precedents with Kevin Carmody
Following his recent keynote speech at the 2023 Australian Architecture Conference, we spoke to architect Kevin Carmody about his inspirations and experience.
Workplace
Working for good, designing for better with lyth Design in Delhi
As a practitioner, INDE.Awards juror Apoorva Shroff of lyth Design is pushing the design boundaries and doing it with aplomb. The latest project from the studio is beautiful in its aesthetic and appropriate in both function and form, truly supporting those who work to better the community.
Ideas
“Leaving things better than you found them”: Advocating for a regenerative future with LFIA’s Laura Hamilton-O’Hara
As CEO of the Living Future Institute of Australia (LFIA), Laura Hamilton-O’Hara is concerned with how various factors come together to produce our built environment. Initiatives such as the Living Building Challenge are pushing towards a sustainable status quo.
Events
Our response to the Architects Declare Open Letter to design media
What is the media’s role in pushing a more sustainable agenda? Indesign Media Asia Pacific editor Aleesha Callahan responds to the open letter.
Project
Tackling housing density on the Victorian Architecture Awards shortlist
The shortlist for the Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Architecture Awards has been published. Nightingale Village is one of the projects in the mix and we spoke to Austin Maynard Architects about their part in it.
Project
Sustainable edification: India’s first net-positive building
Leading the way in design, Edifice Consultants has conceived and realised India’s first net-positive building and, in doing so, has created a template for the here and now.
Project
Moving between tradition and modernity at Chennai’s Boat Club Apartments
SJK Architects is an award-winning practice based in Mumbai. For this project, however, the focus is in Chennai, where Boat Club Apartments combine a sense of communal living with privacy and independence.
Ideas
Climate change is right now, and architect James Davidson is ready
Architect James Davidson of JDA Co. wants to move the dial faster on making homes safer, insurance cheaper and enabling communities to rebuild better when natural disaster strikes.