Innehållsförteckning för #104 Jul-Aug 2025 från Green Magazine

How can architecture respond to shrinking cities, ageing populations, and a climate in crisis? "Make Do With Now: New Directions in Japanese Architecture", curated by Yuma Shinohara, explores how a new generation of Japanese architects are rethinking their role in society. Presented by Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio, the exhibition showcases practitioners who began their careers after the 2011 earthquake and Fukushima disaster, confronting challenges like urban vacancy, an ageing population, profit-driven development, and the global climate crisis. Rather than focusing on new builds, these architects work with existing spaces, found materials, and limited resources, embracing roughness and imperfection. Their socially and ecologically engaged practices propose new ways of working that resonate beyond Japan’s borders. tam.usi.ch…

LOCATION WURUNDJERI COUNTRY / VIC • Some projects surprise and beguile in equal measure and stay with you long after you’ve visited, nesting in your consciousness. A decade or so back, the outdoorsy clients and their young daughter lucked upon an elevated inner-city block with views across majestic parklands that lend this place a surreal bush-in-the-‘burbs vibe. They tried to make the 1930s owner-built home work, but it turned its back on the majestic expanse to the west that they sought communion with. They joined in the community-led regeneration of the parklands and waterways nearby and, in time, approached Sarah Hicks of Bush Projects, and Mel Bright and Emily Watson of Studio Bright to collaborate on a robust single-storey home designed in dialogue with a biodiverse habitat garden. This slow,…

LOCATION BOON WURRUNG COUNTRY / CAPE SCHANCK / VIC • After an immersive hike in nearby Greens Bush, we arrived at Barragunda (thunderous roar from the ocean) on a bucolic afternoon with the golden light of mid-May setting the market garden and plant nursery awash in a sea of greens. The estate is an hour from Melbourne, just up the hill from Cape Schanck, and can cop the wind and rain from every quarter. Yet the location makes for a fertile maritime environment of paddocks and bushland over rolling dunes. Nestled into the landscape, the recently opened restaurant provides a sanctuary with an enticing view across the native grasses and beyond to the vegetable garden. The 1000 acres of grazing land and scrub was purchased by the Morris Group in…

Palace Coffee is a small espresso bar tucked beneath Melbourne’s Monaco House, designed by Kerry Kounnapis Architecture Practice. Its oxide-red steel façade and spotted gum timber details nod to local city favourites like Pellegrini’s and the Nicholas Building. The frontage steps back from the laneway, creating an easy flow between footpath and coffee bar. An open serving window keeps things moving, with customers naturally becoming part of the street’s daily rhythm. It’s a compact space, but everything’s been thought through – from the warm materials to the soft glow of the fibreglass ceiling. A familiar Melbourne ritual, designed for connection, conversation and a quick, well-made coffee. kkap.au / @palace_melbourne…

Knotte is a new Australian modular seating brand, developed as part of the Burgtec family. With over 40 years of local expertise in designing and manufacturing commercial furniture, Burgtec provides a solid foundation, while Knotte brings a fresh, human-centred perspective. Designed and made in Australia, the brand’s first collection introduces three ranges – Almas, Astor and Jones – with modular lounges, lounge chairs and ottomans designed for flexibility, durability and comfort in busy public spaces like lobbies, airports and hospitality venues. At the heart of the launch is the Almas sofa, a collaboration with Melbourne-based emerging designer Joanne Odisho. Named after Odisho’s grandmother, Almas draws on memories of family gatherings – laughter, stories, and cousins sprawled across cushions – captured in its rounded forms and distinctive cylindrical bolster backrest. knotte.com.au…

LOCATION AWABAKAL COUNTRY / DUDLEY BEACH / NSW • From the outside, this house in Dudley, south of Newcastle, presents a simple exterior: two boxes clad in fibre-cement panels with timber-batten screens and shutters. But step inside and you enter an intricate, nuanced and textural home where indoor and outdoor spaces offer sanctuary, enclosure and spectacular views. This seeming dichotomy of an inner and outer world is about more than seeking prospect and refuge on the exposed coastal site. “It captures the personalities of both clients,” says Matt Elkan, co-director of Incidental Architecture. “Rebecca enjoys life and interests within the home, while Mark is passionate about the environment and being outdoors.” Rebecca and Mark, and their two teenage children, have long lived in the Newcastle area. In fact, Mark, whose…

LOCATION WADAWURRUNG COUNTRY. ANGLESEA, VIC • Coastal living is changing. Where once there were new builds of varying scales, and existing houses in a range of states of repair, there is now a growing number of extensive renovations to the latter. House in Anglesea, by Matt Goodman Architecture Office, adds to this growing narrative as a scheme that embraces the existing character of the mid-century home and layers onto this a series of interventions that remedy the limitations of the original design. Nestled in an idyllic location just metres from Victoria’s Point Roadknight, the project extensively refurbishes an existing 1950s beach house to refresh the tired but enduring character of the site, ensuring it flourishes for many more decades to come. The completed project appears at first glance to be…

Designed by Tom Fereday for Australian brand nau, the “Sia Chair” is known for its sculptural seat, curved backrest and slim steel frame. Lightweight and stackable, it was originally created as a versatile indoor chair for dining or commercial spaces. For Melbourne Design Week 2025, the design makes its outdoor debut. Reimagined in weather-resistant materials, Sia Outdoor brings the same comfort and refinement to patios, terraces and open-air spaces – with a durability suited to life outside. tomfereday.com / naudesign.com…

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Growing matter(s) is a pavilion by Henning Larsen, designed with Politecnico di Milano’s Material Balance Research LAB, that explores how bio-based materials can bring new ideas and aesthetics to architecture. The 24-square-metre installation debuted at Milan Design Week as both a structure and a living experiment – inviting visitors to explore mycelium as an evolving building material. Eighty spheres make up the pavilion, each grown from organic waste and shaped by environmental forces like humidity, airflow and time. Unlike typical mycelium applications – often used as uniform panels for insulation or acoustics – this project leans into the material’s unpredictability. Cracks, pores and surface textures are left visible, challenging familiar ideas of beauty, control and permanence. The spheres were grown on a mix of hemp, flour, sugar and beer dregs…

LOCATION GUNAIKURNAI COUNTRY / WARRAGUL / VIC • The banter between architect Antony Martin and his client speaks volumes about the warm, funny, creative partnership that brought this unusual project to life. Self-deprecating humour, amusing honesty, teasing, laughter, unwavering empathy and deep mutual respect. It’s a great yarn and they’ve done a top job. But it nearly didn’t happen. The client was living in a terrace house in Melbourne when, pre-pandemic and with a view to retirement, she bought a 16-hectare sheep farm outside Warragul. Her love of German Shepherds had introduced her to a staggeringly niche hobby they could share: sheep herding. She found a working farm with an old wooden cottage ringed by sheds in a pleasing arrangement that reminded her of old English stables and bought the…

At Alcova Milano during Milan Design Week 2025, VAKlab – the innovation centre of Belgian open-air museum Bokrijk – teamed up with Belgian designer Michaël Verheyden to create a five-metre-high wicker beehive pavilion. Installed in the gardens of Villa Bagatti Valsecchi – an 18th-century retreat once favoured by Milanese aristocracy – the pavilion was handwoven by VAKlab’s restoration carpenters, using traditional roof-thatching techniques typical of half-timbered houses. From its construction to the objects inside, the project showcased local craftsmanship, with everything designed by Verheyden and handcrafted by Belgian makers from the VAKlab network. Small openings in the curved reed walls revealed an eclectic collection of pieces, ranging from furniture to lighting and ceramics, each made by artisans skilled in blacksmithing, weaving, upholstery, woodwork, braiding, ceramics, stonework and glassblowing. The project…

LOCATION WURUNDJERI COUNTRY / BRUNSWICK / VIC • Neighbours met through their kids at the local primary school. It was the perfect scenario. Employing local people with local knowledge. The owners knew from looking at their super simple renovation plan that they would need to be thinking about the garden from the start. The new plan opened up the back of the house – the garden would be the view. The sneaky addition added a slice of living space down the side of the existing house – one of those gorgeous well-made brick houses in Melbourne’s inner North. Superb brickwork and considered spaces that marks the influence of European immigrant architecture. And it’s pretty hard to fault for easy living. The addition to the house is a simple rendition of…