West Bend House occupies an extraordinary leafy Westgarth site, meandering down into Merri Creek parklands. At its highest points the home looks out across the green wildlife belt to Rushall station and the city beyond. With the building resolved by Ant and his team MRTN Architects, the clients approached Brave New Eco to design and detail the interiors of their ‘forever home’ that they will inhabit with three teenagers and various guests for many years to come. The owners of the house were known well to us, they had been early clients for both Brave New Eco and MRTN Architects, bel ..read more

This project began in 2015 with the small scope of a new wheel-chair friendly bathroom design. Emboldened by the initial design process the clients, Claire and Hayden, decided to consolidate their long-term plans for the house into a full scale-renovation. The family of four had bought their dream inner-suburban home in an ideal location - tucked down the end of a cul-de-sac that snaked around Cruickshank park in Yarraville. The house is a familiar post-war cream brick 1950's Bungalow with big park views. Their design brief was one that was wholly aligned with the BNE approach: "To create a b ..read more

This project is the home of clients totally committed to living resourcefully in small spaces. These guys walk-the-walk and talk-the-talk - willing to do everything they can to reduce their energy use and create a low impact lifestyle for their family.  I first met Zoe and Cameron when they came to chat with me at a 'Speed date a sustainable expert' event a few years back. When they got back in contact they had been working with Matt from Greensolar Designs to resolve a small extension design (building out to a boundary wall on one side) containing a third bedroom, light-w ..read more

***** UPDATE TO THIS BLOG POST! Are you a designer working as a sole practitioner or with 1-2 other people? Would you like to work in a productive purpose designer collaborative community? We have desks available in our design studio- and are looking for other designers or sustainability professionals looking for an exceptionally beautiful and functional working environment. Landscape, industrial, interiors, architecture, graphics all suitable practices. Read all the details about the studio here. ***** BNE has completed some workplace fit-outs in the last couple of years, alongside our resid ..read more

We first visited this 1950's cream brick bungalow on a generous 800sqm block back in 2013 for a sustainable design consultation. At the time the house had an overwhelming list of issues to be resolved, it was in disrepair, dim, dated, and freezing in winter. Most confoundedly, in the 1970's, a self-contained granny-flat had been built only 4 metres from the back of the house. This addition made both buildings feel hemmed in and blocked the home's connection to the generous garden. With a south facing backyard, the home lacked in northern sunlight. To the owner's dismay, the design professiona ..read more

This gorgeous home was completed at the end of 2015 and we have finally found the time to take some pictures. The lovely young family who live here wanted to upgrade the efficiency of their Californian bungalow and create better spaces for family life. Central to our design approach is a philosophy that believes a home should be an authentic expression of it's inhabitants' values. We were guided by the clients' tastes and preference for classic early to mid 20th century style and design. The clients were trusting in our interpretation of this and a rich palette of burnt oranges, deep tea ..read more

Recently I have revisited the process I went through when we renovated our own home, in an article written for Australian permaculture magazine Pip - the Design issue.  Eight years ago we bought a dilapidated 1940’s Californian bungalow in Melbourne’s inner northern suburbs. It was in a semi-derelict state and had a heritage overlay, flood level restrictions and a long narrow bloc. However the site was extremely special as it backed onto the Merri creek wildlife corridor. The real value for us was not in the bricks and mortar but in the proximity of the majestic, mature gum trees, r ..read more

The owners of this inner north Victorian weatherboard have installed insulation, solar hot water, photovoltaic panels, rainwater tanks, efficient heating and ceiling fans since having a home sustainability consultation with Brave New Eco. The majority of Australians live in housing stock that was built with little or no consideration of energy efficiency. The average home over 10 years old would rate at between ZERO to TWO stars. In a rating system that now says new buildings should be a minimum of 6 stars you can see our existing housing stock is in a sad state, and is going to bec ..read more