Issue 108

Issue 108 comes out on March 2. Order on its own or as part of a subscription.

Cover photography by Prue Ruscoe. Featuring architecture by Luigi Rosselli.

In this issue, our feature looks at five multi-residential buildings centering good design and community in inner city locations, and putting residents at the centre while making sustainability part of their DNA. Featuring Luigi Rosselli, Kerstin Thompson Architects + Breathe + Antipodean Land Developments, Zen Architects + Property Collectives, and Breathe + Small Change. With words by Penny Craswell and photos by Prue Ruscoe, Leo Showell and Tom Ross.

In this issue, we profile MAPA, the creative couple behind the studio bringing together art and architecture. Heidi Axelsen and Hugo Moline reflect on a practice that emphasises sustainability, inclusivity, equity and community consultation, and on projects including Open Field Agency and Field Rooms. With text by Penny Craswell and photography by Joshua Morris, Ona Janzen for MTNS MADE and Silversalt Photography.

Our first architecture feature sees Curious Practice reopen a roughly 120-year-old terraced house in East Newcastle, adding carefully positioned plug-in appendages to reconnect the home to weather, views and streetscape while preserving its character and embodied energy. With text by Lara Chapman and photography by Clinton Weaver.

Our second architecture feature follows Marra+Yeh Architects own home in Leura, where screw pile foundations, prefabricated steel flooring and bushfire resilience measures form a successful test case for new and unusual building technologies in a bushfire-prone landscape. With text by Penny Craswell and photography by Brett Boardman.

Next up, Mihaly Slocombe Architects reworks a double-fronted Victorian in Brunswick, pulling rooms apart to insert courtyards and planted pockets, drawing landscape deep into the plan and creating a flexible, multi-generational home that balances heritage character with upgraded performance. With text by Aleesha Callahan and photography by Martina Gemmola.

Our final architecture feature by Studio Steen and Plain Architecture sits lightly on 1.2 hectares at Eggs and Bacon Bay, pairing a limited material palette with passive solar design, rainwater harvesting and BAL 29 compliance to create a small, site-responsive home grounded in bush and beach. With text by Catriona McLeod and photography by Adam Gibson.

Our first landscape feature sees Peachy Green shape three distinct garden spaces around an Art Deco house in Glen Iris, layering grasses, shrubs and groundcovers with Castlemaine slate and expressive planting to create a perennial meadow and a European-inspired front garden in dialogue with the street. With text by Kath Dolan and photography by Tom Ross.

And in our second landscape feature, Davor Popadich and his family transform a 3.5-hectare, weed-infested site north of Hahei into a regenerating native landscape, pairing an L-shaped timber house with epic weed control, endemic planting and a long-term commitment to biodiversity. With text by Claire McCall and photography by Samuel Hartnett.

In our Not Wasted feature visits the Kamikatsu Zero Waste Center (WHY) in Japan, where a question mark-shaped building designed by Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP makes recycling visible, uses discarded and locally sourced materials, and supports a town that now recycles around 81 per cent of its waste. With text by Ellie Keft and photography by Bharat Sikka and Koji Fujii.

And finally, our travel feature visits Miss Midgley’s in New Farm, a heritage-listed former private home and school transformed into boutique accommodation, offering a sanctuary within walking distance of Brisbane’s arts precinct, river walks and ferry routes. With text by Tom Bodycomb and photos by Tamsin O’Neill and Hannah Puechmarin.

Our regular Upfront section showcases projects, practices and ideas we love — with work by Kate Bowman Ceramics, Dowel Jones, Workshop Architecture, Hydro, Base Cabin + Bellhaus Design Office + Josh Murray, AtMa inc., ODAGIRI Satoshi, HotHaus Glass Studio, Studio Edwards + LOWF, Marina Tabassum Architects + FACE Bangladesh, 09.ED.15 Redux — Besley & Spresser + Triennale di Lisboa. And in Upfront Garden; projects from Heatherwick Studio + Magis + Living Edge, Jess Hall, GLAS Landscape Architects + Winsor Kerr. With words by Ellie Keft and photography by Matt Sansom, Brook James, Jack E Carlin and Drew Echberg.

Issue 108 comes out on March 2. Order on its own or as part of a subscription.