News

Congratulations to Fireside House for just having been shortlisted for the 2022 Houses Awards! Fireside House is an elegant renovation in Northcote, VIC, for a busy family of four and their dog, Peppa. Fireside House is just the latest of a range of Breathe projects recently added to award shortlists.

It’s been an absolute joy working with the Four Pillars Gin crew on their new gin haven: a world-class venue that triples capacity and gin-making space while acknowledging the brand’s origin, their history and their deep connection to the place where it all began — beautiful Healesville. ⁠

A sight to behold, the project is carbon neutral in operations, with zero gas being used, including the fully electric commercial kitchen. Just one of many sustainability moves that saw Four Pillars named Australia’s first certified carbon-neutral gin distillery.

Explore more photos of the project here, then go ahead and book a table.

We are proud to announce Nightingale Ballarat has been shortlisted in three categories at this year’s AIA Vic Awards: Multi-Residential, Regional and Sustainability.

ANZ Breathe has been shortlisted in both the Commercial and Sustainability categories.

Stay tuned for the awards being announced on June 17.

Director of Houses, Madeline Sewall, joins host Bec Durous in the latest episode of Open Homes Australia on 9Life to tour Inside Out House — a beautiful, sustainable family home in Melbourne. Catch the episode here.

Huge congratulations to Four Pillars Gin, the first gin distillery in Australia to achieve carbon-neutral status via Climate Active, one of the most stringent carbon-neutral programs worldwide.

From day one, sustainability has been at the heart of Four Pillars Gin’s production and business and it’s been an absolute pleasure working with their team on the creation of Distillery 2.0. The new distillery incorporates new sustainable outcomes, such as saving 29 tonnes of glass per year on-site by piping gin directly from the distillery to the beautiful new bar. And that's just the beginning.

We can't wait to share more detail about this project when the new distillery opens — soon!

Visit the project page.

‘Shape a world where people and communities thrive’ is the driving notion behind ANZ’s nationwide 100% carbon-neutral-in-operation new branch design and rollout known as ANZ Breathe.⁠
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ANZ set out to create a future that’s not just about returning money to stakeholders, but is also based sincerely around three important values: environmental sustainability, secure housing and financial wellbeing for all.⁠
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Breathe delivered on these values by creating an elegant and sustainable branch design solution, demonstrating ANZ’s commitment to doing business responsibly in the 21st century. Importantly, ANZ Breathe has set a bold new benchmark for corporate Australia, one that considers the environmental impacts on community and planet first. ⁠
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Visit the project page.

Sparkkle dives into the creative minds behind architecture, design and social action. This week, Sparkkle chats with Breathe’s wonderful directors, Fairley Batch, Bonnie Herring and Madeline Sewall. These inspiring women discuss their relationship to risk, making change, their favourite projects and their goals for the future. Read the full interviews here.

“It was an honour to be involved in the Interior Design Excellence Awards as the inaugural sustainability judge. Recognising the twin crisis of climate change and biodiversity loss — the sustainability award is future focused and a great opportunity to spotlight impactful ideas that might inspire or shift direction to elevate the built environment. The field of 22 shortlisted projects across most categories were assessed against brief, performance, materials, innovation and performance with special attention given to projects that are fossil fuel free, consider material lifecycle, human, cultural and environmental health. At very different scales, each of the awarded projects demonstrated industry leadership for their aspirational carbon reduction initiatives and powerful connections to the natural environment. They are optimistic, elegant, innovative, inspiring and future focused. Congratulations to all the winners.” — Bonnie Herring, Director of Architecture at Breathe and IDEA’s 2021 Sustainability Judge.⁠

Congratulations Ona Coffee Melbourne, winner of the Editor’s Medal at the 2021 Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA)! ⁠

“The decision for this year’s Editor’s Medal was not made on aesthetics alone. For me, 2021 was a year of retrospection. Like a lot of Melburnians, there was plenty of time for reflection on where Australian design stands and where it should be headed if we are to truly be responsible and ethical practitioners. Beauty for beauty’s sake and ostentation at the abandon of everything else are not the only things that should drive us. Which brings me to Breathe.⁠

One of Australia’s first hospitality projects to be completely carbon neutral in operations, Ona is exceptional. The Canberra-based roaster makes its Melbourne debut in an understated Brunswick warehouse conversion that is as inviting, humble and personal as it is beautiful, touching lightly on its site with raw and recycled materials and a multilevel amphitheatre that, in time, will run wild with greenery.”

Thank you, Australian Design Review.

We spent a great day on site at the soon-to-be-completed Four Pillars Distillery 2.0 in Healesville. It was such a wonderful taste of what’s to come. We enjoyed the gin masterclass with Cameron Mackenzie and Stu Gregor, gin snacks by Matt Wilkinson, and a tour of the sparkling new spaces with Breathe Project Lead, Camilla Carmichael. We can’t wait for the official opening! ⁠Visit the project page for more snapshots.

Introducing Fireside House, an elegant renovation in Northcote, personalised for a family of four that enjoys nothing more than to share their love of food, cooking, and entertaining with pride of place being the figurative fireside, created by the open kitchen and dining pergola, centred around the recycled red-brick pizza oven.⁠
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Gas-free and powered by a mix of solar and 100% GreenPower, the front of the house was preserved and celebrated while the extension is an extrusion of the double gable form of the existing roof, bringing light and volume to the new open kitchen, living, and dining spaces.

For the diary: Join Breathe's Head of Interiors, Bettina Robinson, for the ‘Designing Sustainably: acknowledging the challenges of doing the right thing and how we overcome them’ session at this year’s Interiors Australia + DENFAIR on 10–12 February 2022 at MCEC. ⁠Register for free using the code ROBINSON.

The last couple of years have been tough for everyone. At Breathe, we really value the health and wellbeing of our staff and we want our team to thrive in all aspects of their life, not just at work. We’ve partnered with AccessEAP to provide all staff and their families with free, voluntary, confidential, 24-hour access to counselors, guided meditations, readings, apps and a whole community of like-minded caring individuals to support everyday life. We chose AccessEAP as they take a proactive rather than reactive approach to mental health and because of their similar values. AccessEAP is a not-for-profit organisation and the first Employee Assistance Program provider to have a Reconciliation Action Plan. Above all, they love their work and they do it because they care about people.⁠ Find out more about them here.

Make Good is a monthly conversation with Australian artists, designers and entrepreneurs that asks how good design can positively shape society and culture.⁠
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In the latest episode, host Ben Shields from DREAMER sits down with Jeremy McLeod to ask what it takes to deliver ethical housing in a profit-driven market and how every architectural project can have an impact through implementing the fundamentals of sustainability.⁠
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Listen to this episode of Make Good here. ⁠

The latest edition of Green Magazine features the beautiful story of The Cobargo Santa Project, a home we created for the Rugendyke family after their home was destroyed in the black summer bushfires. We provided pro-bono architectural services for the project and engaged with suppliers and collaborators to provide pro-bono material and appliances for the project. Among the many things donated were kitchen and laundry appliances, solar panels, solar installation, heat pump, heating and hot water plant and equipment, lighting, carpet, paint and insulation. ⁠
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Living in temporary structures with their foster children since the fires, we worked very hard to make sure that the Rugendyke family were out of home for as brief a period as possible. At Christmas 2019 their house burned down. At Christmas 2020, they were celebrating in their new home — with their family.⁠⁠

Each year, we work tirelessly to eliminate the carbon we produce at Breathe. We then undertake a rigorous carbon audit via the Carbon Reduction Institute to record any greenhouse gas emissions and offset this by purchasing certified offsets. We are proud to report that in 2021 our emissions offset is equivalent to:⁠

💚 60,927.75 litres of petrol⁠
💚 580,264.30 km off the road⁠
💚 22.53 laps around the Australian coastline⁠
💚 41 cars off the road⁠
💚 64.31 tonnes of coal avoided burning⁠

⁠View a copy of last year’s audit.

Aboriginal Housing Victoria (AHV), a community-led organisation managing over 1,500 rental properties for Aboriginal and Torres Strait people in Victoria, embodies the strength and resilience of First Nations People. This strength exists despite inadequate access to affordable and appropriate housing. An issue which is complex and multi-faceted, rooted in dispossession and dislocation and one that requires action beyond architectural intervention alone. First Nations Peoples are disproportionately impacted by: housing market failure; family violence and breakdown; institutionalisation; poverty of household material resources; and a lack of culturally appropriate mainstream housing services. ⁠⁠

Recognising the need to significantly increase the amount of their available housing stock, AHV engaged Breathe to design their first multi-residential social housing project. AHV has been a strong guide throughout this process, providing clear direction on culturally appropriate design. ⁠⁠Find out more.

Today we're introducing a new section on our website: Breathe Sustainability Guides. At Breathe, we’re committed to sustainability not just in our role as architects but as educators, too. As we face up to the scale of the climate emergency, we’re passionate about sharing our knowledge and experience to encourage more sustainable design. That’s why we created the Guide to Sustainable Houses, a compact introduction to designing energy-efficient, healthy and happy homes. It's a great read for anyone interested in the basic principles of creating sustainable homes. And our Guide to Sustainable Materials is the internal framework we use for selecting and specifying sustainable materials for buildings in Australia — today we’re sharing it with other architects and professionals in the building industry.

The Rochester, a collaboration with OLA Studio, has been highly commended at this year’s Think Brick Awards for the Kevin Borland Masonry Award. The award recognises outstanding architectural designs that incorporate the use of concrete masonry for both commercial and residential built projects.⁠

In Curved: Bending Architecture, Agata Toromanoff seeks out the most dramatic contemporary buildings from around the world that incorporate wave-like, rounded forms into their design. Arkadia, our collaboration with DKO and Oculus, features among some other incredible projects.⁠ Read more about Arkadia and its curves.

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Our Cobargo Santa Project has received a commendation at the 2021 ArchiTeam Awards in the Innovation and Contribution category. Dear to our hearts, the Cobargo Santa Project, is a home we designed pro-bono for RFS firefighter Dave and his wife Barbara after bushfires ravaged their town of Cobargo in 2020, where they found themselves under-insured and starting from scratch. Read the full story.

We are delighted to announce two Breathe projects were recognised at this year’s Sustainability Awards. ONA Coffee Melbourne, a 100% fossil fuel free café in Brunswick won in the Commercial Architecture (Small) category, and Breese Street, our wonderful collaboration with DKO and Milieu, took out the award for Multi Residential Dwelling.

It's the episode you’ve been waiting for! Tune in on Monday, 1 November to catch Director of Houses, Madeline Sewall and the Breathe team on Renovate or Rebuild — a new TV show on a mission to make sustainable design the new norm. On this episode Jesse and Mel (Team Renovate) maintain their lead over Bec and George (Team Rebuild) as they go head to head on Victoria’s beautiful Phillip Island to help a family decide if they should Renovate or Rebuild. 8.30pm, Monday 1 November on 9Life.

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We are delighted to announce that Arkadia, an incredible collaboration from Breathe, DKO and Oculus, has won the 2021 Frame Award for Co-Living Complex of the Year. At its core, Arkadia was designed to be environmentally and socially sustainable, while capturing the memory of its past. Revealing the history of the site are nearly half a million recycled bricks paying homage to the clay quarries and brick factories that stood there in centuries past.

“This project questions the way we live — the existing housing system — and this is the whole purpose of design: questioning the status quo!”  — Frame Awards Grand Jury.

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Breese Street by Milieu, a collaboration by Breathe and DKO, has been shortlisted in the UDIA Victoria 2021 Awards for Excellence. The Victorian wards of the Urban Development Institute of Australia celebrate unique, boundary-pushing design excellence in the development industry.

Edgars Creek House has been shortlisted for House of the Year and Arkadia, a collaboration with DKO and Oculus, has been shortlisted for Co-Living Complex of the Year at the Frame Awards 2021! The winners will be announced in October.

Ona Coffee Melbourne, Breese St by Milieu and Breathe × Spacecube have all been shortlisted at the 2021 Sustainability Awards. As well as these incredible projects, Bonnie Herring, Breathe’s Director of Architecture and Sustainability, has been shortlisted for the Women in Sustainability Award.  The awards will be announced in November.

Renovate or Rebuild will premiere on 9Life in October and Breathe make a special guest appearance in one of the episodes. The show features “Team Renovate” and “Team Rebuild”, battling it out to see whose home design will win over the client.⁠⁠⁠⁠ Breathe Director of Houses, Madeline Sewall was invited onto the show to help each team work through different design options, the pros and cons of a renovation versus a new build, and the best ways to incorporate sustainability initiatives in each option for a happy home owner and a happy planet. ⁠⁠ Who will win? That’s the question. Stay tuned for episode air date!⁠⁠ Watch the official trailer here.

Breathe Director of Architecture and Sustainability, Bonnie Herring, joined like minded sustainability leaders WOWOWA and SJB to see Brickworks launch their carbon offsetting program – achieving sustainability targets and building a better future for both business and the planet.  Bonnie said, "Breathe were early signatories to Architects Declare Australia, which is an acknowledgement that we’re all facing the twin threats of climate change and biodiversity loss. So we’ve been really vocal advocates, appealing to the broader industry to go carbon neutral. It’s energising to see the expanded carbon neutral offer by Brickworks and I hope to see more industry leaders and suppliers coming to the forefront, and matching this challenge."

Designed by Breathe, Nightingale Ngawan and Nightingale Yambook will join the Wurru-wurru and Laak communities at 215 Albion Street, Brunswick. Each community features Teilhaus, one and two bedroom apartments and are designed around an expansive, regenerative, biodiverse and lush courtyard, providing a passive cooling effect and cross ventilation to the apartments above. For more information about upcoming information sessions, visit the Nightingale Housing website.