News

The climate crisis is the most challenging and urgent issue facing our time. At Breathe, we recognise that as architects we are uniquely placed to help lead the transition to a carbon free future. Breathe has been carbon neutral since 2017. In excellent news, The Australian Institute of Architects, the peak body for the architecture profession in Australia, has committed to their carbon neutral journey and has called on the Australian Government to establish a national plan towards zero carbon buildings by 2030. In addition, the Institute is urging all architecture practices to get on board and has setup a dedicated page with all the resources and information needed to join more than 200 architecture firms that have already begun their process towards becoming carbon neutral.

Breathe has won three medals at this year’s DRIVENxDESIGN Melbourne Design Awards. The awards celebrate and honour the role of design and the skills of designers. We are pleased to announce that Ona Coffee won Silver in the Hospitality Interiors category, Edgars Creek House won Gold in the Residential Architecture category, and The Melbourne Recovery Centre has also taken out Gold in the Proposed Architecture category. View our full list of awards.

As part of NAIDOC Week, the Breathe team spent an afternoon with Your Yorta, Wurundjeri, Boon Wurrung man Shane Charles. Shane shared stories from his life and culture, what ‘Heal Country’ means, and ways we can all contribute to reconciliation. Thank you Shane for sharing your knowledge and orientating us on Country. More impressions on Instagram.

We are pleased to share that Camilla Burke has been promoted to Associate at Breathe. The talented Cami has led numerous multi-residential and hospitality projects with a particular knack for delivering community-focused projects that strive to connect their inhabitants. Her experience is broad, working on a range of project types and scales, including numerous community centres, hospitality venues, residential and social and affordable housing projects. Cami started working at Breathe in 2019 and quickly cemented herself as a natural leader, working with her team across all project phases from design concept to contract administration. Lucky for us, with Cami, comes Remi, a welcome, wire-haired dachshund addition to our canine team. Congratulations Cami!

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We are pleased to announce the promotion of Madeline Sewall to the role of Director at Breathe. Madeline has been an Associate and Head of Houses since 2020 and has proven herself to be a natural leader, championing Breathe’s residential projects with passion, tenacity, empathy and humility. Maddie has a knack for building trusting and collaborative relationships with each client and collaborator she works with, establishing healthy project teams that have mutual respect and great comradery. Pictured here is Maddie on the set of Renovate or Rebuild, soon to be aired on Channel 9. A talented communicator, Maddie guests on the show to share her knowledge and insights into successful sustainable design. Congratulations Maddie!

Congratulations to the incredible team at NH Architecture, Russell & George, and Wurundjeri-willam artist Mandy Nicholson for being awarded the Allan and Beth Coldicutt Award for Sustainable Architecture at this year’s Victorian Institute of Architects Awards for their project Burwood Brickworks.

Burwood Brickworks is incredibly inspiring to us here at Breathe, being the world’s first Living Building Challenge-certified project (no mean feat!), achieving new standards in sustainability and being recognised as the world’s most sustainable shopping centre.⁠

⁠Huge shout-out to the design team, Frasers Property Australia for championing the project, Hacer for a great build, and importantly Stephen Choi for his tireless vision. We bow down. ⁠⁠Because of this project, all the project we create in the future will be better.⁠⁠

The Breathe team worked tirelessly to ensure exceptional sustainability outcomes for Ona Coffee Melbourne. Last week, the project received a commendation in the Sustainability category at this year's Victorian Architecture Awards!

The big move for Ona Coffee was to go completely carbon neutral in operations – no gas. ⁠⁠Built by the incredible team at Never Stop Group, sustainability features include being 100% electric, using induction cooktops and 20kW solar on the re-insulated roof with remaining energy requirements provided by 100% GreenPower. A rigorous carbon audit was undertaken to offset any greenhouse gas emissions. 5000 litre rain water tanks, organics waste streams, natural light and ample bike parking were incorporated into the design.

⁠⁠The design represents the ethical ethos of Ona’s mission: to work with farmers from around the world ensuring a fair trade strategy that sees farmers valued, treated with respect and future livelihoods protected.⁠⁠ Congratulations Ona!

Breathe’s wonderful group of Directors, Associates and Team Leads recently completed the ChangeUp leadership program with the incredible Mim Bartlett.

The program challenged the team to look within themselves with the time, the space and the environment to encourage reflection, to be vulnerable, to inspire connection and to focus on what’s important to the broader team in life and in work.

The team found ChangeUp to be a refreshing take on leadership training that celebrates individuality, emotional intelligence and humanity, recognising that leadership comes in all shapes and sizes. Mim helped our team identify the diversity of their strengths, so that we can play to them every day. At Breathe, we really value a truly connected team to continue to deliver projects with enduring and meaningful impact for our clients and the planet. Always learning, always evolving.

An incredibly diverse range of buildings, spaces, objects and people were submitted for the 2021 INDE.Awards and we are proud to announce Breathe has been shortlisted for two: Breese St by Milieu, a collaboration with DKO Architecture in ‘The Multi-Residential Building’ category, and Ona Coffee in ‘The Influencer’ category. Winners will be announced on August 5th.

Breathe Director of Sustainability, Bonnie Herring, has been named the inaugural sustainability judge at this year’s Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), Australia’s oldest independent architecture and interior design awards.  Bonnie says sustainability is “not something you attach to the building, it’s something that is embedded in its DNA”. She will be looking for exemplary projects that are focused on reducing operational carbon emissions as well as embodied emissions. “So projects that really consider a net-zero pathway in their designs” and are fossil fuel-free in operation. The full list of judges can be found here.

Calling all budding designers: Join Breathe for a live webinar hosted by ISCD Education about all things lighting design. Breathe Director of Architecture, Bonnie Herring, Head of Interiors Bettina Robinson, and Head of Houses Madeline Sewall will provide insights into core lighting design principles, biophilic lighting design, materiality, specification and adaptability as well as a Q&A session. Not to be missed!

Mark your calendars: Thursday 10 June, 6.30pm
‍Info and registration here

The Breathe Houses team has setup shop in Olinda. At Breathe, we love creating homes inspired by the people who will live in them and by nature. During 2020’s lockdown, we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to create a second location for the Breathe team to pause and reflect on what ‘home’ really means for people and how our natural environment can inspire and be incorporated in every aspect of design, to create places that captivate and for people to thrive in. So far, each Olinda day has been more beautiful than the next. See here how to get in touch with us or visit us in Olinda.

We are proud to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, the Traditional Custodians of the land upon which our Olinda office stands. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters, and culture.

We’re proud to officially announce the completion of our latest community project: The Cobargo Santa Project, a new home for the family of brave RFS firefighter Dave and his wife Barbara who lost everything in the catastrophic fires of 2019/2020.

Initiated by Breathe, this pro-bono project brought together a long list of generous donors who helped build a comfortable, efficient, carbon-neutral home for the Santa of Cobargo.

Read more about the backstory here and the details about this project here. Dave and Barbara’s story was also covered in a recent article in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Breathe Associate and Head of Houses, Madeline Sewall, has been named one of 15 emerging architects shortlisted for the Australian Institute of Architect's Dulux Study Tour prize. Well deserved, Maddie!

It’s been a great week of peer recognition for Breathe with three projects shortlisted for 2021 awards. Breese Street has been shortlisted for the Houses Award in the Apartment/Unit and Sustainability categories, as well as shortlisted for the Victorian Architecture Awards in the category Sustainability. ONA Coffee has also been recognised for its exceptional sustainability outcomes, being shortlisted for the same category in the Victorian Architecture Awards. View all of Breathe’s awards here.

Breathe’s Tamara Veltre is proud to be a judge at this year’s Circle Awards. The Circle Awards bring together the diverse businesses, organisations, projects and people adopting circular practices to create a world where nothing goes to waste. The annual programme champions circular
 practices across all aspects of day-to-day life. They’re not just looking for those who are doing everything perfectly. (That would make for a very short list!) The focus is on recognising creative solutions that capture the interest of consumers and inspire change.⁠⁠ Entries open April 15. Find out more here.

Arkadia continues its awards streak receiving two highly commended awards at the March Frame Awards, one for Best Use of Material and one for Co-Living Complex. Arkadia is made from nearly half a million recycled bricks and comprises 152 homes rooted in community and sustainability.⁠⁠ Congratulations to our collaborators DKO Architecture and Oculus.

Breathe, DKO Architecture and Oculus won the Medium Business award for Arkadia at last night's Banksia Sustainability Awards. In its 32nd year, the Banksia Awards illustrate how the efforts and passion of so many individuals that have been a part of the Banksia Foundation can make a difference in moving our society towards a more sustainable future. Arkadia is about community and sustainability, it’s about memory and place. It’s about creating a beacon to a low carbon future and setting a new benchmark for Australian sustainable buildings and cities.

View our full list of awards.

Highly Commended at The Interior Design Excellence Awards 2021 in the Residential New category, Edgars Creek House is all about a connection to nature. The materiality of the house responds to its bushland context. A rammed earth wall shields the south of the house, and talks to the sandstone cliffs of the creek below. The pavilions of the home sit among the Ironbark trees and are clad in raw Ironbark themselves.

Arkadia has been recognised as a finalist at this year’s Banksia Sustainability Awards. The longest-running sustainability awards in the world, the Banksia Awards seek out and recognise innovation and leadership through the lens of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These global goals aim to unite the world businesses, governments and citizens to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and protect the planet.⁠⁠

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. The entire project is 100% electric allowing for an entirely renewable, carbon free energy source.⁠⁠ Award winners will be announced in March 2021.

View our full list of awards.

Legend, visionary, designer, sustainability advocate and anti-waste crusader Joost Bakker has reimagined the home as an ecosystem that provides shelter, energy and nourishment for its inhabitants by creating Future Food System at Federation Square in Melbourne. ⁠⁠Future Food System is a two-bedroom home made from sustainable materials. It's self sustaining, 100% zero waste and productive, demonstrating the potential of our homes to provide shelter, produce food, generate energy and to show a new way to live.⁠

Jeremy McLeod joins Joost to discuss the materials used to build Future Food System. Watch the discussion here.

Breathe are joining forces with Four Pillars Gin to deliver a new world class facility directly adjacent to their current home in Healesville that will incorporate new hospitality, production, bottling, a spectacular events space and a special sensory surprise!⁠⁠

Importantly, this project will see Four Pillars continue their commitment to sustainability and community with the implementation of new sustainability initiatives and the creation of countless local jobs.⁠⁠ Due for completion at the end of this year, the new development will place Four Pillars, the winner of International Gin Producer of the Year in 2019 and 2020, on the global distillery destination map, with a first-class, unique facility just an hour’s drive from Melbourne’s CBD.

Breathe are committed to a reconciled, just and equitable Australia. We recognise the role we play in turning our intentions into clear actions and are pleased to have finalised our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). We are in the early stages of our journey and have established a working committee to help create a workplace culture that understands, values and respects the true history of this country and the cultures and contributions of First Nations peoples, to develop respectful relationships and create meaningful opportunities with First Nations peoples.

View the Reconciliation Action Plan (PDF)

Design Director, Jeremy McLeod has been elected to the Australian Institute of Architects National Council. Climate action and helping the industry lead the way to a decarbonised future for the built environment are number one on the agenda.

⁠Our first community project of the year is complete! Lily and Henry opened Theodore's just over a year ago. ⁠They bought responsibly sourced, local and seasonal food and drinks to the people of Brunswick and they always made us feel welcome.⁠

Like most of Melbourne’s hospitality, Covid hit them really hard.⁠ They didn’t give up, instead they transformed into Ted’s Grocer, providing that same fresh produce for local households. Now, in 2021, they’ve found a way to bring Theodore’s back to us. Breathe worked with them to create a place for outdoor dining and a place for people by activating the street.⁠
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We would like to thank Taubmans who generously donated paint from their new Chromatic Joy collection to add colour to the space. We would like to thank Moreland City Council for working through the street closure with the local community.⁠We would like to thank BREC for illuminating Saxon Street with magical street lights.⁠
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Lastly, we would like to thank the brilliant local community for supporting Theodore’s through the good times and the hard times, for having your buildings painted to create an immersive place and importantly, for coming together on a hot summers day to paint the street, to claim it back for everybody.⁠

The most recent issue of Architect examines how climate change will (have to) change architecture. Breathe’s own Jeremy McLeod and Madeline Sewall sat down with The Australian Institute of Architects to discuss the importance and value of being a carbon neutral practice.⁠
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You can read the entire Climate Action edition for free online.

In 2020, over 200 architecture practices answered the call to get their own houses in order and made a commitment to go carbon neutral. Despite being one of the toughest years Australia has seen, these practices have shown that building a sustainable future is a number one priority.⁠
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We are so energised by the work the architecture community has achieved, working together to make real, positive change towards the climate crisis.⁠
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Going carbon neutral is way easier than you think: a three step process is all it takes. Head over to Architects Declare Australia to download their Guide to Going Carbon Neutral. ⁠

Residents of Breese Street by Milieu have begun to move into their new homes nicely in time for the holiday season. These lucky folk will enjoy a fossil fuel-free and carbon neutral building designed to foster community and naturally advocate sustainable living. Breese Street is a collaboration from DKO Architects and Breathe Architecture for Milieu.

View the Breese Street project page.

During Melbourne’s lockdown, Tim Ross (virtually) sat down with Breathe Co-Founders Jeremy McLeod and Tamara Veltre to chat about what it's like living and working together. We learn about their first meeting at a local Melbourne pool and delve into the groundbreaking Nightingale project that sparked a housing revolution.

Listen to the interview on YouTube.

Completed early this year, Arkadia has swept up a bunch of awards in 2020 recognising the project’s innovative approach to architecture, environment and community.  Along with DKO Architecture and Oculus, we are proud to announce Arkadia has won the NSW Architecture Award for Sustainable Architecture and the People Choice Award for Life; 2020 NSW Landscape Architecture Awards for Gardens; Gold medal at the 2020 Sydney Design Awards for Architecture – Multi-Residential; 2020 Good Design Awards Best In Class – Architectural Commercial and Residential and the award for Sustainability; 2020 Think Brick Award for Landscape amongst others!

View our full list of awards.