Should a robot ever be allowed to fold your laundry? It sounds like a throwaway question, but it cuts right to the heart of what the Australian home is becoming. In Part 2 of this bonus episode, recorded live at Metricon’s National Love of Design Summit, Home Beautiful Editor-in-Chief Elle Lovelock hands the microphone to the audience, and the panel of Ali Whelan (Breathe Architecture), Michael Leung (Balanced Earth Architects), Neil Hipwell (Futureflip) and James Treble takes on questions no one saw coming.
Together they imagine the Australian home of the future, smaller, smarter and far more adaptable, explore why builders who’ve created some of the most high-tech houses in the country are quietly stepping away from the tech, and answer the question that nearly stumped all four of them: what’s the internal compass that drives you?
Moments You’ll Hear:
- Why the Australian home of the future is smaller, smarter and more adaptable
- The affordability and trade-shortage puzzle shaping what we can actually build
- Why a half-a-million-dollar smart home taught Neil an expensive lesson
- The case for “low-tech first”, and why a little friction is worth protecting
- Whether a laundry full of robots would quietly kill a building’s community
- The question that nearly stumped the panel: what’s your internal compass?
Thank you for listening ❤️ before you leave…
🗣️ Get in touch What did you think? We are a brand new podcast and would love to hear from you as we build this together. Join our friendly Home Beautiful community and DM us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/homebeautiful/
🎧 Listen to The Edit and follow on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-edit/id1852946910 Listen and follow on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1y7phZb4CeMhYzFssKZVcq?si=9c224c6461c24caf
👀 Watch and subscribe to The Edit on Home Beautiful’s YouTube 📺 for full episodes and clips https://www.youtube.com/@HomeBeautifulMag
This bonus episode of The Edit was recorded live at Metricon’s National Love of Design Summit. A huge thank you to Metricon for welcoming Home Beautiful into a room so full of ideas. https://www.metricon.com.au
Credits:
Our guests: Ali Whelan (Breathe Architecture), Michael Leung (Balanced Earth Architects), Neil Hipwell (Futureflip) and James Treble (interior designer & colour expert)
Host Elle Lovelock
Edited by Thomas Crnkovic
Head of Vodcasting Rachel Fountain
With thanks to our fabulous Home Beautiful team.
Learn More: The Edit is a production of Home Beautiful and Are Media: https://www.homebeautiful.com.au/home-beautiful-the-edit-podcast/
👀 See more: Missed Part 1? Pushing Boundaries and Building Community is waiting in the feed - why not watch it on YouTube!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is an our media podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, I love this. That great question.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
That was your cue.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Well, it's finishes, but it's also adaptability of a floor plan.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
We're taking a few steps back. We're looking at how
to do things simply and affordably.
Speaker 5 (00:24):
First, I'd take my hat off to you guys that
somehow build the homes you build at the volume for
the price, like I can't seem to find a trade
to build two houses at once, let alone five thousand.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I see smaller housing as a huge trend and if
it could be smaller with good quality materials, you know,
that's my hope.
Speaker 6 (00:44):
It's very important that we all come back to the
why for not just the work we do, but personally,
why do we do it? Because at the end of
the day, that's that's what drives us. Welcome to the Edit,
where we open the door on the homes, habits and
tiny decisions that make a house feel like a home.
(01:06):
Today we have part two of something special. This year,
Home Beautiful was lucky enough to attend Metracn's Love of
Design Summit, where we had our minds opened by some
of Australia's leading thinkers and makers in home and design,
and we recorded the panel, I hosted live as two
bonus episodes of the edit. Back on the Panel with
(01:29):
me Ali Wheelan of Melbourne's Breathe Architecture, the studio behind
the award winning Nightingale housing projects, Michael Leong, co founder
of Byron Bay's Balanced Earth and one of Australia's Hemp
Creek pioneers. Neil Hipwell, the carpenter turned builder behind Future Flip,
this year's HIA Australian Custom Built Home of the Year,
(01:51):
and interior designer, color expert and TV fateorite James Treble.
In Part one, we talked about pushing boundaries and building
homes that build community. This episode, I hand the microphone
to the audience and no question is too big or
too small, from how to get more young people into
their first homes to whether a robot should ever be
(02:13):
allowed to fold your laundry. Hmm, you'll hear why the
Australian Home of the future is smaller, smarter and far
more adaptable than you might think. Why our panel, who
have built some of the most high tech houses in
the country are quietly stepping away from the tech. And
then the question that nearly stumped all four of them
(02:35):
and the surprisingly personal answers. It drew out a health crisis,
a school report nobody believed in, and a night school
class that changed everything. If you missed part one, it's
waiting for you right here in the feed, and our
regular episodes are right alongside it. Let's get back into
the room. Great question, huh hi guys. My question too
(03:03):
is I would love to know what you think Australian
homes are going to look like in the next ten
to twenty years and how you think the metrical designers
can prepare for that.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Great question. Yeah, that was your cue.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Well, you can't have.
Speaker 7 (03:20):
Personally.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I think in the future they have to get smaller Nightingoe.
We're alluding to that, and some of the houses we
do design are big, but often I'm seeing people looking
for value for money and the cost of construction has
gone up significantly, so we're always promoting smaller spaces. I mean,
we're all going to holiday in Japan every year and
(03:43):
they live in tiny little houses. They use every legal
spitter space for storage. You know, their beds roll up
and they're put away in a cupboard, and every space
is multifunctional. So I see smaller housing as a huge trend,
and if it can be smaller with good quality materials,
you know, that's my hope.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
I personally think, well, we're obviously struggling to be able
to provide value for money at the moment. I take
my hat off to you guys that somehow build the
homes you build at the volume for the price. Like
I can't seem to find a trade to build two
houses at once, let alone five thousand.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
It's a challenge. So as much as.
Speaker 5 (04:25):
It's easy to say, let's just swap to these materials
and swap to these things, we have to solve the affordability.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
That's the rubic cube.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
I think we really need to focus on with design,
so working out what materials are going to be the
most efficient and what trades are available in that area.
I was speaking to some of the owners of Metron
at the dinner the other night, and they were basically saying,
you know, Byron Bay is probably off limits because we
(04:54):
don't really have you can't get the trades here, you
can't get the bricklayers, the.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Renderers, everyone. We need to build our standard homes.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
So maybe, yeah, like we spoke about earlier, making it
suit the climate, making it suit the budget and making
it suit what trades are available is the biggest problem
to solve, and then I think that will shape what
the future is of affordable homes in Australia because basically
ninety percent of people can't afford a home.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
And like the ones that can.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Yeah, we basically just need to get bang for buck
and work out how that is going to look, and
then get creative and make them look different to every
other home and start being a bit more experimental. Add
in a few textured walls, add in a few hemp crete,
you know, feature fireplace, you know walls, so you're not
getting that sterile environment that every other project home looks
(05:51):
the same, you know what I mean. So I think
that that challenge and getting that sort of design flare
added in, but solving that affordability and labourshap problem and
then reducing in size is Yeah, it.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
Is really interesting. We've covered size cost materials. What about esthetics?
Does anyone have an opinion on how the aesthetics might change?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I see the connection. I dragged my children from Los Angeles, sorry,
from San Francisco to Los Angeles, bribed them with Disneyland
and Universal Studio so then I could take them to
Palm Springs for four days so.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
That I could look at houses until their eyes bled.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And that connection between mid century Modern architecture, which is
representative in many ways in Australian architecture now is all
about clean lines, which is also about clean lines in
materials and less finishes, which is very much in the Nightingale.
We filmed in the Nightingale House for one of the
shows that I'm on and it was outstanding, but really
clean lined, like all the detail was gone. Larger connection
(06:54):
between open spaces and outside and I think that that's
really important and just to go quickly back to the
question before too, because it relates to it. It's finishes,
but it's also adaptability of a floor plan, because the
opposite side of a small footprint, which I completely agree
with to give more housing options is the larger home
that has adaptable floor plants to allow the family to evolve.
(07:16):
So bathrooms downstairs where mom and dad will move down
because the kids are now living upstairs with their family,
and then the parents are helping looking after their kids
because they have time with grandchildren that they never had
with their own kids. And that's how houses in My
area where I grew up in the Hills are of Sydney,
was very much like and now we're going back to that.
So it can look pretty and be a certain style
(07:37):
to people's tastes. But the adaptability of the floor plan
lets families evolve into their which reduces mental health, which
means people aren't Mum and Dad aren't going to look
for you know, dad, Grandpa's died. Where's my grandma going
to live? She's living in the house, but she's not
in your face and you're not in hers because she
has her own space within the family hub.
Speaker 6 (07:55):
Absolutely, I think I saw some more hands.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Hi.
Speaker 7 (08:00):
Thank you for your presentations and for your work. Firstly,
the last two conversations you've been having are about community
and connection and then about the future of our homes.
And I was curious to talk about digital technology because
none of you have mentioned that, and there's been in
my mind a lot of propaganda from big tech companies
that really want to get surveillance into our homes under
(08:22):
the guise of convenience. But I'm curious, are we have
you not spoken about that because there's a fear of
change of technology entering our homes, or is it potentially
like a natural human instinct to kind of reject that,
or is it something else altogether?
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Thanks, I think maybe for us, technology can be really
expensive and so sometimes like a lot of what I've
talked about today is actually incredibly low tech solutions. Same
with some of the ways that you've talked about passive design,
and you know, the way we think about building. You know,
if we're trying to get the basics right, we go
(09:01):
back to basics, we get that right, and then we
come back to the technology. Maybe, But also I'm talking
about adding friction, not removing friction from the process. So
I think that I think that technology will inherently become
part of our lives. And I think, you know, Stephen,
we had an interesting conversation at dinner last night about
the you know, how much we want to invite technology
into our homes, what that does to privacy, and you know,
(09:23):
there's a lot of sort of unknown nuances in that.
But I think that at the moment we're almost feel
like we run with technology too far. In some instances,
the technology of materials that became composites that we had
no idea what they were that, you know, just like
these complex building systems that we're sold that that's the
greener way to build, and so we're kind of going
(09:44):
we're taking a few steps back. We're looking at how
to do things simply and affordably. First, introduce some friction,
get people talking to each other, and then we can
come back and look at where we want to, you know,
make people's lives easier. Have someone fold the washing, have
a robot fold the washing for us, but not necessarily
you know, walking your front door without having to get
(10:05):
your keys out, because maybe then you don't never stop
at your front door.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
And the other thing with technology is it breaks.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
If you've got five thousand homes a year and the
technology is always playing up and you're getting phone calls
from unhappy clients and you've got to go fix it.
I would see that as a big problem. I've done
a lot of high tech houses, like one of them
we were trying to do the most high tech house
ever made in Australia, where we spent so much, like
half a million dollars of tech went into it, and
(10:33):
we basically don't really use any of that tech at
the moment because it isn't working. For an airbnb perspective,
where the clients how to use it.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
They don't know how to use anything.
Speaker 5 (10:44):
And every time saying breaks, it's ten thousand dollars to
send a crew down to replace all the things that
are outdated, and you know, making sure the internet's pretty crap,
so making sure all the Wi Fi things are getting
changed every year.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
It's just so expensive. So I've definitely got a little bit.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Of over tech fatigue where we went crazy when it
was all coming out.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
But even you think back to like twenty years ago
when every home had a built in homes you know,
surround sound system. No one uses that anymore, but it's
still there, and so we're kind of trying to not
hardwire it in. We're trying to allow space for the technology,
but not to hardwire it in and have future redundancies.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yeah, there is there is options like that.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
We use a clips of wireser on the houses you
guys all saw yesterday. They actually asked smart home houses
that have on my phone, I can turn the lights off,
the aircorn and all that stuff, But no one else
knows about that. Like the guests, they're just normal switches
and behind those switches there is a little gadget and
it's not that expensive. It probably was about forty thousand
(11:47):
dollars per house to add that in, and it was
more for us. So like if we weren't there, we're
overseas or saying, and you know, someone left all the
lights on or whatever, we could control it if we
wanted to. But from an everyday use, I think just
turning the lights on and off is fine.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
So yeah, I love how you just said forty thousand
dollars wasn't that expensive relative context or absolutely context? Do
you think maybe the technology just isn't ready yet and
one day it will be.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
It's always evolving though, Yeah, but when will it ever be? Yeah,
you know, when we're not going to reach a static
point in time where we stop with the technology stops evolving.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I think it's a big word though.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Technology.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
I'm sure on one end of the scale there's huge
expense in setting it up without mentioning a brand. I
have clips or switches with Wiser, which is wireless. It's
quite cost effective. Our lights, which Sundra has programmed it.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
And we're watching TV and lights come on and off,
and it looks like we're here when we're not, like
at home, not here, and that is really easy technology.
And I was someone who was against cameras on a
house because I think one of my do I have
a meth lab here? Like why do I need cameras
in my house?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
You know?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
But we have cameras on our house. We have cameras
on our house. But it means that when we are
overseas or a way, we're able to watch things. We
can hin a noise outside and watch through the camera
and it's not so freaking. We have family come and
go when we're not in the property, and therefore it's
not scary. And as far as technology goes, what is technology?
(13:20):
Gen Bishop, you know, beautiful gen Bishop, My good friend
she put a skylight in her hallway which is a
digital LED panel which is wired through to a little
sensor on her gutter because where she wanted this skylight,
she couldn't get access through the roof because of air conditioning.
So that skylight effect feels utterly natural. It comes on
with daylight and off because it's the sensor. But it's
(13:43):
an LED panel. I think that's quite clever technology. It
wasn't hugely expensive. It gives the I know it's not
true natural light, but in that location she couldn't have it,
And the balance as you look down her hallway now
from the rear and the front where there is natural
light to the middle is really clever.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
The window treatments in my home we connected a little
automation device to them and it was a couple of
one hundred dollars, really inexpensive. I feel like a billionaire
every morning when they go up and they go down,
and I quite like this is link back to community.
From my bed, if the blinds all the way up,
(14:19):
I can see straight into the living room of the
people behind. And so I have it on an in
bed setting, so we can setting where I have enough
light coming in, but they can't see that I'm sitting
in bed eating breakfast and getting crumbs everywhere. So I
think there are not scary and cost effective ways to
(14:41):
embrace innovation in a gentle or a slower way that
perhaps is more comfortable for most Australians. Hello, we have
another question.
Speaker 8 (14:55):
Great, Hello, I do have a question, but just the
discussion on the tech aspect. While you were talking about
the robots and reminding us of Katie rick Smith talk,
I had a funny thought of the Nightingale project and
the shared laundry just full of robots folding everybody.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
That would be fantastic, although although the laundry is the
hardest working social space in the building.
Speaker 8 (15:17):
So not if it's full of robots, no, exactly, no one.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Would know each other. No one would know each other,
and it would completely break.
Speaker 8 (15:23):
The comunity exactly.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
The washing machines in there are smart washing machines that
give you a notification when your washing is done, because
we don't want to add so much friction that when
someone leaves there washing in there for six hours, everyone
gets really cranky at them, you know, like there's a
certain amount of friction that we've got.
Speaker 8 (15:38):
A AI could program those notifications so everybody has to
go to the laundry at the same time.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
That'd be good.
Speaker 8 (15:42):
Yes, So my question is from all of you speaking
today and even yesterday with Steve, and you all seem
to have in your own regard really zeroed in on
a clear vision or a purpose or something that drives
you and inspires you. And my question is kind of
twofold and probably too big, so just pick and choose
(16:04):
the bits that you want to answer. What I'd really
like for you to share how you've found what seems
to be this really clear internal compass that's guiding you.
And where do you think it's going? Where's it pointing
next for each of you?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Jeez, jeez, that's a big question.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
You love this?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Mine was quite ea, Mine was quite easy. Really. I
mean mine was born out of a disaster. And I
think when you have a health crisis, and we're not
getting any younger, we're all going to go through one,
that's suddenly where you start to look at your lifestyle
and new environment and start to question, am I living
in the right way? Are things moving in the right
direction for humanity and for my own health? And if
(16:47):
you haven't got your own health, then you have nothing.
I don't think wellness and health is created by having
a gym or a room, or a plunge pool or
an ice bath. I think it's as a lifestyle and
how you choose to live and how you choose to
relate to nature. So my purpose was born out of,
(17:08):
you know, seeing someone die pretty tragically. But I do
see it as a massive future trend. Everyone wants to
be healthier. We're all going the gym, we're all eating
healthier food choices. So it's a natural progression that it
will be in our houses.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
I think that the ability to be able to see
what your voice is within the design community and where
you go because we come from different spaces. Even though
it's interesting to hear, a lot of our views naturally
overlap because we're talking about a space that people live in.
So what is family? You know, I've got two kids
(17:45):
twenty and twenty two. One of them has four posts
on the Instagram page and doesn't even look at it.
That's our son, our daughter obsessed. We have to take
the phone like she's just on it till two in
the morning. They consume technology differently and it's not good
or bad, it's just how it is. We would have
possibly been the same. But in that connectivity, they're so connected,
(18:06):
but they're all isolated at the same time, and they
don't see each other, and they're all the technology at
the bus stop instead of talking to each other. It's
really strange. So within the home unit, to be able
to have that connectivity within how the home relates and
how that family uses that home is a conversation and
to be able to understand how they have that conversation
(18:26):
with clients is what I think keeps the design community
build and design community within employment as opposed to AI,
because it's not a questionnaire that they can tick in,
it's a conversation to hear. I make my clients really
aware of I'm asking you this question because I want
you to hear your answer, to hear them having the
(18:47):
conversation and understanding it, because they're things that they possibly
haven't thought of before. And that's where I think my
job's evolved. Where you know, I laugh a lot and
joke a lot, but I love houses. But what is
a house I don't want them living in means?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
To me?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
They have to live in what a house means am
with my knowledge or with the products that we can
use and the technology that we can use and the
new materials coming in to make that dream a financial
reality and a nice space to live in that holds
value over time.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
I think so when I was at architecture school, I
thought I wanted to design really expensive houses of people
with lots of money, which is completely ironic and I
acknowledge that. But I thought I wanted to spend hours
detailing beautiful handrails and you know, thinking about all of
those incredible moments in someone's home and in their lives.
(19:36):
And then I actually did a class at university called
Nightingale Night School, and I learned all about all about
how architecture can really be a weapon for good and
not just something that impacts someone when they are walking
up a set of stairs. And I think it kind
of opened my eyes to the idea that in anyone's career,
(19:58):
particularly as designers, there's a finite number of projects that
we can do and so and you seem to be
doing a lot of them, but there's a finite number
of projects that anyone person can undertake in their professional career.
And so when you look at when I thought about
what I wanted the impact and the legacy of what
(20:18):
I was doing to be, like, you know what's going
to get me out of bed in the morning. I
want to do something that. And I don't have the
capacity to deliver as many homes as you're all doing,
so hats off to you being able to deliver five
thousand homes a year. We're not delivering anywhere near that many.
But the ability to deliver more than two houses a
year and impact more people's lives in a really positive
(20:39):
way is something that really drives me. I can't take
full credit for the ideas I've shared with you today.
I work with an incredible team of people who you know,
who's been doing it for longer than I have. But
I feel incredibly values aligned, and it means that I
have a great values alignment personally with the work I do,
and I care really deeply about it.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
What drives you well?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
For me, I kind of ended up where I am
because I probably couldn't do anything else. I was severely
dyslexic and add through school, so I wasn't really able
to read. By the time I finished school, I was bad,
and I was really into sport and really competitive, but
I sort of got injured. I was trying to make
(21:23):
it in footy or athletics and had all this drive
to do something good. And then I came out and
did work experience, and at that time I got offered
the job because I was a pretty good worker, and
I think I was fourteen and I didn't go back
to school, so I didn't really think I was going
to amount to too much. And then I got this
(21:46):
sort of slingshot reaction where I was held back in
school and then really learned how to build things really
well and worked with really good builders and then evolved
into being a good tradesman and learning how to do
things properly, and then and becoming a designer and designing houses,
and then realizing there was this huge gap between architects
(22:06):
and builders and this clash between how much things cost
and them not knowing and the builders saying, you know,
having this big divide, and then the client losing out
in the end, which kind of made Future Flip sort
of come to life. And that was where I was
solving that problem, creating that gap where I could give
them that luxury house for the budget they actually had,
(22:29):
And that was I guess what drives me and still
drives me. Now we're obviously moving on to all different things.
I'm still extremely add but it's kind of a superpower
now because I'm doing Airbnbs, I'm doing developments, I'm doing
this sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I'm doing a lot of things at once, which I love.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
But yeah, definitely came out of that love to build
cool things and make them actually affordable because there's just
so many amazing pieces of architecture that we see in
Australia that no one can afford.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
And that's sort of where I started playing.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Around with using concrete and using the structure as the
finished product to eliminate materials and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
And yet nearly every job I try and innovate something
and learn something. And yeah, I.
Speaker 5 (23:14):
Guess that's kind of came out of a point where
I don't think I would have been able to go
to university and ever do architecture because I couldn't really read.
So so yeah, I've ended up in a pretty good
place from that.
Speaker 6 (23:27):
Without sounding too cheesy, I think those are all really
noble reasons to pursue the work that you do. And
it's very important that we all come back to the
why for not just the work we do, but personally
why do we do it, because at the end of
the day, that's what drives us. I think this is
a really lovely point to pause. So I just want
(23:50):
to say thank you on behalf of all of us.
Thank you for sharing your expertise and your stories. It
has been a delight. It's really wonderful. Big round of
applause for our panel, and with that round of applause,
we close the door on Metracon's Love of Design Summit.
(24:14):
My greatest thanks to Ali Wheelan Michael Leong, Neil Hipwell
and James Treble for answering every question the room can
throw at them, the big, the small and the deeply personal.
And thank you to Metracon for having home Beautiful along
any room asking how its designers can build better homes
for more Australians is a room we want to be in.
(24:36):
If you missed Part one Pushing Boundaries and why the
best homes build community, scroll back in your feed. It
is a lovely listen if I do say so myself,
and the edit rolls on as usual. More home tours,
home Confessions, tiny upgrades and mystery drawer reveals every week.
Follow the show wherever you're listening, and while you're there,
(24:56):
tell us what's in your mystery draw feature it in
a future episode. See you next week.
Speaker 7 (25:08):
M
This is an our media podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, I love this. That great question.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
That was your cue.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Well, it's finishes, but it's also adaptability of a floor plan.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
We're taking a few steps back. We're looking at how
to do things simply and affordably.
Speaker 5 (00:24):
First, I'd take my hat off to you guys that
somehow build the homes you build at the volume for
the price, like I can't seem to find a trade
to build two houses at once, let alone five thousand.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I see smaller housing as a huge trend and if
it could be smaller with good quality materials, you know,
that's my hope.
Speaker 6 (00:44):
It's very important that we all come back to the
why for not just the work we do, but personally,
why do we do it? Because at the end of
the day, that's that's what drives us. Welcome to the Edit,
where we open the door on the homes, habits and
tiny decisions that make a house feel like a home.
(01:06):
Today we have part two of something special. This year,
Home Beautiful was lucky enough to attend Metracn's Love of
Design Summit, where we had our minds opened by some
of Australia's leading thinkers and makers in home and design,
and we recorded the panel, I hosted live as two
bonus episodes of the edit. Back on the Panel with
(01:29):
me Ali Wheelan of Melbourne's Breathe Architecture, the studio behind
the award winning Nightingale housing projects, Michael Leong, co founder
of Byron Bay's Balanced Earth and one of Australia's Hemp
Creek pioneers. Neil Hipwell, the carpenter turned builder behind Future Flip,
this year's HIA Australian Custom Built Home of the Year,
(01:51):
and interior designer, color expert and TV fateorite James Treble.
In Part one, we talked about pushing boundaries and building
homes that build community. This episode, I hand the microphone
to the audience and no question is too big or
too small, from how to get more young people into
their first homes to whether a robot should ever be
(02:13):
allowed to fold your laundry. Hmm, you'll hear why the
Australian Home of the future is smaller, smarter and far
more adaptable than you might think. Why our panel, who
have built some of the most high tech houses in
the country are quietly stepping away from the tech. And
then the question that nearly stumped all four of them
(02:35):
and the surprisingly personal answers. It drew out a health crisis,
a school report nobody believed in, and a night school
class that changed everything. If you missed part one, it's
waiting for you right here in the feed, and our
regular episodes are right alongside it. Let's get back into
the room. Great question, huh hi guys. My question too
(03:03):
is I would love to know what you think Australian
homes are going to look like in the next ten
to twenty years and how you think the metrical designers
can prepare for that.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Great question. Yeah, that was your cue.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Well, you can't have.
Speaker 7 (03:20):
Personally.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I think in the future they have to get smaller Nightingoe.
We're alluding to that, and some of the houses we
do design are big, but often I'm seeing people looking
for value for money and the cost of construction has
gone up significantly, so we're always promoting smaller spaces. I mean,
we're all going to holiday in Japan every year and
(03:43):
they live in tiny little houses. They use every legal
spitter space for storage. You know, their beds roll up
and they're put away in a cupboard, and every space
is multifunctional. So I see smaller housing as a huge trend,
and if it can be smaller with good quality materials,
you know, that's my hope.
Speaker 5 (04:01):
I personally think, well, we're obviously struggling to be able
to provide value for money at the moment. I take
my hat off to you guys that somehow build the
homes you build at the volume for the price. Like
I can't seem to find a trade to build two
houses at once, let alone five thousand.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
It's a challenge. So as much as.
Speaker 5 (04:25):
It's easy to say, let's just swap to these materials
and swap to these things, we have to solve the affordability.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
That's the rubic cube.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
I think we really need to focus on with design,
so working out what materials are going to be the
most efficient and what trades are available in that area.
I was speaking to some of the owners of Metron
at the dinner the other night, and they were basically saying,
you know, Byron Bay is probably off limits because we
(04:54):
don't really have you can't get the trades here, you
can't get the bricklayers, the.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Renderers, everyone. We need to build our standard homes.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
So maybe, yeah, like we spoke about earlier, making it
suit the climate, making it suit the budget and making
it suit what trades are available is the biggest problem
to solve, and then I think that will shape what
the future is of affordable homes in Australia because basically
ninety percent of people can't afford a home.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
And like the ones that can.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Yeah, we basically just need to get bang for buck
and work out how that is going to look, and
then get creative and make them look different to every
other home and start being a bit more experimental. Add
in a few textured walls, add in a few hemp crete,
you know, feature fireplace, you know walls, so you're not
getting that sterile environment that every other project home looks
(05:51):
the same, you know what I mean. So I think
that that challenge and getting that sort of design flare
added in, but solving that affordability and labourshap problem and
then reducing in size is Yeah, it.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
Is really interesting. We've covered size cost materials. What about esthetics?
Does anyone have an opinion on how the aesthetics might change?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I see the connection. I dragged my children from Los Angeles, sorry,
from San Francisco to Los Angeles, bribed them with Disneyland
and Universal Studio so then I could take them to
Palm Springs for four days so.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
That I could look at houses until their eyes bled.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And that connection between mid century Modern architecture, which is
representative in many ways in Australian architecture now is all
about clean lines, which is also about clean lines in
materials and less finishes, which is very much in the Nightingale.
We filmed in the Nightingale House for one of the
shows that I'm on and it was outstanding, but really
clean lined, like all the detail was gone. Larger connection
(06:54):
between open spaces and outside and I think that that's
really important and just to go quickly back to the
question before too, because it relates to it. It's finishes,
but it's also adaptability of a floor plan, because the
opposite side of a small footprint, which I completely agree
with to give more housing options is the larger home
that has adaptable floor plants to allow the family to evolve.
(07:16):
So bathrooms downstairs where mom and dad will move down
because the kids are now living upstairs with their family,
and then the parents are helping looking after their kids
because they have time with grandchildren that they never had
with their own kids. And that's how houses in My
area where I grew up in the Hills are of Sydney,
was very much like and now we're going back to that.
So it can look pretty and be a certain style
(07:37):
to people's tastes. But the adaptability of the floor plan
lets families evolve into their which reduces mental health, which
means people aren't Mum and Dad aren't going to look
for you know, dad, Grandpa's died. Where's my grandma going
to live? She's living in the house, but she's not
in your face and you're not in hers because she
has her own space within the family hub.
Speaker 6 (07:55):
Absolutely, I think I saw some more hands.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Hi.
Speaker 7 (08:00):
Thank you for your presentations and for your work. Firstly,
the last two conversations you've been having are about community
and connection and then about the future of our homes.
And I was curious to talk about digital technology because
none of you have mentioned that, and there's been in
my mind a lot of propaganda from big tech companies
that really want to get surveillance into our homes under
(08:22):
the guise of convenience. But I'm curious, are we have
you not spoken about that because there's a fear of
change of technology entering our homes, or is it potentially
like a natural human instinct to kind of reject that,
or is it something else altogether?
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Thanks, I think maybe for us, technology can be really
expensive and so sometimes like a lot of what I've
talked about today is actually incredibly low tech solutions. Same
with some of the ways that you've talked about passive design,
and you know, the way we think about building. You know,
if we're trying to get the basics right, we go
(09:01):
back to basics, we get that right, and then we
come back to the technology. Maybe, But also I'm talking
about adding friction, not removing friction from the process. So
I think that I think that technology will inherently become
part of our lives. And I think, you know, Stephen,
we had an interesting conversation at dinner last night about
the you know, how much we want to invite technology
into our homes, what that does to privacy, and you know,
(09:23):
there's a lot of sort of unknown nuances in that.
But I think that at the moment we're almost feel
like we run with technology too far. In some instances,
the technology of materials that became composites that we had
no idea what they were that, you know, just like
these complex building systems that we're sold that that's the
greener way to build, and so we're kind of going
(09:44):
we're taking a few steps back. We're looking at how
to do things simply and affordably. First, introduce some friction,
get people talking to each other, and then we can
come back and look at where we want to, you know,
make people's lives easier. Have someone fold the washing, have
a robot fold the washing for us, but not necessarily
you know, walking your front door without having to get
(10:05):
your keys out, because maybe then you don't never stop
at your front door.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
And the other thing with technology is it breaks.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
If you've got five thousand homes a year and the
technology is always playing up and you're getting phone calls
from unhappy clients and you've got to go fix it.
I would see that as a big problem. I've done
a lot of high tech houses, like one of them
we were trying to do the most high tech house
ever made in Australia, where we spent so much, like
half a million dollars of tech went into it, and
(10:33):
we basically don't really use any of that tech at
the moment because it isn't working. For an airbnb perspective,
where the clients how to use it.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
They don't know how to use anything.
Speaker 5 (10:44):
And every time saying breaks, it's ten thousand dollars to
send a crew down to replace all the things that
are outdated, and you know, making sure the internet's pretty crap,
so making sure all the Wi Fi things are getting
changed every year.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
It's just so expensive. So I've definitely got a little bit.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Of over tech fatigue where we went crazy when it
was all coming out.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
But even you think back to like twenty years ago
when every home had a built in homes you know,
surround sound system. No one uses that anymore, but it's
still there, and so we're kind of trying to not
hardwire it in. We're trying to allow space for the technology,
but not to hardwire it in and have future redundancies.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yeah, there is there is options like that.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
We use a clips of wireser on the houses you
guys all saw yesterday. They actually asked smart home houses
that have on my phone, I can turn the lights off,
the aircorn and all that stuff, But no one else
knows about that. Like the guests, they're just normal switches
and behind those switches there is a little gadget and
it's not that expensive. It probably was about forty thousand
(11:47):
dollars per house to add that in, and it was
more for us. So like if we weren't there, we're
overseas or saying, and you know, someone left all the
lights on or whatever, we could control it if we
wanted to. But from an everyday use, I think just
turning the lights on and off is fine.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
So yeah, I love how you just said forty thousand
dollars wasn't that expensive relative context or absolutely context? Do
you think maybe the technology just isn't ready yet and
one day it will be.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
It's always evolving though, Yeah, but when will it ever be? Yeah,
you know, when we're not going to reach a static
point in time where we stop with the technology stops evolving.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I think it's a big word though.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Technology.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
I'm sure on one end of the scale there's huge
expense in setting it up without mentioning a brand. I
have clips or switches with Wiser, which is wireless. It's
quite cost effective. Our lights, which Sundra has programmed it.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
And we're watching TV and lights come on and off,
and it looks like we're here when we're not, like
at home, not here, and that is really easy technology.
And I was someone who was against cameras on a
house because I think one of my do I have
a meth lab here? Like why do I need cameras
in my house?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
You know?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
But we have cameras on our house. We have cameras
on our house. But it means that when we are
overseas or a way, we're able to watch things. We
can hin a noise outside and watch through the camera
and it's not so freaking. We have family come and
go when we're not in the property, and therefore it's
not scary. And as far as technology goes, what is technology?
(13:20):
Gen Bishop, you know, beautiful gen Bishop, My good friend
she put a skylight in her hallway which is a
digital LED panel which is wired through to a little
sensor on her gutter because where she wanted this skylight,
she couldn't get access through the roof because of air conditioning.
So that skylight effect feels utterly natural. It comes on
with daylight and off because it's the sensor. But it's
(13:43):
an LED panel. I think that's quite clever technology. It
wasn't hugely expensive. It gives the I know it's not
true natural light, but in that location she couldn't have it,
And the balance as you look down her hallway now
from the rear and the front where there is natural
light to the middle is really clever.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
The window treatments in my home we connected a little
automation device to them and it was a couple of
one hundred dollars, really inexpensive. I feel like a billionaire
every morning when they go up and they go down,
and I quite like this is link back to community.
From my bed, if the blinds all the way up,
(14:19):
I can see straight into the living room of the
people behind. And so I have it on an in
bed setting, so we can setting where I have enough
light coming in, but they can't see that I'm sitting
in bed eating breakfast and getting crumbs everywhere. So I
think there are not scary and cost effective ways to
(14:41):
embrace innovation in a gentle or a slower way that
perhaps is more comfortable for most Australians. Hello, we have
another question.
Speaker 8 (14:55):
Great, Hello, I do have a question, but just the
discussion on the tech aspect. While you were talking about
the robots and reminding us of Katie rick Smith talk,
I had a funny thought of the Nightingale project and
the shared laundry just full of robots folding everybody.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
That would be fantastic, although although the laundry is the
hardest working social space in the building.
Speaker 8 (15:17):
So not if it's full of robots, no, exactly, no one.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Would know each other. No one would know each other,
and it would completely break.
Speaker 8 (15:23):
The comunity exactly.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
The washing machines in there are smart washing machines that
give you a notification when your washing is done, because
we don't want to add so much friction that when
someone leaves there washing in there for six hours, everyone
gets really cranky at them, you know, like there's a
certain amount of friction that we've got.
Speaker 8 (15:38):
A AI could program those notifications so everybody has to
go to the laundry at the same time.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
That'd be good.
Speaker 8 (15:42):
Yes, So my question is from all of you speaking
today and even yesterday with Steve, and you all seem
to have in your own regard really zeroed in on
a clear vision or a purpose or something that drives
you and inspires you. And my question is kind of
twofold and probably too big, so just pick and choose
(16:04):
the bits that you want to answer. What I'd really
like for you to share how you've found what seems
to be this really clear internal compass that's guiding you.
And where do you think it's going? Where's it pointing
next for each of you?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Jeez, jeez, that's a big question.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
You love this?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Mine was quite ea, Mine was quite easy. Really. I
mean mine was born out of a disaster. And I
think when you have a health crisis, and we're not
getting any younger, we're all going to go through one,
that's suddenly where you start to look at your lifestyle
and new environment and start to question, am I living
in the right way? Are things moving in the right
direction for humanity and for my own health? And if
(16:47):
you haven't got your own health, then you have nothing.
I don't think wellness and health is created by having
a gym or a room, or a plunge pool or
an ice bath. I think it's as a lifestyle and
how you choose to live and how you choose to
relate to nature. So my purpose was born out of,
(17:08):
you know, seeing someone die pretty tragically. But I do
see it as a massive future trend. Everyone wants to
be healthier. We're all going the gym, we're all eating
healthier food choices. So it's a natural progression that it
will be in our houses.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
I think that the ability to be able to see
what your voice is within the design community and where
you go because we come from different spaces. Even though
it's interesting to hear, a lot of our views naturally
overlap because we're talking about a space that people live in.
So what is family? You know, I've got two kids
(17:45):
twenty and twenty two. One of them has four posts
on the Instagram page and doesn't even look at it.
That's our son, our daughter obsessed. We have to take
the phone like she's just on it till two in
the morning. They consume technology differently and it's not good
or bad, it's just how it is. We would have
possibly been the same. But in that connectivity, they're so connected,
(18:06):
but they're all isolated at the same time, and they
don't see each other, and they're all the technology at
the bus stop instead of talking to each other. It's
really strange. So within the home unit, to be able
to have that connectivity within how the home relates and
how that family uses that home is a conversation and
to be able to understand how they have that conversation
(18:26):
with clients is what I think keeps the design community
build and design community within employment as opposed to AI,
because it's not a questionnaire that they can tick in,
it's a conversation to hear. I make my clients really
aware of I'm asking you this question because I want
you to hear your answer, to hear them having the
(18:47):
conversation and understanding it, because they're things that they possibly
haven't thought of before. And that's where I think my
job's evolved. Where you know, I laugh a lot and
joke a lot, but I love houses. But what is
a house I don't want them living in means?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
To me?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
They have to live in what a house means am
with my knowledge or with the products that we can
use and the technology that we can use and the
new materials coming in to make that dream a financial
reality and a nice space to live in that holds
value over time.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
I think so when I was at architecture school, I
thought I wanted to design really expensive houses of people
with lots of money, which is completely ironic and I
acknowledge that. But I thought I wanted to spend hours
detailing beautiful handrails and you know, thinking about all of
those incredible moments in someone's home and in their lives.
(19:36):
And then I actually did a class at university called
Nightingale Night School, and I learned all about all about
how architecture can really be a weapon for good and
not just something that impacts someone when they are walking
up a set of stairs. And I think it kind
of opened my eyes to the idea that in anyone's career,
(19:58):
particularly as designers, there's a finite number of projects that
we can do and so and you seem to be
doing a lot of them, but there's a finite number
of projects that anyone person can undertake in their professional career.
And so when you look at when I thought about
what I wanted the impact and the legacy of what
(20:18):
I was doing to be, like, you know what's going
to get me out of bed in the morning. I
want to do something that. And I don't have the
capacity to deliver as many homes as you're all doing,
so hats off to you being able to deliver five
thousand homes a year. We're not delivering anywhere near that many.
But the ability to deliver more than two houses a
year and impact more people's lives in a really positive
(20:39):
way is something that really drives me. I can't take
full credit for the ideas I've shared with you today.
I work with an incredible team of people who you know,
who's been doing it for longer than I have. But
I feel incredibly values aligned, and it means that I
have a great values alignment personally with the work I do,
and I care really deeply about it.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
What drives you well?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
For me, I kind of ended up where I am
because I probably couldn't do anything else. I was severely
dyslexic and add through school, so I wasn't really able
to read. By the time I finished school, I was bad,
and I was really into sport and really competitive, but
I sort of got injured. I was trying to make
(21:23):
it in footy or athletics and had all this drive
to do something good. And then I came out and
did work experience, and at that time I got offered
the job because I was a pretty good worker, and
I think I was fourteen and I didn't go back
to school, so I didn't really think I was going
to amount to too much. And then I got this
(21:46):
sort of slingshot reaction where I was held back in
school and then really learned how to build things really
well and worked with really good builders and then evolved
into being a good tradesman and learning how to do
things properly, and then and becoming a designer and designing houses,
and then realizing there was this huge gap between architects
(22:06):
and builders and this clash between how much things cost
and them not knowing and the builders saying, you know,
having this big divide, and then the client losing out
in the end, which kind of made Future Flip sort
of come to life. And that was where I was
solving that problem, creating that gap where I could give
them that luxury house for the budget they actually had,
(22:29):
And that was I guess what drives me and still
drives me. Now we're obviously moving on to all different things.
I'm still extremely add but it's kind of a superpower
now because I'm doing Airbnbs, I'm doing developments, I'm doing
this sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I'm doing a lot of things at once, which I love.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
But yeah, definitely came out of that love to build
cool things and make them actually affordable because there's just
so many amazing pieces of architecture that we see in
Australia that no one can afford.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
And that's sort of where I started playing.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Around with using concrete and using the structure as the
finished product to eliminate materials and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
And yet nearly every job I try and innovate something
and learn something. And yeah, I.
Speaker 5 (23:14):
Guess that's kind of came out of a point where
I don't think I would have been able to go
to university and ever do architecture because I couldn't really read.
So so yeah, I've ended up in a pretty good
place from that.
Speaker 6 (23:27):
Without sounding too cheesy, I think those are all really
noble reasons to pursue the work that you do. And
it's very important that we all come back to the
why for not just the work we do, but personally
why do we do it, because at the end of
the day, that's what drives us. I think this is
a really lovely point to pause. So I just want
(23:50):
to say thank you on behalf of all of us.
Thank you for sharing your expertise and your stories. It
has been a delight. It's really wonderful. Big round of
applause for our panel, and with that round of applause,
we close the door on Metracon's Love of Design Summit.
(24:14):
My greatest thanks to Ali Wheelan Michael Leong, Neil Hipwell
and James Treble for answering every question the room can
throw at them, the big, the small and the deeply personal.
And thank you to Metracon for having home Beautiful along
any room asking how its designers can build better homes
for more Australians is a room we want to be in.
(24:36):
If you missed Part one Pushing Boundaries and why the
best homes build community, scroll back in your feed. It
is a lovely listen if I do say so myself,
and the edit rolls on as usual. More home tours,
home Confessions, tiny upgrades and mystery drawer reveals every week.
Follow the show wherever you're listening, and while you're there,
(24:56):
tell us what's in your mystery draw feature it in
a future episode. See you next week.
Speaker 7 (25:08):
M
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