Environment & Ecosystem

I grew up in a coal mining town in the Hunter Valley and split my time between school, the pool and our small farm. Most of my childhood was consumed with experimenting with whatever I could find in my pops shed, or helping around the farm with fences, cattle and building. Building a respect for landscape and an admiration for the environmental systems that exist within it. I couldn’t help but wonder how ecosystems worked, how bridges, roads and fences fit together and how to locate a building or a fence to get the most out of its existence and preserve the environment around it. 

Architecture 101

Towards the end of high school I was lucky enough complete work experience with the firm re developing part of my school. In a week I quickly learn’t that architecture is based on principals like firmness, commodity and delight, that buildings should contribute to, and be an evolution of its environment and that proportion, geometry, order, hierarchy and rhythm are critical components for the human and built environment. 

After some persistence and I managed to turn work experience into part time work building and refurbishing models. I toggled between part and full time work throughout my undergraduate degree and worked my way from the model room to various supportive roles on over 80 different projects. 

Three years ago I finished my undergraduate degree and committed to working full time for two years before commencing my masters degree. In that time I have been involved with varying scales and typologies of projects including residential, recreation, tourism, heritage, healthcare and industrial. Predominantly I’ve been involved at the front end of projects looking at concept design, design development and approval documentation, often with one or two directors, a rendering artist and in some instances a second or third draftsman. Ive refined a number of skills during this time including CAD modelling, documentation, consultant coordination, design development, client and authority communication and project management. 

Arkitektskolen Aarhus

Currently i’m finishing my Masters Degree at in Aarhus, Denmark. Focusing on Urban Design and Landscape Architecture. My ambitions for this degree can be broken into two fields.

Academically

I’m fascinated by the interplay between urban, regional and neighbourhood planning, how these scales are read in regard to ecosystem and landscape, the way in which infrastructure changes urban space and the alteration of neighbourhoods to improve social interaction and the public domain.

Philosophically

I feel a desire for greater engagement with the ‘art form’ of architecture and design. Particularly interacting more frequently at one to one or, in a physical sense, with the problem. More than ever I have the opportunity to physically prototype alternate solutions and scenarios quickly with physical models. Hopefully in doing so, I find creative solutions that I might not have thought of simply using a CAD program or by sketching.

Journal

Finally there is a self imposed challenge of writing and publishing more often. For this reason I have added a ‘journal’ section to this site, of which I plan to frequently update with project process and progress. To keep up to date with this simply follow my instagram feed (linked below) and keep an eye out each week for new posts.