Tag Archives: Australia

This Iconic Australian Bush House Just Hit the Market for the First Time in Over 40 Years

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For the first time since its completion in 1983, one of Australia’s most architecturally significant homes is available to buy. The Ball-Eastaway House, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt, has been listed with Modern House at a guide price of AUD 2.4 to 2.6 million, an extraordinary opportunity to own a piece of living architectural history.

Set on 25 acres of dry sclerophyll forest in Glenorie, roughly an hour northwest of Sydney, the property feels worlds apart from the city it neighbours. The rugged site presented Murcutt with a natural rock ledge that became the building’s platform, and rather than taming the land, the architect worked with it. Not a single tree was removed during construction, a commitment that shaped every decision made from the ground up.

Designer: Glen Murcutt

The house sits elevated on slender steel pipe columns, its long, low form skimming the earth without disturbing it. Murcutt has long described this approach as “touching the earth lightly,” placing humanity within nature rather than above it. The exterior is clad in corrugated iron, marking the first time Murcutt used the material on a residential project, and its gently curved roofline reads almost like a topographical feature rather than a built structure.

Inside, the design is as considered as the form suggests. Aluminium shading devices and timber-lined interiors regulate heat and light throughout the seasons, while expansive north-facing glazed walls and skylights draw in the kind of soft, sustained light that painters depend on. The home was built specifically for abstract artists Sydney Ball and Lynne Eastaway, and their creative lives are woven into the architecture itself. Ball’s large-scale paintings run the length of an internal wall that forms the spine of the entire plan.

 

Behind that wall lies a concealed northwest verandah, originally conceived as a meditation space, and two generous studios where many of both artists’ most significant works were made. During a jury visit for the 1984 Wilkinson Award, which the house went on to win, the jury chair called it the most serene space he had ever encountered.

That quality of stillness hasn’t faded. The environmental intelligence built into the structure, passive ventilation, solar orientation, and minimal site intervention, was pioneering in the early 1980s and reads today as a quiet blueprint for how buildings should relate to the landscapes they occupy. The entire ten-hectare site has since been heritage listed, ensuring whatever comes next for the Ball-Eastaway House, its integrity remains protected.

The post This Iconic Australian Bush House Just Hit the Market for the First Time in Over 40 Years first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Australian Soy Fish Decomposes in 6 Weeks, Not 400 Years

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As someone who can demolish a sushi platter in minutes, I’ve always felt a pang of guilt watching those tiny plastic fish pile up on my plate. Sustainable design studio Heliograf clearly felt the same way. After five years of development, they’ve launched Holy Carp!, the world’s first home compostable soy sauce dropper that doesn’t make you choose between convenience and conscience.

The Australian team initially drew attention to this plastic problem through their brilliant Light Soy lamps made from recycled ocean-bound plastic. But they didn’t stop there. With South Australia banning those beloved little fish and other states following suit, Heliograf knew they had to create something that worked just as well. Consider this: since 1950, we’ve used between 8 and 12 billion soy fish. Each one serves us for maybe three minutes before hanging around for centuries.

Designer: Heliograf

Bagasse Pulp Meets Familiar Function

Here’s where it gets clever. Holy Carp! droppers are made from bagasse pulp—basically sugarcane waste that would otherwise be thrown away. The genius part is that these decompose in your compost bin within 4-6 weeks, not 400 years. Plus, restaurants fill them fresh instead of getting pre-filled plastic ones shipped from who-knows-where, meaning fresher soy sauce for your salmon rolls.

Working with Vert Design and actual sushi restaurants (people who understand the stakes), Heliograf kept that perfect fish shape we all love while fixing the obvious problems. The 12mL container is deliberately bigger than those frustratingly tiny plastic ones because, let’s be honest, who hasn’t grabbed three or four at once? The designers watched people do exactly that, creating even more waste.

Plant Pulp Expertise Meets Ocean Impact

What I love about this story is how Heliograf used knowledge from their existing lamp packaging to crack this problem. Sometimes the best solutions come from your own backyard—literally, in this case, since their lamps already use plastic-free packaging. The droppers hold soy sauce safely for 48 hours and won’t leak all over your takeaway bag.

“It’s a small change, but we truly believe every drop matters,” says co-founder Angus Ware. “We wanted to show that we can still create moments of joy when being sustainable.” Since 2020, their cleanup efforts have removed over 32 tonnes of plastic—equivalent to 32 million soy fish.

Available Soon for Early Adopters

The numbers are staggering: 40% of plastic waste comes from packaging, with nearly 855 billion single-use sachets used annually. For those of us who can’t imagine sushi without that perfect little fish, Holy Carp! offers guilt-free indulgence. Restaurants can register at heliograf.com/holycarp for early access. Finally, we can enjoy our California rolls without contributing to microplastic soup in our oceans.

The post This Australian Soy Fish Decomposes in 6 Weeks, Not 400 Years first appeared on Yanko Design.

Fire-Proof & Forest-Focused: A Holiday Home That Embraces The Australian Bush

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High in the canopy of a eucalyptus forest in New South Wales, a holiday home sits perched like an eagle’s nest, looking out over the landscape with quiet confidence. Amongst the Eucalypts, designed by Jason Gibney Design Workshop, reimagines what it means to live within fire-prone Australian bushland, creating a space that embraces nature while respecting its volatile temperament. The clients came to JGDW with a vision that might seem contradictory: they wanted both refuge and connection, a home that could evoke the immersive experience of camping in nature’s vastness while offering protection from its extremes. They sought a place where family and friends could gather communally yet still find moments of solitude within nature’s embrace.

The architectural response is a study in balance. Set high behind the tree line on a steeply sloped site, the house grounds itself along the hill’s natural contour. Its split form creates intimate, private moments while maintaining what the NSW Architecture Awards jury described as “a quiet dialogue between space and landscape beyond.” This isn’t a home that dominates its setting or shrinks from it. Instead, it unfolds to meet the upper realm of the forest, positioning itself as both observer and participant in the landscape.

Designer: Jason Gibney Design Workshop

Material choices reflect the reality of building in bushfire country. The palette is deliberately raw and robust: plywood, lightweight cladding, and metal sit comfortably within the remote setting, offering low maintenance and crucial protection from fire. These aren’t just practical selections. They’re materials that age gracefully in the elements, developing character rather than requiring constant intervention.

What sets this project apart is its embrace of impermanence. The operable facade allows the home to open and close to the elements, transforming its relationship with the outdoors. Outdoor washrooms and a loose-fit interior reinforce this camping-inspired approach, where the boundaries between inside and outside become negotiable rather than fixed. The architecture suggests a way of living that’s more adaptable, more responsive to seasonal changes and the rhythms of nature.

Built by Midcoast Construction on Worimi land, the home earned a Commendation for Residential Architecture at the 2025 NSW Architecture Awards and recognition in the Sustainable Architecture category at the National Architecture Awards Program. The jury commended the design team for creating a home that addresses the pressing question of how to build responsibly in fire-prone landscapes. Photography by Justin Alexander captures the home’s unique position, revealing how it sits suspended among the eucalypts, neither floating above nor buried within the forest but existing in comfortable coexistence with it.

As climate change intensifies fire seasons across Australia, projects like Amongst the Eucalypts offer more than aesthetic pleasure. They demonstrate that building in bushland doesn’t require choosing between connection to nature and protection from it. The home stands as evidence that thoughtful design can create spaces of genuine sanctuary and contemplation, places where engaging with the landscape occurs with the solace of protection from the extremes.

The post Fire-Proof & Forest-Focused: A Holiday Home That Embraces The Australian Bush first appeared on Yanko Design.