Ande Bunbury Architects

18/07/2025

One of our favourite apartment projects is up for sale. ABA helped resolve storage and display spaces in the one bedroom apartment in a former chocolate factory.

Vertical floor to ceiling bookshelves and storage made the large and undefined entry area into a home office and extensive library and draws attention to the high ceilings. The shelving hides a myriad of essentials including scarves, bags, bike helmets, keys, printer and art supplies, and of course a lot of books. The timber rolling library ladder gives an old-world character and allows access to books right up to the high ceiling level.

In the living room the new joinery has a horizontal form that extends the sense of space out to the windows and outside. Long low joinery and wall mounted art shelves allow for a rotating display of the owners’ extensive art collection. A custom folded raw steel stair provides easy access to additional storage space located on a mezzanine above the bathroom.
https://www.jelliscraig.com.au/property-details-115-Oxford-Street-Collingwood/1737268

Light-filled with lofty ceilings in an authentic industrial setting, this stunning warehouse conversion offers a rare lifestyle experience in the historic Foy…

22/01/2025

This is a nice write up. I wish I could write like that - but my skill is drawing

Where bike storage isn’t an afterthought but a design-defining feature.

11/12/2024

We are proud to announce that Ande has become one of the National Directors of Architects Declare Australia! She is also continuing on her role as head of Advocacy for the volunteer organisation.

Australian Architects Declare is part of an international network of architectural practices, committed to addressing the climate and biodiversity emergency.

The building and construction industry accounts for nearly 40% of global carbon dioxide emissions meaning building and construction is 40% of the problem but also 40% of the solution.

Currently over 1200 Australian architecture firms have decided to take action towards transforming the industry from the inside out as signatories and Ande looks forward to helping steer that journey.

25/10/2024

We won! Our entry for the True Zero Carbon Competition was the Victorian winner. We learnt a huge amount about measuring and offsetting embodied carbon in building materials. Thanks to Anna Womersley from Blue Banded Bee for the energy rating and Celeste Castelino and Abdul Raiman Syed for their help pulling our entry together

30/08/2024

We're very proud to have our Preston house Bike House featured in the current edition of Sanctuary magazine. This was a great opportunity to build a new all-electric and highly sustainable house from scratch. Highlights included designing around the pet inhabitants of the house and meeting a great cabinetmaker willing to make custom pet doors as part of the cabinetry design - thanks Habitat Joinery.

See the full story athttps://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wns4w93rfv00tg7wzn1ta/Sanctuary68-HP-Bike-haven.pdf

or buy edition 68 at sanctuary.renew.org.au



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30/05/2024

One of our houses with the tree through the deck has been featured again - this time in Architecture & Design as the feature story today

How do you turn an orange brick 1950’s ugly duckling into a stunning contemporary home with good access to light and connection to the garden?

19/04/2024

How do you do a sensitive extension to a heritage house?

Designing new building work to respond with a light touch to the surrounding context is one way. New work doesn't need to replicate old but is best if it can respect existing forms, levels, scale and materials. Contemporary reinterpretation gives a subtle suggestion of the adaption of 100 year old building to suit current modes of living and levels of energy efficiency. Set back forms, darker colours and muted statements that give prevalence to the original form are tools we use to show respect. This is the opposite of the 'starchitecture' concept our cities are currently full of with many new buildings screaming "Look at me!"

The upper storey walls and roof were constructed of prefabricated SIPs panels and the new roof form conceals a 6.6 kW solar panel system and was featured on the Architecture and Design web platform today https://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/projects/houses/3-in-1-house-ande-bunbury-architects.

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08/04/2024

Electrify your home
Getting off gas is something we help all our clients do as part of the renovation process. Even things as simple as creating a roofspace facing in an optimal direction for solar panels is important. I won't tell you too much here as there are some excellent resources out there such as the City of Yarra webpage 'Create An All-Electric Home' https://www.yarracity.vic.gov.au/services/take-climate-action/100-percent-renewable-yarra/create-an-all-electric-home.

Also, If you are lucky enough to live within the Merri-bek Council area they currently have a Solar Program where they could pay up to $3000 + GST to help support installing solar electric panels on your roof. Combined with other government rebates you may be left with only a small, or even no payment, to make.

Merri-bek also have an Energy Upgrade program of up to $2000 + GST towards upgrades to make your home more energy efficient such as installing insulation and sealing gaps around doors and windows. Ask ABA about the most cost effective ways to improve the efficiency of your home!

https://zerocarbonmerri-bek.org.au/energy-switch/

#100%electric

06/03/2024

Ceiling fans (and cheap pedestal fans) are THE most cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to stay cool and comfortable in hot weather.

* Energy Efficiency: Ceiling fans consume significantly less energy compared to air conditioners. They cost about 3c per hour to use instead of about 50c/hr for an air conditioner (depending on size).
* Supplemental Cooling: Ceiling fans don’t actually cool the air; instead, they create a wind-chill effect that makes you feel cooler by 3-4 degrees. If you have an air conditioner you should use a fan as well so you can set your ac thermostat higher while still feeling comfortable, reducing the workload on your air conditioner. Using ceiling fans in conjunction with air conditioning allows you to maintain comfort at higher thermostat settings, which further reduces energy consumption.
* Longevity and Maintenance: Compared to air conditioners, ceiling fans are simpler devices with fewer moving parts, which means they generally require less maintenance and have a longer lifespan. Air conditioners often require regular cleaning, filter changes, and professional maintenance to operate efficiently.
* Winter benefits: Ceiling fans can be used year-round. In addition to providing cooling in the summer, they can also be used in the winter to help distribute warm air more evenly throughout the room. Many ceiling fans come with a reversible motor that allows you to change the direction of the blades, pushing warm air down from the ceiling during colder months.
* Environmental Impact: Ceiling fans have a much lower environmental impact because they don’t use refrigerants and consume less electricity.

01/03/2024

This beautiful deck built around an existing large tree was used in an ad - but they replaced the custom steel frames doors with ugly blue ones

15/02/2024

Climate resilience is very much core to the work we do at ABA. This article explains it clearly. Well aware that the least affluent are often the most impacted by climate disasters, Ande is active in pro-bono roles working on Affordable Housing (Merri-bek Council Reference Group) and advocacy through the group Architects Declare a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency. https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/02/03/how-we-can-climate-proof-our-homes/?

Climate-resilient housing can help protect the most vulnerable from the risks of climate change, writes Dr Nicola Willand

24/01/2024

Summer seems like a good time for a post about well designed shading as this is so important to keep summer heat out of homes. A well designed building can allow winter sun to pour in through windows to warm our chilly bones and free heat to warm our houses. But well designed external shading (and well-oriented and appropriately sized windows) can keep hot summer sun out.

There are a heap of techniques to control sun around buildings. If you want to keep sun OUT then the sun control measures should be on the outside of the building. Eaves are one of the best tools for doing this and it is sad to see new housing estates full our a sea of houses with no eaves, and air conditioners everywhere, as it is possible to do so much without using energy.

In this house the large north-facing living room windows are shaded by a pergola with a deciduous ornamental grapevine which provides shade in summer, sun in winter, and beautiful colour in autumn. And food for the possums. The deck has deciduous fruit trees that shade the deck and create a cool microclimate adjacent to the house. Yes, good architects think about plants too.

Other methods for providing shading for days of extreme heat, less optimal orientation, or a late-March heatwave are external blinds which can be closed just in the worst times. They work best with a ventilated air gap between the glass and the blind.

The front of this house faces west and secondhand timber venetian blinds have been installed to the front of the verandah to shade the entire front wall when needed. This is a temporary measure until deciduous trees grow big enough to shade the house from late afternoon sun.