Graeme Barr Architects

09/10/2022

An innovative house in Brisbane on a tiny 160m2 block by Paul Owen Architect.
In my opinion we need more innovative housing like this on the Northern Rivers to accommodate population growth sustainably and economically.
Smaller blocks and houses are cheaper for home buyers.
Although I think slightly larger blocks, about 250m2, facing north and south, work best.
An interesting article as well.

A Brisbane family of five disrupts the conventions of the suburban family home, instead pursuing a ‘city change’ that offers a compelling formula for less house, more life.

27/09/2022

Yackandanda in Victoria is now 60% self sufficient for energy and heady for 100%. They use solar, batteries, and microgrids to power the buildings of the town.
Much of it is community funded and led.
Fantastic.

Nestled in the foothills of the Australian Alps is Yackandandah, a small town with huge energy ambitions: to be totally renewable by 2024. Here's how they're doing it.

02/12/2021

Could the CO2 come out of the atmosphere? If so a double benefit.

The CO2 battery could greatly enhance our capacity to store renewable energy while simultaneously helping the world remove the substance that's making it turn to renewables in the first place.

24/11/2021

Hangovers from the Covid pandemic will result in more people not travelling.
Now it is more important than ever to create beautiful environments in our homes and our surroundings.
Our staycations need the same stimulus as a trip through an Asian market or a medieval European Street, etc.

28/06/2021

Open Plan
An interesting articled by Elizabeth Farrelly discussing the suitability or not of open plan living. Some great photos of some of the best architecture.
Sometimes we need privacy and sometimes communal spaces.
A mix of space types is best in my opinion.

The open plan has promised light, freedom and chic for more than a century. So how did it end up cramping our style?

01/05/2021

In the Northern Rivers Review this week an ingenious way to heat water in compost!

16/04/2021

I have just signed a petition which is asking the Byron Shire Council not to order a repaint in heritage colours of an old house in Bangalow.
The house has recently been painted in lilac and white and in my opinion is aesthetically pleasing and a good modern interpretive use of an old house.
I have argued in my submission it complies with the Burra Heritage Charter.
Please sign this petition if you think it does not require a repaint.
Thank you.

Help Save The Purplicious House. Please sign to show your support. Thank you

18/01/2021

Part of the secret to making a building timeless and enduring, apart from proper functioning, is to ensure the finished design is a perfect shape which cannot be altered without destroying the symmetrical appearance.
Architects talk about the Cave and the Bower. the Cave gives solidity and protection and the Bower creates a perfect beautiful shape.
The C House by Donovan and Hill Architects shown below is a good example of Cave and Bower design in my opinion.

24/12/2020

2036 Regional Growth Plan
This plan sets the direction for Local Environmental Plans and Strategic Plans currently being developed by Councils.
Of particular interest are Urban Growth Areas and provision for walking/cycling tracks and areas of environmental protection.

18/12/2020

One of the best long term benefits of an architect’s ideas are to future generations, who eventually understand and warm to these concepts and approaches, even if these ideas are not currently understood.
(Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia, designed in the later nineteenth century and due for completion soon.)

10/09/2020

I am very proud of my daughter Elan Barr, who was project architect at M3 Architecture, for the Sybil Centre at Sydney University which just won A Good Design Australia award. Congratulations Elan and M3.

The Sibyl Centre synthesises the historical, geometrical, intellectual and social pursuits of The Women’s College into an architectural language. The forms and spaces are part of the ongoing evolution of the College, a series of public rooms and external expressions that embody and contemporise it...

13/08/2020

Red bricks with a special coating can now store electricity like a battery. Super charge your house!

Bricking your battery now has a completely new meaning, thanks to these Washington University researchers.