Director of Adelaide architecture practice Parabolica Jasmine Placentino has been awarded a fellowship from the Gottstein Trust, in which she will undertake research and travel to develop a pattern book that reimagines the Australian greenfield suburban home through a lens of sustainability and environmental resilience.
The annual fellowship, awarded to more than 150 fellows since the establishment of the Gottstein Trust in 1971, honours the legacy of Joseph William (Bill) Gottstein, a forest products research scientist with the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation). It is awarded to people who work within, or are associated with, Australian timber products and forest industries.
Placentino’s project, titled “Reforming the suburbs: A pattern book for greenfield housing,” is positioned in response to the Government Architect New South Wales’ Housing Pattern Book of low-rise designs, one of which is currently being constructed as a demonstration, along with Parabolica’s own Three Garden House, which involved suburban innovation within a modest construction budget.
“Australia’s outer-suburban growth areas are dominated by volume-built housing models that prioritise speed and profit over design quality, environmental performance and community wellbeing,” Placentino said. “These developments often rely heavily on concrete, brick veneer, and inefficient planning templates.”
“The outcome is a built landscape that is energy-intensive and materially wasteful,” Placentino commented.
She aims to produce a research-led design resource for use by the industry, government and the public, which shows how timber can be used as a sustainable, carbon-sequestering material to deliver higher quality, more sustainable, resilient and contextually responsive housing outcomes.
Working with a local builder, Placentino intends to verify the financial feasibility and the buildability of the proposed designs, while also ensuring they comply with bushfire performance and building code requirements. The project will be peer-reviewed by University of South Australia associate professor and creator of the “bluefield housing” model, Damian Madigan, and architect, writer and educator at the University of Adelaide Bronwyn Marshall.
The project will conclude in December this year, with the findings published in early 2027.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
