Is a bioregional and ecological design firm, integrating built form with the landscapes and systems it sits within. We are contextually embedded in the bustling heart of Naarm/Melbourne and the remote wilds of Lutruwita/Tasmania, and always working within planetary boundaries. We specialise in material and adaptive reuse, defit/refit, and design for disassembly and deconstruction, bringing circular design and a holistic process to private, institutional and community-based projects alike.

We take pride in our resourcefulness, finding creative, often unexpected ways to bring the most out of a project with the resources already at hand. The result is architecture that gives back more than it takes: climate-positive, socially sustainable, and built to be resilient. Each project is grounded in context-rich knowledge, local materials and local suppliers. More...



Contact office@practice-matters.design





























































We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Traditional Owners
and ongoing custodians throughout Australia,
their culture, knowledge and wisdom.


Practice Matters Pty Ltd
Copyright 2026


Hydro House


Interior design and fitout
Greens Beach, Lutruwita
2024



Living Landscape


Suburban rewilding
Greens Beach, Lutruwita
2025




Interior, furniture design and fabrication
Greens Beach
2024  
With this renovation project we sought to extend the life of a 100-year-old Hydro workers cottage in regional Tasmania — to save a home that would otherwise be nearing its end of life and demolished. The insertion of a plywood core re-imagines the interior space while eliminating the need for major structural work or building outside of the existing footprint. Existing timber furniture was salvaged, refinished and reused, keeping it out of landfill. Benchtops use reclaimed Tasmanian hardwood; cork was selected for its inherent hygroscopic and insulative properties. Healthy finishes, chosen for improved interior air quality, are used throughout the project: tung oil, natural hard wax, and water-based sealers — thereby improving indoor air quality and resulting in a low allergen, healthy interior space. Employing design-for-repair principles in construction and natural surface finishes is a way of enabling current and future users to safely carry out service, repair, or touch-ups without the need for specialist interventions or harsh toxic chemical-based solvents or cleaning agents.

This kind of minimal intervention is an important focus for Practice Matters, working to save existing houses from demolition through a few considered interventions that improve liveability without the environmental, material, energy, and time costs of new building.










Ongoing
Landscape design
Greens Beach
2025
On the fringes of Narawntapu national park in northern Lutruwita/Tasmania we are working on a landscape rewilding project surrounding a private residence. By employing ecological and climate-adaptive design principles including waste reuse, greywater recirculation, drought and frost tolerant plantings, we are working to restore habitat for native insects, birds, reptiles, and small marsupials. 

This project is a living prototype and demonstration project of our approach in working with nature, providing a counterpoint and alternative to wholesale clearing of native flora and habitat loss associated with adjacent suburban development patterns and practices. 













Ongoing
Material Research & Reclamation Audit
St Marys
2026
A reclamation audit identifies the reuse potential of a project, particularly for buildings scheduled for partial or total demolition. We visit the site to identify materials and elements with a high reuse potential, photographing and measuring components and assessing their condition. Everything is documented and catalogued in a detailed audit, graded from most to least reuse potential, so we know exactly what can be reused or reclaimed.








Materials available on the site: reclaimed timber and stone from a dismantled extension to the existing cabin.


The material idenification proces


We carry this out during the pre-design stage, so the resulting inventory can guide the building and site design from the outset, rather than being retrofitted in later. Working this way reduces waste and embodied carbon, and can lower costs compared with sourcing new materials. The output is a reclamation audit report — a practical tool with the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of the building.

Below: the resulting catalogue of timber pieces




Material Research
St Marys
2026
A reclamation audit identifies the reuse potential of a project, particularly for buildings scheduled for partial or total demolition. We visit the site to identify materials and elements with a high reuse potential, photographing and measuring components and assessing their condition. Everything is documented and catalogued in a detailed audit, graded from most to least reuse potential, so we know exactly what can be reused or reclaimed.

We carry this out during the pre-design stage, so the resulting inventory can guide the building and site design from the outset, rather than being retrofitted in later. Working this way reduces waste and embodied carbon, and can lower costs compared with sourcing new materials. The output is a reclamation audit report — a practical tool with the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of the building.

Logic of Deconstruction
1. Interior loose furnishings
2. Cabinetry
3. Doors and windows
4. Interior linings
5. Exterior linings
6. Structure



Materials available on the site: reclaimed timber and stone from a dismantled extension to the existing cabin.


The material idenification process


At Quoll Cabin....text about process specific to Quoll Cabin 

Describing and recording elements
things to record:
1. element (what is it, material)
2. dimension
3. quantity (lm,sqm,cm, or number of depending on logic of material)
4. condition
5. location in building
6. notes (are there any potential problems or notes on material format)



Below: the resulting catalogue of timber pieces


In Media Res


Exhibition
Walyalup
2019



Paper Chair


Furniture
Boorloo & Kepa Kurl
2019



Mutable Mobile



Exhibition piece
Walyalup
2019



Curated Exhibition
PS Art Space
Walyalup/Fremantle
2019
As co-curators of In Media Res, Charlotte and Mark worked with a group of emerging and established Western Australian designers and architects in a curated exhibition of material-practice in product, furniture, spatial, and lighting design. The curated exhibition, public programming, and original essays, highlight  the transformative agency of material practice and the role of design in within contemporary societies. The collection of objects exhibited — critical, speculative, and reflexive — is part of our longer-term interrogation of contemporary material-based design, its many forms and permutations.

Exhibitors:
Amber Martin
Charlotte May
Guy Eddington
Kitely Kianoosh
Lara Camilla Pinho
Mark Sawyer
MORQ
Patrick Bendall
Phillip Goldswain
Tyron Hanlon
Sarah Brooke

Above: Tyran Hanlon, ‘Laminae Collection’ 

Above: Phillip Goldswain & Guy Eddington, ‘Boundary Objects’ 

Above: Amber Martin, ‘Homeward Drawers’


Above and below: Patrick Bendall, ‘Cardboard Therapy’




MORQ, ‘A Process of Matter’


Above: Catalogue and flyer








Installation 
with Lara Camilla Pinho 
& Sarah Brooke
Walyalup/Fremantle
2019
This is a Mutable Mobile a fluid object designed to travel and change over time. It can be assembled and disassembled with simple tools and might gradually change shape without disappearing altogether. This object sits within the broader web of concerns of the Re-Form Initiative: a design-research project examining the responsibility of designers in the context of post-consumer plastic waste. That larger project assembles a multitude of actors designers, architects, funding bodies, government agencies, non-profit organisations, community groups, marine scientists, students, shearwaters, molds, mills, and machines around a common concern. A three-dimensional grid combining the ‘natural’ and the ‘synthetic’: Tasmanian Oak horizontal and vertical members are literally and metaphorically drawn together with a bespoke pin of injection-molded recycled plastic while a simple timber wedge applies pressure to the connection. 
 















Furniture design
Boorloo & Kepa Kurl
2019
The life of a chair during its use and after it is no longer a useful object were the initial concerns for this design. The project asks two critical questions. How can a human-object relationship strengthen over time? And, what happens when a delicate composition of linen, cotton, wool, beeswax, plywood, and steel is no longer considered an ‘object of value’ and moves into the less desirable classification of ‘waste’.

Beeswax is an effective barrier against air and moisture. It has been used to coat both the fabric and metal, affording them some protection. It is also a biodegradable material, meaning it will slowly dissipate, carried away by oily hands and clothing fibres. Over time the linen will soften, like worn paper that has been folded and refolded again and again. The metal frame will develop a rich patina defined by areas that hands touch most frequently. These marks of use are left on the chair just as the chair leaves its marks on the bodies held within its frame. The steel will last lifetimes if properly cared for and can make a home for new upholstery. All the soft materials are undyed, untreated, and biodegradable. These parts can be easily composted, giving new meaning and an extended life to this object beyond its immediate aesthetic and functional value.