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...
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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
Greens Beach
2024
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.
Landscape design
Greens Beach
2025
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.
Material Research & Reclamation Audit
St Marys
2026
Materials available on the site: reclaimed timber and stone from a dismantled extension to the existing cabin.
The material idenification proces
Below: the resulting catalogue of timber pieces
St Marys
2026
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
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
PS Art Space
Walyalup/Fremantle
2019
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
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.
Boorloo & Kepa Kurl
2019
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.