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Architects Directory 2009

 

Phorm Architecture + Design

Australia

BIOGRAPHY AND PRACTICE

When Paul Hotston (1969) returned to Brisbane in 2000, after a 7-year architectural sojourn through Europe, Asia and the Tropical North, he founded Phorm, a flexible and dynamic architectural practice with 4-6 members. The architect, who graduated from the University of Queensland, and has won several awards from the Australian Institute of Architects, also participating often in exhibitions. The team sees the definition of each site – via mapping of its physical, cultural, climatic, historic and psychological dimensions – central to their solutions, and they admit that the timber tradition and culture of the Queensland vernacular, as well as the clients and the rural and urban Australian landscape, are all among their major influences.

THE HOUSE

Phorm find the influence of each site fundamental to their designs, so here they had to define their own site in order to explore the ideas of placement and displacement– coordinates, as the name suggests, are 26 30"01' South. The house's main architectural space is the loggia. This was designed to be permanently open to the landscape, as a transitional interior/exterior space, while all the rooms fold open to each other or into the landscape, not using glass at all throughout the structure. The house was planned as a low cost, low embodied energy response to the brief.

THE FUTURE

Working on a range of residential projects, as well as micro-resorts and even the designs of a private island in Fiji, the practice is looking forward to busy times. Phorm adopt a low-tech approach in general and value craft in their designs, researching their material palette in detail. The practice is also interested in opportunities to engage further with the city and the urban challenges and is one of over 200 architects involved in the Queensland Government's HEAT initiative promoting a new wave of sustainable architects working in the region.

www.phorm.com.au