Passive House Accelerator Podcast
Cohost Matthew Cutler-Welsh interviews Melbourne-based Alex Slater, architect at Shared Space Architecture, Passive House Designer, and NatHERS Assessor. Alex shares how he's combined building science and art in his professional work modeling and designing...
Our Carbon Neutrality
For the financial year 2019-20 Shared Space Architecture has made a contribution to Greenfleet in the act of offsetting our carbon emissions which we as Australians contribute to the environment. We do this voluntarily and do this because there are projects out there...
Stimulus to Surplus
So you’ve decided to renovate your home... With the assistance of homeowner stimulus packages and a current uncertainty around the climate for home buyers in the Melbourne area on top of restrictions imposed by COVID-19 and an increased amount of time at home to...
Stepping Outside the Comfort Zone
In March 2020 I made a decision to do without a heater this Winter after cycling in Tasmania and surviving some cold nights in only a tent. Had I known about losing one job in April, an increased time spent at home from August and a lack of warm clothes, I probably...
Welcome to our Website
Welcome to our virtual space. Amidst COVID-19 restrictions in Melbourne we still managed to push this out to you to reach us and build connections. It's Alex here, writing from Melbourne and encouraging you to keep up your purpose, continue to create and foster...
The Value of Shop Drawing
Shop drawing is not just about co-ordination with trades. It is also about retaining architectural intent throughout the whole design and construction process. In earlier days, architects were the primary contractor and were in charge on site. They took the design...
How much does an Architect Cost?
For the full service that an architect provides you should allow around 10% to 15% of the construction cost, depending on the size and complexity of the building. This figure allows for design, obtaining approvals from authorities, documentation for tender and...
Passivhaus: An Energy Tool?
The Passivhaus Planning Package (or PHPP) is an Excel workbook designed to balance energy. It discovers the losses and gains and weighs them against each other. The tool is only as conservative as the Passivhaus Standard and the tool user and it can be used as a good...
The Value of Contract Administration
It is certain many people want to save a dollar here or there. The question is whether or not you are better placed at putting a dollar towards an Architect to take your project through to completion or not. Let us take a look at the design process; it generally looks...
About Nightingale Nightschool
One of our team, Alex was fortunate enough to partake in the Nightingale Night School Studio at Melbourne University in 2016. This was the first year it was run by Breathe Architecture. Nightingale Night School aims to educate students in the Nightingale Housing...
Recording Time
We often charge for our services on an hourly rate (and we genuinely like Excel). The one thing which helps us to quantify the hours spent on a project is a robust in-house timesheet software. Here are some tips when recording your hours. Classify hours into different...