The biggest fear for retirees considering moving to a Retirement Village is the feeling that they are giving up their house. The economics of this development said we had to build apartments, but how do you make them feel like houses?

We designed buildings that stepped down the slope, so that every dwelling has it’s own street entrance, letterbox, garage & garden that overlooks the street. You can check the mail, have visitors park out the front, do your gardening and chat to your neighbour just like you used to in your house.

Also the communal facilities were designed in a series of pavillions rather than one big complex. This means that each space is closer to the size you would expect in your own home, and all spilling on to a deck and looking out at the view. So even if you are using the common facilities, they feel like your own.

Client: MBark & The Sisters of Good Samaritan

Project: Balise @ Beacon Hill

Because it is the one day we really get to be ourselves, spend time with who we choose &  go to our favourite places.

We chose Saturday as our name as it evokes the best parts of life. We make sure that the process of creating architecture is one of these ‘best things’. Our aim is to make sure you enjoy the process.

We believe that great architecture can change your life/ change a business/ change a place in incredible ways. This change can be both tangible and intangible. In some instances it can be measured by results, and in others it can just feel great. 

We believe that the best way to achieve great architecture is for us to listen harder to you, to really understand the depths of your business, to find not only the expected solutions but the unexpected ones too.

You will find a few stories below that talk about how we listen more than most, and how we achieve more than most. You will see that we are not specialists in any particular type of building or project – (this is our strength), we draw from a broad variety of experiences that we combine with a passion for lateral thinking – that is much more powerful than any simple specialist.

The visual and experiential cues of an environment will resonate with individuals as they experience those environments.  

With an in depth understanding of how to create spaces, how to generate movement in a particular way through and in a space, and a mastery of colour, texture, light, volume, materials, cultural cues and acoustics we can design environments to promote particular responses from a majority of or certain users. 

By combining this design skill with an understanding that for brands to be successful they need to resonate with the aspirations and desires of individuals in meaningful and personal ways we can create memorable brand experiences that will build not only brand awareness but brand loyalty.

Working closely with international brand agency Landor, we were involved in the evolution of a new burger brand and created a fully integrated brand experience in Sydney’s Paddington.

First and foremost it is about designing a place that you would want to spend time in. An obvious but uncommon goal. Make sure everyone can see outside – that means shallow floor plates and big windows. Make sure there are easy ways to get some fresh air – we put a huge garden in the middle of the building we called the ‘Lungs’. All of the hallways (more like verandahs) overlook the Lungs, so whenever you move around the building you are in the garden.

The tea-rooms are on relaxed casual decks with outdoor seats that overlook the Lungs as well. We used simple materials – lots of timber and concrete, no paint, and no nasty glues and other bad building materials – so it is a healthy building too.

Plus we didn’t use air-conditioning – we all know how stuffy that gets. Instead, we used a cooling system that blows fresh air around refrigerated water pipes (chilled beams). All this and more happens to make the building designed to achieve 5 Stars under the Green Star building rating system so you can enjoy all of this with a clear conscience too.

Client: Lewis Land Group. Project: Welcome Centre Icon at Sovereign Hills

Retail banking is diverging into 2 segments – successful institutions are tending to choose between being transaction based or service based.

Encompass business model is to be service based –  we wanted their new branch to reflect this strategy.

We made the private interview room highly visible, and instead of being confronted by a transaction desk when you come into the branch you are confronted by Encompass friendly staff waiting to have a chat!

They don’t always have to. With our interpretation and use of Section 96 provisions instead of a whole new Development Approval application, several of our clients have achieved development consent for the new design and apartment mix of large buildings in a matter of weeks, instead months, making our clients successful where others have failed. / focus / coast /

Ultimately we are interested in people, if we make sure each of our projects aim for the best sustainable design possible, then we are doing good things for our clients and great things for the buildings users.

Here  are a few stats that were relevant to the office building we designed that you saw earlier…

‘*Green buildings…

1. can increase worker productivity by up to 20% and reduce sick leave by up to 50%

2. may cost 0-2% more upfront, but will save 20% on life cycle costs.

3. can use 60% less energy and water than a typical office building’

*from ‘The Dollars and Sense of Green building 2006′ Green Building Council of Australia.

Westfield, Telstra, Seek, Macquarie Bank, Landor, Encompass Credit Union, DesignInc,  TGV, AMF Bowling Centres, and Lewis Land Group, Bite me Burgers, Don Deli, Sovereign Hills.