Compass 2024 Video - Future Design Trends

Future Design Trends and Aesthetics with Alexander Symes, Director, Alexander Symes Architect

In this Compass 2024 video, presented by COLORBOND® steel, we are pleased to introduce architect Alexander Symes, founder of Alexander Symes Architects. Alex’s passion for sustainability is evident in every one of his projects, where he combines science, creative practice, and poetic design to create meaningful, long-lasting, low-impact structures. Alex and his team are Certified Passive House Designers, and in this video, Alex shares his insights on future design trends, designing for climate resilience, and the thoughtful use of materials to create enduring structures.

Australia's extreme climate poses unique challenges, with conditions increasingly exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. Alex explores how to design robust buildings capable of enduring these extremes, including periods of low rainfall and extended heatwaves. He advocates for integrating building physics into designs to ensure comfort in a future environment and create healthy, sustainable outcomes for future generations.

Alex also shares the story behind designing the Upside-Down Akubra House, initially a whimsical concept that was transformed into a practical and sensible building.

He emphasises the importance of the right orientation, natural light, and the connection between indoor and outdoor spaces in creating great architecture - and as Alex concludes, “great architecture is sustainability.”

Watch the video: Future Design Trends and Aesthetics with Alexander Symes, Director, Alexander Symes Architect

Further information:

• See our sustainability resources on steel.com.au
   
• Watch more videos from Compass 2024:
  • See the entire Compass 2024 event
  • Compass Opening with Shelley Craft, TV Presenter, The Block and Mark Vassella, Managing Director and CEO of BlueScope
  • Built Environment of the Future: Insights from Davina Rooney, CEO of the Green Building Council of Australia
  • Designing with Sustainability in Mind with Talina Edwards, Director, Envirotecture
  • An Engineers Approach to Decarbonisation with Raed El Sarraf, Principal Engineer, WSP
  • BlueScope Innovation and the Fitzroy River Bridge Case Study, A Collaborative Future for Steelmaking and Renewables
  • Directors Cut – Renewables