Noosa eco-lair wins Queensland Landscape Architecture Award

The Sunshine Coast eco-lair Domic (Russian for House of Domes) takes out the Garden Award at the Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture Queensland (AILA QLD) Awards last night.

Adopting a new format in line with social distancing restrictions, AILA QLD held the award ceremony virtually, which saw businesses from all around Queensland come together, whether still working from home or back in the office, to celebrate post pandemic style.

James Birrell Director at Place Design Group inc. James Birrell Design Lab, was the mastermind behind the landscape design. “Domic is a self-reliant eco-lair that puts landscape architecture in the driving seat of high-end residential design. The project is a shining example of how, through design, the natural world can be sensitively integrated into a 4-storey building to engender a primal sense of belonging to the place” says James.

“The brief was to create a building that is harmonious with its natural surroundings. Our response to this was to bring the Noosa National Park over the top of the building, blurring the lines between landscape and building, integrating the landscape typologies of the Sunshine Beach sand dunes with materials, colours, habitat and vegetation to engender a primal sense of belonging to the place.”

The project explored bespoke designs and innovations in green roof and green wall systems so that the landscape could be seamlessly integrated with the architecture. In many ways the landscape informed the architectural design which was a refreshing dynamic throughout the design process.

This ground-breaking Sunshine Coast project benefited from close collaboration with the structural engineer, architect as well as the landscape architect to ensure the architectural vision for the project could be achieved.

Place Design Group merged with James Birrell Design Lab in November 2019, strengthening our ability to make a significant contribution to the Sunshine Coast community.