Architecture Australia

The power of the small change

Someday, hopefully soon, the world will probably have to work exclusively with the buildings it has already got. Through alteration, the use and amenity of a building can change. Without gutting a building, we might focus on the fundamental elements that define how an average domestic room can be used – the shape, the location of the door and the window, the services and the materiality (the shelter). We anticipate this important project for architecture through the nature and role of the small change.

Architects are late to this project. In domestic buildings, this experiment has been going on since before the notion of architecture existed. Some favourites are the enclosed porch, the converted shed or the repurposed roof space. Inevitably, what is often delightful about these spaces is that they have a quality difficult to design from scratch – a strange proportion or ceiling

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