Proud to share Semis 02, our semi-detached housing design for the NSW Housing Pattern Book, a government – led initiative promoting affordable, adaptable and sustainable housing across the state.
Our housing pattern design presents a thoughtful approach to scale, high-quality construction details, light and liveability, with each pre-approved design helping to bridge the housing gap, fast track the process and meet growing demand without forgoing quality.

This pattern design stands alongside a cohort of forward-thinking practices who believe good design should be generous, inclusive  and available to all. Thank you to the NSW Government Architect for facilitating this important work.
If you have a site that may be appropriate for our pattern, please get in touch, we are keen to chat! In the meantime you can find out more about the pattern book initiative here.

Sibling have guest edited the current issue of Architect Victoria, with a focus on sensory design in architecture. This edition explores difference as an opportunity rather than an obligation, emphasising the intrinsic connection between our sensory systems, spatial awareness, and sense of comfort. It acknowledges that varied sensory experiences can result in architecture that is more comfortable, dignified, and joyous for all.

We have commissioned a broad range of articles relating to this topic; from Kerstin Thompson’s article on ‘Comfort and dis/comfort’ explored through the Melbourne Holocaust Museum and Bundanon projects, to Andrea Lam’s sensory experience of visiting San Francisco’s Chinatown, to what it means to sense Country by Bradley Kerr. This is one of the outcomes of our research into sensory design supported by the Creative Ventures grant from Creative Victoria.

See this link for a digital copy of the issue. https://issuu.com/architecture-chapter/docs/architect_victoria_edition_1_2025

You may have seen this in the news, but we are excited to present our upcoming exhibition Deep Calm at this year’s Melbourne Design Week.
Deep Calm explores how furniture can hug, hold and squeeze its users. Drawing on the therapeutic benefits of deep pressure – often experienced through sensations of being hugged, held, or squeezed – this exhibit highlights how such sensations can induce relaxation and reduce anxiety. This effect, known to trigger the release of serotonin, has been harnessed in an array of therapeutic tools such as weighted blankets, toys, and even hugging machines.
The exhibition features custom-designed floor rugs which are designed as a sensory tactile base for visitors to lay down along with weighted soft forms, or sofas, that give you a heavy hug. A soundscape by Jeanette Little will relax visitors under the weight of Deep Calm and invigilators dressed in SUKU Home will guide and tuck them in.

Deep Calm is one of the outcomes of a year-long research project funded by Creative Victoria that investigates approaches to designing for the senses. This builds upon our post-occupancy evaluation of the Wangaratta District Specialist School, which saw the integration of calm/focus areas, sensory spaces, social areas, and support facilities for students with different abilities. It also included guest editing the current issue of Architect Victoria entitled Sensory Design in Architecture.
The space will be open for visitors to drop in from the 15th -17th of May, or you can book in for the full Deep Calm experience 21st-24th of May.  Link here.

Over the last 12 months we have been developing our own Sustainability Action Plan (SAP) as part of our commitment to making positive places – places that are ecologically sustainable, socially engaged and culturally diverse!

In developing our SAP, we collaborated with University of Sydney Master of Architectural Science Students to research sustainable building design practices and best practice projects. These have developed into an almanac of projects and an online materials library. As a studio we’ve also held internal workshops and surveys to ensure that a collective understanding of what a sustainable architectural practice means to each of us, as well as our values, are shared and embedded within the SAP.

REVIEW, our first SAP and its publication marks our commitment to improve. Its intention is to clearly articulate how Sibling will begin to adapt the way we practice to better align our work and business operations with Architects Declare principles and a changing world.Excerpts from our SAP below and access to the full document here. 

Our SAP was designed by Lloyd-MST

Last month, our co-director Amelia Borg, presented at the University of Melbourne LEARN conference, Talking Spaces – Exploring the Strategic Design of Schools.

The conference explores connections between wellbeing, space, and learning through conversations about how schools can be strategically re-designed to better meet the current and future needs of students, teachers, and the wider community. Supported by stimulating provocations from expert panelists and workshop facilitators, including Amelia who shared our work into designing for the senses and wellbeing in education, focusing on the Wangaratta District Specialist School.

The conference was hosted at the Centre for Higher Education Studies where students also shared their expert voices and perspectives.

We kicked off the year with exciting news: we were selected as recipients for the Creative Ventures grant funding!

Supported by the Victorian government, the Creative Ventures program provides two-year grants to small creative organisations to deliver a big impact.

Sibling received more than $180,000 in funding to support our research into sensorially-sensitive architectural design of spaces which cater to neurodivergent and sensorially diverse people.

This research has been a longstanding pre-occupation of Sibling, with earlier projects such as New Agency and Arts Project Australia establishing the groundwork for larger projects such as the recently completed Wangaratta District Specialist School.

We will be posting updates on our research as it unfolds, so keep an eye out on our socials.

Sibling director Dr Timothy Moore bunkered down during COVID to complete his PhD at the University of Melbourne, which investigated temporary projects within longer-term urban development. He traversed Amsterdam, Athens, Christchurch and Melbourne to evaluate how temporary architecture contributes experimentation, innovation and place-making to large-scale urban development projects, or how the pop-up has a legacy after it pops-down. This research has contributed to Sibling’s work in temporary-use, adaptive re-use and urban design, including the temporary ateliers at Beulah and Over Obelisk at the Vic Market. He has also written widely on the topic, including on The Conversation.

How will you grow old? Can you live forever? What kind of ancestor do you want to be? Will your house outlive you?

The twenty-first century has ushered in a longevity revolution with the life expectancy of human beings almost doubling in the last hundred years made possible by healthier lifestyles and improved medical care. This is echoed in Australia, which has one of the highest life expectancies in the world.
But growing older tomorrow will be very different than today.

The retirement of Australians relies upon the financial security of the home and superannuation. As home ownership is becoming an impossibility for many younger Australians, how does this shift future models of living for the elderly and for society? What can one learn from radical forms of dwelling currently underway in Australia and overseas? What models of home ownership can adapt to the maturing of society and a changing market economy?

New Agency is a research project that posed these questions. Taking the form of a public investigation, Sibling has collected and displayed its research as an exhibition in Melbourne and Sydney, with film screenings in Perth, Sao Paulo and Melbourne, and as a meditation at the 2019 National Architecture Conference in
Melbourne.

The research culminates in the publication New Agency: The future of ageing and dwelling that collates the findings, including the provocation of a cooperative housing model in order that land and housing in Australia are provided for the common good – for both young and old. Sibling believe transitions in housing markets are possible through rethinking finances, land ownership, and rental relationships. Read the publication here

This publication was made possible with assistance from the Alastair Swayn Foundation.

Publication design by Lloyd – MST.