Articles by James Wormald

When designing and building an island getaway paradise there are certain creature comforts expected by even the most back-to-basics visitor, to find peace and comfort in an inaccessible environment – like food, shelter, clean water, and a way to contact the mainland – but doing so requires a careful balance between making these least-visited places on Earth both habitable and hospitable, without destroying them or their serenity in the process.

The priority when it comes to a building’s exterior surface material is durability. Having to literally stand up to the tolls of rainwater, wind, sunlight, temperature fluctuations, and many other weather conditions, we demand a lot of them. On the opposite side of the insulated coin, meanwhile, interior surfaces instead tend to prioritize their finish – with the characterful color, pattern, and texture of materials such as paints, ceramic tiles, or wood panels.

Working within the restrictions of a limited carbon footprint can be one of the hardest – but also most rewarding – parts of a modern architect’s role. Whether to suit a large multinational corporation’s sustainability report, to achieve LEED status or similar for a commercial developer, or to build an eco-home for a climate-conscious private client – or even one who just wants to spend less on energy, it’s imperative to keep up-to-date with the latest carbon-neutral and low-carbon building practices and materials.

The atmospheric sadness of a typical office ‘kitchen’ – and by kitchen I mean an old kettle, two rusty spoons (both missing) and three flimsy chairs around a one-person table – can be the root of much employee unrest. But when the alternatives mean either walking through the city smog or hunching over a desk with a Tupperware sandwich, dropping crumbs on the keyboard, there isn’t much choice.

Increasing in both size and number, cities worldwide are experiencing accelerated growth. With green land regularly lost to either urbanization or its effects – such as rising sea levels or natural disasters – and expanding populations meaning more mouths to feed, the farming and agricultural industries are in crisis. Viewed by many as the solution, vertical farming is the practice of stacking layers of crops atop each other, using humanity’s latest design and engineering tech to grow more with less space.

Almost half of Brazil is covered in forest, producing nearly 150 million cubic meters a year. Thanks to the large country’s wide range of tree species, Brazilian designers looking for natural, locally sourced materials have a lot of wood to choose from. Unsurprisingly, wood is a common feature in both traditional and contemporary Brazilian homes, both in construction and when creating decorative surfaces.

When you’ve made a mess, it’s often easier to hold up your hands and start again from scratch. But while it might be a harder way to do it, adaptive reuse – when architecture takes something old and broken and brings it back to life – can have benefits all around.

Whether it’s a guilt-driven effort to reduce one’s own carbon footprint, an economy-inspired reduction in energy bills or simply taking advantage of a government incentive scheme, sustainable construction, and design choices are not only being made by the most eco-aware amongst us, but now by anyone with an eye on both the current cost of energy and the future cost of its obsolescence.

Designer pools bring status to luxury homes and five-star hospitality spaces. But adding the cooling, calming, energizing, and environmental benefits of a hyper-local water body to a residence can far outweigh the cost of installation. With a range of long- and short-term landscaping options possible, meanwhile, luxury is available, whatever the budget.

The wellness market is booming, predicted to grow by almost 60% in the five years since the COVID pandemic, with consumers taking greater care of both their physical and mental health. It’s now understood, of course, that wellness – the virtue of feeling good in both body and mind – is more affected by our environment than we used to admit.