About

About Lunchbox Architect

Lunchbox Architect is designed to highlight the outstanding residential work of architects. Architects often get overlooked for smaller scale and tight budget projects because they're perceived as expensive, exclusive or only interested in big budget projects.

This is not true!

In fact, an architect is the best qualified person to design smaller spaces. It's their job to design a home that fits your brief within your budget. Plus they manage the builder and other consultants to make sure there are no cost blowouts while building.

So if you're planning a new home or renovation soon (or if you just like to daydream), Lunchbox Architect is the perfect place to get some inspiration.

What you'll find on Lunchbox Architect

  • Residential: We feature single family homes, holiday homes, individual apartments, new homes and renovations. Unfortunately that means no apartment complexes or multi-residential developments.
  • Architecturally-Designed: We love architects and our mission is to promote their best work. All our homes are architecturally designed.
  • Affordable: Obviously this is subjective, but you won't see any million dollar mansions here. We don't feature projects with a $1 million + budget and we prefer smaller, low budget projects.
  • Small Scale: The average house size in Australia is a whopping 214 m² (2303 ft²). We only feature houses that are smaller than average (who needs that formal dining area, anyway) unless it's housing an extra large family. Sometimes smaller is better.
  • Innovative: There's nothing we love more than a bit of innovation. The projects we feature usually solve a common problem in an interesting way.

About Brodie Norris

37 years. That's how long I've been designing houses. I'm nearly 40 now. What can I say… late bloomer?

Naturally my first few houses were rather derivative; they lacked imagination…

At least that's what my pre-school teacher told me.

"Brodie, you've already painted lots of houses. Why don't you paint something else?" She pleaded one day, "How about you paint your family?"

I buckled under pressure and painted my family…

In front of a house - asymmetrical, with a raked roofline and non-standard windows.

It's safe to say I love houses. (Clearly) I always have.

That's one of the reasons I started Lunchbox Architect - an excuse for me to look at (and write about) houses every day of the week!

I hope you enjoy these clever homes as much as I enjoy finding them and sharing them with you.

I'm not an architect...

Not yet, anyway.

The name Lunchbox Architect refers to the fact that I feature Architect-designed homes - an architect in your lunchbox, if you will - not that I'm an architect myself.

Architecture is a registered profession. Like a doctor or a lawyer, the title architect is reserved for those who have passed a rather rigorous set of criteria. In fact, one of the benefits of hiring an architect is you can trust the weight of their qualification. An architect has usually undertaken years formal education - including a postgraduate degree and has had at least two years practical experience, sat a challenging competency exam and interview process, obtained professional indemnity insurance and committed to continued professional development obligations. It's not a light undertaking.

So obviously I want to be careful not to portray myself as an architect because, other than serious legal ramifications, it would be plain immoral! I respect and value the fact that architecture is a registered profession that only allows the most highly qualified people to call themselves an architect.