Alexander Symes Architect

Alexander Symes Architects (ASA) is a Sydney practice led by registered architect Alexander Symes, founded in 2014 "with a mission to advance sustainable architecture". Alex and his team are Certified Passive House Designers, and they combine a scientific approach to sustainability with a practical and poetic understanding of how a building is crafted. Their projects stretch across Greater Sydney, the Southern Highlands, the NSW South Coast and the Hunter Valley. Alex received the Emerging Architect Prize at the 2021 NSW Architecture Awards.

Three of their homes are on Lunchbox. L-House turns a partially completed project home in the lower Blue Mountains bushland into a thermally comfortable family home. Upside Down Akubra House, in the middle of a bull paddock in rural New South Wales, runs off the grid and stays comfortable through the extremes of summer and winter under a roof inspired by an Akubra. And Light House reworks a dark single-storey home in a Bronte gully into a light-filled forever home connected to the garden.

See L-House, Upside Down Akubra House and more of their work on Lunchbox below.

From Partially Completed Project Home to Modern, Energy Efficient Home

Working with what was already there to create a modern family home had its challenges on this bushland site in the Blue Mountains.

An Akubra Was the Inspiration for This Incredible Off-grid Home

The practicality of a classic hat proves the perfect design inspiration for an off-grid home in Australia's outback.

Thoughtful renovation brings this home into the light side...

While retaining as much of the original house for cost and environmental reasons, this home is completely transformed.