The Details: Blackwood Architecture
As Noosa locals with 20 years of experience on the Sunshine Coast, Blackwood Architecture know a thing or two about designing for the Noosa lifestyle. As the visionaries behind both our Grant Street and Wyandra Street residences, we sat down with founder and director Phil Tillotson to learn a bit more about their approach.
Q. How did Blackwood get its start in Noosa?
A. We started in 2020 – I wanted to create a regional practice with a focus on good design and climate responsive subtropical architecture using lessons learnt from my experience in the fine grain, boutique residential space. I also wanted to fuse my commercial experience to allow us to expand into other sectors, such as sport and leisure, tourism, mixed use and retail. This was to be our local point of difference – we aren’t just a firm specialising in one sector.
Q. How would you summarise your approach to design?
A. We are design focused and believe good design balances the client’s needs and aspirations with the constraints and opportunities of the site to create something truly unique. I want to enhance the urban fabric here on the Sunshine Coast – not just stamp the same thing over and over again. It’s about adding value.
Q. How has architecture changed in Noosa in recent years?
We are seeing a movement towards heavier and more permanent structures. It’s like the area has come of age. When I started on the Sunshine Coast 20 years ago it was still very transient, people came for holidays and didn’t have huge budgets. Homes were more weekenders – lightweight fibre cement beach shacks. Now we’re seeing more articulated concrete residences as more people move here permanently.
We’re also seeing a lot more use of greenery on buildings, planters and gardens. People really want to have that connection to outdoors and nature, a seamless connection to the landscape.
Q. What was your approach to designing our Wyandra project?
We saw an opportunity to move away from a ‘timber and tin’ local vernacular and provide something more solid, robust, permanent and low maintenance. We have learnt a lot from building lightweight homes in the subtropics for 20 years and our recent approach has been designing ‘heavier’ structures to stand the test of time.
For Wyandra, it is very much a fusion of the historic lightweight subtropical Noosa coastal architecture with a more solid, robust yet minimal and timeless flavour.
Q. What do you find unique about the Wyandra project?
The materiality and the built form is really exciting. It offers a real point of difference in the market. Noosa has been flooded with duplex and dual occupancy dwellings and a lot of the time the general design approach is to mirror floor plans. But the Noosa planning scheme has tried to stop or water this down by encouraging the use of different materials, setbacks and different heights.
At Wyandra we have taken that a step further, designing four houses with completely different floor plans. Each building is related to the other, but each has a distinct design. We really wanted the design to be seen as a catalyst for good development.
Contact us
Molti Group
125 Jonson Street
Byron Bay NSW 2481