Specialists in a range of architectural services from bespoke new homes and high end alterations to smaller residential projects with tight budgets, the team at Architect Prineas were recently invited to present a one-room display on the “Eco Luxury” theme at the 2011 Design and Decoration Show in Sydney. Their concept was to create a luxurious, eco-friendly bathroom utilising unusual and low-cost items combined in innovative ways with standard building materials. Everything in the bathroom was second-hand, bought on e-Bay, recycled or sourced from building site leftovers, including the Boral Bricks concrete masonry bricks.  

These Boral concrete masonry bricks were installed on their sides to display the internal indentions and give the room an unusual feature wall. The indented ‘pockets’ could also be used practically as mini-shelves and imaginative cubby holes to display bathroom accessories and decorations.     

Eva-Marie Prineas, Principal architect at Architect Prineas, says, “We normally use Boral concrete masonry bricks for construction purposes rather than for aesthetics. We decided to turn this tradition on its head and create a whole new look and feel by using a popular and well known product in an innovative and attractive way. We also painted white to draw attention to the rough texture of the material and to add depth and a sense of elegance to the room.”  

Eva-Marie says she enjoys collaborating with Boral because of the diverse, inexpensive and high quality product range that is available; “They are also in tune with our philosophy. They’ve been supportive of our creative endeavours even when we turn their products upside down or sideways!”  

A standout sustainable design feature of this luxurious bathroom was the Eco-ply structural frame. The idea of this frame was that it could be repeated to create a series of rooms – resulting in a house. All infill pieces and fixtures use to create the frame were re-cycled or re-used off-cuts and leftovers salvaged from construction projects, council clean-ups and eBay.  

Eva-Marie says, “Professional design services are clearly perceived as a luxury item by Australian homeowners, but we believe architecture should be playing a much broader role in private homes. In something as diverse, personal and potentially eccentric as the private dwelling, architecture should be embraced and encouraged. It provides a framework strong enough to incorporate principles, personalities, organisation and spatial relationships to the family home, yet it is flexible enough to accommodate recycled or found objects and to suit different tastes and budgets.”