Emma Young

Cubo house is a renovated 1880s heritage-listed house in Fitzroy North, VIC.

Inspiration for the house came from the 'cultural memory of the existing building' combined with PHOOEY's commitment to sustainability.

The house has sustainable features including passive & active solar systems and rainwater harvesting for re-use.

Many materials from the original house have been upcycled and reused.

To do this PHOOEY made an inventory of materials and items removed from the project.

All the removed windows were repositioned to create a three-storey window-wall which also acts as a light-well to the new basement level.

In front of the window wall in the centre of the new spiral staircase, hangs a chandelier made of the original stair parts.

Security screens re-emerged as a privacy screen and sun shades, the bluestone fire hearth was once the doorstep and the salvaged timber flooring is now face kitchen joinery.

Original slate roof tiles and bricks were integrated into the facade.

The rear façade and internal joinery details were informed using the surrealist technique of Cubomania.

This involved cutting photos of the original building into squares and rearranging them to produce a resolved floor and facade layout.

Kaleidoscope is a two-bedroom apartment in Melbourne located within an old warehouse complex.

It sits on the second level, above an artist and industrial design studio.

It has no garden access so a glazed wall surrounding an internal courtyard acts as a lightwell with light filtered through red, orange and yellow hued windows above glass doors.

Original roof trusses were retained and painted black, contrasting with new white raked ceilings.

The design also retained existing timber flooring.

The glazing and kitchen laminates are organised chromatically to create the effect of an unravelled kaleidoscope.

Children's Activity Centre, located in South Melbourne is constructed from four shipping containers joined together.

Two large at the bottom and two smaller at the top.

The design by PHOOEY minimises waste along with the embodied energy of the materials.

The container doors are used as balcony ends, the removed side walls are cut into balustrades and awnings.

The project uses most of the remnants and off-cuts generated by the construction process.

Emma Young is an Australian architect, born in Sydney in 1971.

Young completed a Bachelor of Science (Environmental Design) at the University of Canberra before completing a Bachelor of Architecture at RMIT University in 1999.

Prior to establishing PHOOEY Architects with her partner Peter Ho in 2002, Emma worked in a number of renowned Melbourne architectural practices including Max May, Rijavec Architects, Lyons and Places Victoria.

In recognition of their contribution to awareness of sustainability and re-use of materials throughout their projects, Young with her partner Ho have received awards both nationally and internationally, including the RAIA National Award for Small Project Architecture in 2008.

In 2013, Young was an invited speaker at Material, the Australian Institute of Architects National Conference in Melbourne.

In 2014, she was an invited speaker at the CMS Design Experience Series in New Zealand.

Emma Young is currently in practice at PHOOEY Architects with her partner Peter Ho, in Melbourne.