Hobart writer – portfolio

A series of articles focussing on timber fit outs, for Forestry Tasmania (now Sustainable Timber Australia)

Catriona was commissioned by Forestry Tasmania to research and highlight projects where the designers or builders featured one or more timbers in the internal fit out: 

• Timber.Fitout.CM.Utzon Room.Sydney.Opera.House
• Timber.Fitout.CM.Terroir.Hazards.Tasmania
• Timber.Fitout.CM.Scottsdale Eco.Centre.Tasmania
• Timber.Fitout.CM.Rare.Books.Room.Supreme.Court.Brisbane
• Timber.Fitout.CM.Port.of.Brisbane
• Timber.Fitout.CM.Melbourne.Museum
• Timber.Fitout.CM.Crystal Inspiration.Shop

How to avoid the crowds in Hong Kong

In 2018 we wrote a blog post on how to avoid the crowds in Hong Kong, for the Escape Travel Blog site. We describe fun ways to get out of the city and into the National Parks, hiking trails, beaches and preserved areas. Although no longer live online, here is the published text:

Hong Kong: How to avoid the crowds … and still have lots of fun!

Typical Hong Kong attractions

Gleaming skyscrapers, bustling ferries, gleaming shopping malls and crowded traditional markets are the images most tourists see when they are researching Hong Kong. These exciting elements are only one aspect of the city: there are quieter places that many visitors overlook.

Read More “Guest blogger: Escape Travel”

Australian landscape design: key sustainable principles

Catriona was commissioned to research and write a report on Australian landscape principles for Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute. This report was to guide the planning choices made by SMEDI for a site being developed near Sydney.

As requested by the client, the examples in this report are well-known and award-winning landscape projects in Australia, that focus on design using native plants, stone, wood and natural materials and address topics, such as ‘global problems’, ‘green house’, ‘ecology’, and ‘sustainability’. 

Australian Landscape Design: Key Sustainable Principles report

River Power

The editor of Renew: Technology for a Sustainable Future commissioned an article on harnessing river power.

In this article Catriona describes how Nigel Tomlin and his son Josh designed and custom-built a hydroelectric generator in their Southern Tasmanian backyard.  The water’s power comes from its fall of 30 metres along 500 metres of pipeline: no mean feat given the project is entirely self-researched and self-funded and had multiple local and state authority hurdles.

Read the article here: River power: a hydropower station in your backyard

Feature articles on design, building, architecture, and landscape architecture

We are frequently commissioned to research and write feature articles on design, building, architecture, and landscape architecture for nationally and internationally published journals.

Read More “Design feature writer”

Adaptive re-use of CBD shop-top spaces

The editor of Tasmania’s The Business Gazette commissioned a series of articles on business + sustainability.

Read More “Hobart feature writer: The Business Gazette”

Guest blogger

We love writing blogs for other websites.  Here is one we wrote on D&C contracts:

The pros and cons of a D&C constriction delivery model

Catriona wrote a series of posts for the award-winning website Garden Drum, each of which describes the provenance, naming and characteristics of unusual plant species.

• Roscoea: unusual flowers cast a lemon glow in a dark spot
• Three garden angels: a personal mythology
• Book review: All About Roses
• Cheap potting mix brings uninvited visitors
• Brunsvigia josephinae: Empress of the garden
• Flashes of red – scarlet runner beans
• Behold: Colchicum!
• Cape gooseberry – Physalis

We research + draft competition entries for architectural and design awards.

Need help drafting your entry, and putting it all together? We can do this for you! These are some entries we wrote for our clients:

• 2014 Crabtree House [excerpt] see also the articles on this project in Habitus and Green Magazine here
• 2017 Hobart Airport Stage 1 [excerpt]

The sights and sounds of Portugal

Catriona was commissioned to research and write a 750-word feature article on Portugal for Flight Centre’s Escape Travel brand.

The brief was ‘to entice travellers to get off the well-beaten (Spanish) track and venture into Portugal’, by describing the best aspects of Portugal for a fun two-week holiday. The challenge of this project was limiting the sites/sights as there are so many places and things to see and do … and eat! The outcome is a fantastic looking feature article, delivered on time and within the tight word limit.

Portugal Feature Article

Reports on EPA NSW FOGO recycling bin initiative 

In April 2018 we were commissioned by NSW Environmental Protection Agency to write two reports on the EPA’s FOGO (food organics and garden organics) recycling bin initiative in two NSW Council areas.

This process involved undertaking research, gathering historical and statistical  data and interviewing the relevant Council officers and other stakeholders.  The reports can be seen here:

Kiama City Council

Richmond Valley Council