Warwick O'Brien Architects

Warwick has been fantastic working on the eco residential design that would best take advantage of the features of my allotment and its surroundings. I felt reassured the project is in good hands and innovation is also a key strength with Warwick O'Brien Architects.

As an interior designer it has been an honour and a pleasure to have worked on such stunning projects. Warwick is very collaborative with a great sensibility for design and finish incorporated into his very forward looking designs. He is also very happy with taking risks and encouraging his clients to think outside the box in order to achieve something truly unique and spectacular.

We worked with Warwick to design an extension on our house based on passive solar principles. The process was very interactive and collaborative throughout the design phase, with the final design being very much a fusion of our personalities and preferences with Warwick's professional expertise. We had a lot of fun shaping our new house and seeing it coming to life! Living in it is a delight & the passive solar design works beautifully; the space can reach 23-24c on sunny winter days with no heating being used.

Build Development Solutions have a long association with Warwick O'Brien Architects and are proud to be associated with and considered for the projects that Warwick O'Brien designs and creates. Warwick is 100% committed to delivering custom bespoke, sustainable design concepts that satisfy and exceed client's expectations. His attention to detail and professionalism are unsurpassed in our personal experience. Warwick places great focus in cultivating and sustaining working relationships with his clients and aims to be proactive in all aspects of the project from inception to completion. His practical approach is evident throughout the construction process.

After viewing an extension designed by Warwick through Adelaide’s Sustainable House Day, we approached him to create an extension for our 1920s villa-style home that would follow sustainable principles. After a year of regular consultations a plan was developed including an open-plan living/dining/kitchen area plus pantry/laundry, master bedroom and ensuite bathroom, study and workshop. After another year of building, we are now enjoying a very bright and capacious extension. Designed as an elegant pavilion in our garden, with large north-facing windows, the extension stays remarkably warm in winter. As well, it supports our solar cells and collects lots of rainwater for use in the house and garden. The modern design integrates superbly with our old villa. We greatly enjoyed the design journey we took with Warwick.

From our first meeting with Warwick, it was very clear that he was our first choice for an architect. We were shown a selection of homes at various stages of construction and it became evident that we loved his design concepts. From there, we provided him with a brief and he delivered some preliminary design sketches in line with our brief. We then were able to work together to refine it further and come up with a design that in the end was better than what we'd asked for. His eye for clever sustainable design and his ability to utilise space allowed us to fit everything we wanted in our home and to fit within our budget. Throughout the whole project Warwick has been professional and attentive; from providing assistance with tender process to walking us through the selections process; his strong experience in contact management has proven itself in overseeing the construction process. I would have every confidence in recommending Warwick to anyone looking for a smart sustainable solution for their next home. Phil & Amy Wilson

We met Warwick O’Brien at a “Sustainable House Day” presentation, and being impressed by the contemporary, minimalist style of his work and the very high-quality finish of the build, we engaged him to design our new home, and to oversee the entire project. Warwick delivered a striking and functional home for us, on a site which called for a building that complemented a magnificent natural setting. Our brief presented him with a challenging site – an irregular shaped, sloping block of 950 square metres facing a Red Gum-lined creek. We asked for a north-south oriented, retirement and potentially disability-friendly house, maximising views to the natural creek at the front and up to the Morialta Conservation Park at the rear. With the odd shape of the site (wide on the frontage, narrow at the hips and broad again at the rear), a reasonable slope from side to side and a 45-degree offset from true north, Warwick produced a design that maximised the views, and considered seasonal orientation. Warwick’s original concepts and later drawings required few changes from us. During the approval process, challenges to the design from the local Council were successfully argued with Warwick’s experience, advice and support. His close and long-standing links with the builder ensured that the lengthy construction period led to a superb outcome. Warwick championed innovative construction materials and techniques, putting sustainable principles into practice, with a focus on low energy use. He engaged designers to develop a new LED uplight to illuminate ceilings. The rainwater tank required for compulsory bushfire water storage as well as domestic use, is built under the house and fitted with a "bladder" lining, allowing for a high capacity storage, eliminating unsightly and space-consuming tanks on site.

After doing our research into Low energy, sustainability and eco-friendly, we proceeded to find an architect that understood our brief. After meeting with a few architects we chose Warwick O’Brien , The first time we met him we felt very comfortable and were very impressed with how passionate he was about low energy, passive heating and cooling and sustainability etc. We gave Warwick a wish list of what we wanted to include into our house. He hit our brief and the first plan he drew and designed for us was perfect, we did not change a thing. We also retained Warwick as our project manager and he worked very close with our builder to achieve the results that we expected. Warwick was very hands on, sorting problems out on site as well as being available on the phone if any trades people needed clarification on anything. We gave him a budget but with everything that we wanted to include in our build Warwick had no option but to go over our budget, he communicated with us every step of the way and always selected products that were value for money and good for the environment. We love the design of our house and it felt like home the day we moved in. We have a lot of light coming into our house and it is beautiful and warm with our polished concrete floors being heated with the sun and our underfloor heating. We highly recommend Warwick O’Brien to anyone who is looking for an architect with lots of experience, great designs and ideas and a passion for sustainable living, but most of all someone that will listen to your needs and is easy to get along with.

Warwick O'Brien Architects have been fantastic so far with my house plans. They have promptly drawn up great plans for a sustainable build, successfully lobbied difficult Council planners to get my requirements met, and promptly redrafted plans to accommodate changes (even waiving fees on one occasion because of unreasonable Council demands). I can highly recommend them. Sue