women's centre, rufisque, senegal exhibition

An exhibition of the award winning building by Finnish architects Hollmen, Reuter and Sandman is currently on display at the Wilkinson building, level 2, the hearth, Sydney University.









This exhibition illustrates how participatory design, based on an understanding of the local and the incorporation of traditional materials can give rise to significant architecture. With the right balance of design and community consciousness, bricks + cartwheels aspires to reach the level achieved by these inspirational women.







Click here to view this project in more detail.



Also on display in the hearth is an innovative photographic exploration throughout some of Johannesburg’s most infamous shack settlements: Alexandra, Diepsloot & Marshalltown. A project which was an initiative of the global studio carried out in July 2007, it allowed locals to document their own lives thereby giving a fresh perspective of people and their rich cultural heritage . Through pictures these are their stories… click here

Amber and Harriet create new website at c's place

The technical whiz kids from bricks + cartwheels are currently working on updating the website. Glass of Thistle Hill Shiraz in hand, they are doing a great job of posting our latest endeavours.

The updated website will be up and running by the 13th of October, so be sure to check it out!

School handmade in Bangladesh

One of the founding members of bricks + cartwheels stumbled across this school and came back to the rest of us saying, "I want to marry this school!"

This school has won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 10th award cycle for its innovative use of locally made resources, and the way the project has built on the capacity of the local community. The project has created jobs and training through “learning by doing” which helps the local craftsmen to improve the standards and condition of rural housing in general.

We love this building and commend the architects for their elegant and beautiful solution to a community focused building.

For more information on this inspirational project, click here.

mud bricks in mudgee

The bricks + cartwheels team recently spent a whole weekend in Mudgee learning the art of mud brick making. bricks + cartwheels has recently been exploring the potential of using stabilised soil block as a construction technique for the Secondary School for Girls, Kenya.

The weekend at Mudgee was the perfect opportunity to test the construction methods of building mud bricks from scratch. Gerry, from Rosby Vineyard, was an amazing teacher and bricks + cartwheels learned the ins and outs of building mud bricks. bricks + cartwheels did it all, from digging out the sludge from the dam to mixing and packing the mud hard into the moulds with our hands!


It was great to learn exactly what materials, equipment, time and labour is needed to build the mud bricks. The weekend ended up being very successful for everyone involved. We had a great time making and learning all about mud bricks and most importantly Gerry and Kay from the Rosby Vineyard ended up with 102 mud bricks to build their new studio!

Check out the Rosby website here. They make a damn fine red!

sydney african film festival 2007, 19th-21st October

bricks + cartwheels will be sure to attend this not for profit event that celebrates African film and culture! By all reports it should be a colourful exciting showcase of highly acclaimed short films never before seen in Australia.

All money raised on the night will go to Hands of Help, a charitable organisation working to alleviate poverty and basic health care in developing countries and indigenous Australia. To find out more about the inspiring work of Hands of Help click here

The festival will be held at the Chauvel Cinema, Paddington and Anita's Theatre, Thirroul.

For more information and for screening times visit here