Welcome back to Architecture, Coffee, & Ink! As we resume our regular show schedule! I am excited this week to be joined by Mr. Alexiou, as he shares some wonderful insights.
TRANSCRIPT:
It’s been a while, but its finally time for Architecture, Coffee, & Ink.
20 second Intro song
Hello, this is Hollywood C. and you’re listening to Architecture, Coffee, & Ink. A podcast dedicated to introducing concepts, detailing out designs, and tackling the architecture you might not realize the meaning behind. I’m your hostess and I am here today to start introducing you to the designs that make you wonder why.
tag line: So, I ask you to brew your coffee, grab your sketch book and pen, and let’s begin.
Hello once again my designers, dreamers, and everyone in-between! This is an extremely exhausted Hollywood C with a solid 800+ mile move officially under my belt. I might have boxes still stashed in my closets, but I am super excited to kick off the next phase of Architecture, Coffee, & Ink. And what better way to do that, than to dive right into an Interview. I will update you all a bit more what has been going on with me next week, because I don’t want to take away from this interview with Charles Alexiou, the co-founder of Sydney based Mid Century Modern Homes (MCM Homes). Before we dive straight into the interview, let me give a brief bio.
As someone with an incredibly diverse background, he brings his life experiences into the field. He has a background in Nuclear Physics, Applied Mathematics, Investment Banking, and Software Design. Combined with the emphasis on quality, he delivers designs that simultaneously draw inspiration from modernism while still being innovative and avant-garde.
Please help me welcome Charles Alexiou as we discuss his designs, his advice about the housing market in Australia, and some great advice about finances and investments.
Interview Transcript:
Hollywood C.
Thank you so much for coming on the show, I appreciate it.
Mr. Alexiou
Thank you for inviting me.
Hollywood C.
While I have briefly introduced you to the podcast, can you go into a bit more depth about both your background and your amazing firm? I noticed while looking through your website, that there seems to be some inspiration from the Modernist movement? Or perhaps a touch of Harry Seidler’s Modernist Pavilion.
Mr. Alexiou
OK, a little bit about my background. I actually grew up in the Northern Territory, which is real Crocodile Dundee territory in in Darwin and I spent most of my childhood school holidays on building sites. My dad had a construction company and so my mother would farm the various different children out for the school holidays and I would always go to work with Dad, and I guess I was able to internalize that is that I showed before. From there, it just became a passion, and I was fascinated with design and the process and so that’s sort of my childhood. I have many former lives. I studied in Nuclear Physics and Applied Mathematics at the Australian National University and as though that wasn’t torture enough, I went on to do an Honors Degree in Applied Mathematics, but I ended up landing myself in banking, which was… I was-showing my age here- I graduated in the mid-80s so and that was when there was a really interesting time. You know, during the whole you know, Wall Street, sort of era. Big hair, big shoulder pads. And it was very fashionable, very much in vogue to be in banking. And so… my mathematical background was very appealing to the banks and so I landed myself a position there initially as a Trainee Dealer in Foreign Exchange and I moved up to be the Chief Technical Analyst for the bank. And then from there I then migrated onto Software Design-IT, which was like the next big craze, and I sort of realized fairly quickly after that that I was I was being attracted to highly paid industries.
The reason for that was because it was actually helping me fund what I was really passionate about, which was property. So, during that whole period of time, I would buy properties, do them up. Sell them. Meanwhile I was working full time, so now I got to a certain stage where my mother passed away. And just like the whole sort of, you know when you lose a parent, like everything you know your whole world is sort of rattled a little bit. And you sort of think like what’s really important to me in life? And that’s when I thought you know, I’m really passionate about design and architecture and I’m just going to pursue that. And so, I then graduated in into that field.
I’m not an architect, I’m a building designer, but my business partner, Mr. Pappas, he is. He is an architect. So, I -and this will both come through- I have more of a passion for the interiors. And he is more for the exteriors. And so, what we do is…we work really well together. You know complement each other. And, and that’s where the whole Pappas Alexiou came from in relation to the MCM Homes. About five years ago, four or five years ago. Uh, there was a-I don’t know if you experienced this in the US, but here in Australia the building industry sort of way, you know, just basically-not decimated-but it was just very quiet. There was nothing happening. And we know, we feel that because architects and designers are like the Canaries in the Coal Mine-we are the first to get the chop. As far as priorities are concerned, when the economy starts getting tough, so we’ve, uh, we decided to sit down and with look at what can we do that utilizes our skills, our knowledge, our contact base to do something outside the square. Yeah, so we’re not just architects. And that’s when we decided to design pre-designed homes. With that we’re both passionate about the midcentury modern sort of era because it’s so optimistic and you know all of a sudden, you know. It was born post Second World War. The world was a peace and it’s just such a, you know, inspiring period in architecture. Uhm, so we decided to design a series of homes or estates.
I don’t know in the US, whether you have that sort of concept or philosophy where, there’s like a it was like a big suburb, or an area that developers. They, they acquire the land while it’s sort of zoned rural or whatever. Yeah, and now then apply to council to have it rezoned for residential and they usually carve them up into. Into little, little, you know blocks. And they put the infrastructure in, you know the streets and the sewerage and the streetlights and all that sorts of stuff. And then they sell the lots and people then could put their own houses on there. And so, we decided to design homes specifically for those sized lots. So that’s why in our, the website what we have is we have them compartmentalized into groups, and by, you know, usually people when looking at home, yeah. They want number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, number of car spaces. Uh, plus or minus the swimming pool so and, and what we’ve also done is we’ve also said suitable for a block of land with X meters frontage or X feet frontage for your audience. Uhm, so that that’s how MCM came about, and what we found out that because until now all the project homes, in inverted commas, are all very similar. They’re all identical. It’s almost as though they’ve all gone to the same… Designers and the only thing that really differentiates them is maybe some texture on the facade or some different coloring, but they’re all those fairly, you know, homogenized sort of homes. And so, we decide to have a point of difference and we have been surprised at the positive feedback that we’ve been getting. And it’s almost as though you know Retro and Mid Century Modern is coming back in a big way. So, so that’s a little bit about my background and about how we got to this point with MCM.
Hollywood C.
No, I definitely agree about it kind of coming back. As soon as, I saw your beautiful like website it was, like oh, that looks so… like it’s very familiar in a way.
Mr. Alexiou
I think also it’s; we’ve grown up experiencing that sort of home and you’re right, there’s that familiarity and it’s great because. It’s familiar to us, but it’s new to the young generation and so they think it’s all this new stuff and little do they know.
Hollywood C.
As a firm, or even just as an individual, what are the steps you take or process you used to see a design come to life? I know you kind of went over how you started up your firm and how you purchase land and things like that, but is there something from the first client conversation or do you have those conversations with individuals? To the completed design.
Mr. Alexiou
There’s, we wear two hats. One hat is the design hat that’s really important. And the other hat is the business hat. And that’s where you need to wear that hat, because if you don’t, you don’t make money from architecture. What we’ve done is, we’ve essentially made, created these designs so people that come to us already have looked at the website and like the style of design, it’s almost like a self-selecting process where they come to us already, yet bring their hand up. And so, from that point on, we’re able to then work with them and we can customize it for them and be it orientation or be it roofline, or be it choice of materials for the exterior- we customize, and we work with them. Your question was in relation to the first- in a situation where a client will come to us and say, look, I’ve got this block of land. I like the concept. I like the look and feel. I just want something specific for my site. Something bespoke, then yes, the site plays a very, very important role. In that.
So there’s sort of two elements, with the estates that I talked about before, you’re sort of limited because the block sizes are you know, fairly small. And yeah, I don’t know what they’re like in the US, but here in Australia you know the sites like 300 square meters. So, they’re not very big. So, we don’t have that luxury to, to move the house around for the sun so we make the most of what we’ve got. But all our designs have got something in there and if you look closely at them, you’ll notice that we have these sorts of internal courtyards in the middle of the house and the whole idea there is to allow the house to breathe and for light to come in and so forth whereas. The traditional house is like a box is and it’s dark in the middle of the box. So, what we do is we cut out a square and that allows the building to breathe. Bring natural light and ventilation into the middle of the house, so… it feels as though you’re outdoors without you compromising your comfort.
Hollywood C.
That’s a pretty interesting design, especially with like, the interior courtyard. So, do you use like a lot of passive lighting and things as well in your design or?
Mr. Alexiou
Yeah, absolutely, uhm. The environment plays a big role, and you know with energy prices going up and you know we’re hearing it all over the world, we need to do our bit. And a lot of our designs are what we called passive solar design. So, depending on the orientation of the sun and so forth we place the courtyard, the internal courtyard, in a place whereby in a location within the house. Whereby it maximizes light, which means heat in winter, and because the sun is much higher in summer, it doesn’t heat up the house. It keeps it cool in summer and warm in winter. There really important factors and these are things that, these are nothing new. These are things that are near these concepts and principles in design have been around since the mid-century. It’s just that for some reason, I don’t know, we just got lazy, or we just didn’t care, or you know, we just. Oh well, you know if it’s cold, we just put an air conditioning on. You know, if it’s warm, we’ll turn the heater on, you know. So, all those elements do play a factor in in design.
Hollywood C.
My favorite question, which you kind of talked about is how the site plays a role in design. So how does the site impact your design decisions? Kind of already spoke a little bit about it, so I’m sorry.
Mr. Alexiou
Yeah, yeah, yeah no, that’s OK. Well, no, that’s OK, the site is, plays a major part in it. In those estates, to a lesser extent, because there there’s not much you can do, whereas if you’ve got like, say a quarter acre block of land which is like 9000 square feet in US you’ve got room to play, you know you can move the house and swing it around, but with those other blocks there so narrow you know you can barely get a house on them. The land is really important. The site. Uh, it impacts a lot of things, including you know the orientation of the house, Sun, ventilation, where prevailing winds are coming from. The aspect, you know what you’re looking at, and that’s really important, and the and the site actually talks to you and says this is what’s needed here, and our philosophy is to take a very light on the earth type of approach. Not those big, heavy, you know I call them mausoleums. You know, bunker-type, heavy home. So, the mid-century is a very different philosophy, but the land is very, very important.
Hollywood C.
So, I imagine that the experience overall, especially with all your different careers, has given you the opportunity to cultivate some rather unique insights into the field. Where do you and your firm land on the architectural design versus project builder scale-or even design build? I know that in America, not all firms here are part of the build phase, and it’s not uncommon to see a firm kind of specialize in one aspect over the other.
Mr. Alexiou
Yeah, we come. We sit right in the middle. Uhm, or we straddle both and the reason for that is because we want to have an input into the design, which we obviously have. But we also want to make sure that it is implemented and executed well. Uhm, you know you could have the most amazing design. And if the execution is poor then it’ll be very, very- it’ll be unfortunate for the client. So, what we do is we like to have a-not a control, in such, but we just like to maintain, keep an eye on it. During the build process, have a really good relationship with the builders. And just point out those things that are not done as they should be, and I think that then helps. Visible, it makes for a very happy client at the end and it keeps the intention on track and what it does for us also, is it allows us to constantly be abreast of the various different techniques that builders are using, so we can keep refining our processes and our designs accordingly. And that’s really important, because if you just design something you [and you] don’t care how they execute it then you know you’re setting yourself up for something over there. So, it it’s a very- we like to keep a foot in both camps. Let’s put it that way.
Hollywood C.
That makes, no, that makes a lot of sense. I think there’s a lot of horror stories in the field of people who, architects who let the design go and didn’t like what ended up happening at the end. So do you feel that your inspiration helps you with this on the way you approach your designs and from the start, allow you to be designer-builders as a firm.
Mr. Alexiou
Yeah, I think so. I think so. I think and if you look at how modernist architecture was born, it was born from new ideas, materials, new materials that were available at the time. So, all of a sudden we’ll be able to have you know, large expanses of suspended ceilings that we didn’t, we never have before and so because materials are constantly changing it’s really good to have that. Yet insight into you know: what building materials are available? What the Builders are doing how and they’re doing it. Uh, because that helps us then you know, build it into the next design.
Hollywood C.
So, in following up with that question, does being involved with the entire process give you an advantage in delivering high quality results? And I think you mentioned that being able to pick each individual material really, really help with that, but have you noticed? Maybe in your past when you when you first started, maybe you didn’t do this? And you like discovered lesser result.
Mr. Alexiou
Yes, uh and no, but uh, the answer to your question is I think there’s most definitely A and there’s most definitely an advantage in having involvement in the process from A-Z. It just makes life so much easier for everybody. We know that our plans are being executed as they should. We keep everyone on track and what I mean by that is mainly and if there are any clients out there listening, then this is for you. Then we design a plan it’s a plan, it’s like a recipe. If you don’t follow the recipe you’ll end up with something very different. What happens, and it’s perfectly natural for human beings to do this, is as things are happening and as things are building. Ah, let’s change this. Or you know, what do you think of this and. And so all of a sudden it starts becoming something that it wasn’t intended to be. So, so we like to keep everything on track, and we’re not closed or shut off to those ideas. We’re open to them, but we need to be made aware of them so we know whether it will visually and aesthetically and functionally work in the end result.
Hollywood
OK, that’s definitely something, I think, for the student designers listening that they should take a note of in their answer.
Mr. Alexiou
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hollywood C.
Now it would be completely remiss of me to have you on the show and not ask you some questions about what individuals, either as clients or young future architects, should know. My show has a listener audience that a mixture of designers, DIYers, and everyone in-between. So inevitably at some point they’re going to be part of the housing market at some scale. Whether it’s renting, purchasing, living in the world, whether that is anything. I imagine that homes holds a special place in your heart, but what is your insight on home as an investment?
Mr. Alexiou
There are three things that we need as human beings. We need food, to nourish ourselves. We need clothing to get ourselves warm and protect ourselves from the elements and we need a roof over our heads. I, I don’t know, and this is a very interesting question, because different markets in different countries are different. But certainly, here in Australia the property market is very, very strong. You know we’re relatively new nation. We’re sort of viewed to the rest of the world as this sort of, you know Island Nation, Paradise, in the Pacific somewhere that has these weird animals jumping around called Kangaroos and you know these bears that just from the gum leaves. So, the images of Australia are very positive. Your lovely beaches, lovely weather, though no, not lately. Relatively politically stable. There’re no riots and there’s no coup, no one dies when a new Prime Minister is sworn into office, you know, so it’s, you know. Aussie is a very laid back, she’ll be alright, mate.
And have very strong political system-very stable political system and we have a universal health system as well. Uhm, which is very appealing to a lot of people, you know so. I think in in in the states, it’s a very different system. The health system and I believe there have been attempts to try and introduce a universal health to various levels of success, and so it, there’s a pull factor. And because in Australia, we can’t, trying to pick my words carefully here, we don’t produce enough babies basically. The population isn’t growing naturally, we bring migrants, and that’s where migration plays a role. And the beauty about migration is, you know, we have something like over 180 nationalities in Australia and they all live happily with each other and there’s anyone respects everyone, we have no gun issues. So what I’m trying to say is that the government has that lever which is to allow more migration. Now the beauty about that is that the point I’m trying to make here is they can increase the population very easily. It is a queue of people waiting to get into the country. And benefits of that is that most migrants, I would say all migrants, are truly appreciative of the opportunity to be able to resettle in in another country. Because don’t forget these people are fleeing you know wars, and famine, and all sorts of things. And they are really, really, really hard workers, and they’re happy to do whatever it takes to get ahead. Uhm, there’s a very strong emphasis on education with their children and so by bringing these people in, what we have is we have a population that growing. They are taxpayers from day dot ’cause they are, they work, and they need a roof over their heads. And that is probably their number one fundamental goal when they come here, after they’ve got the job, is they want to buy a house. ‘Cause that’s the security factor. And just to give you an example of how successful this this has been, since records were being kept here in Australia, which is in the late 1800s till now, property has been doubling in price every seven to 10 years. So yes we have some dips, but it it’s always on the way up. Because that demand, we can’t build homes quick enough for the demand. So that, to me, says that yes, property is a really good investment and you’re gonna make more from buying property in this country. And you know, if you just imagine if you buy something worth you know half a million dollars. Even if you don’t, and you borrow all of it. Let’s say you borrow all of it. In seven to 10 years, that half a million-dollar property is going to be worth a million. OK, so that half amendment, let’s say they still owe half a million to the bank. The other half a million is equity. So, it’s like cash in the bank, so they’ve made half a million dollars.
Hollywood C.
Just by purchasing a house.
Mr. Alexiou
Yes, by purchasing a house. That’s why it’s a national sport here in Australia. So that gives you a little insight of our market anyway. So, if there is any new talented young Architects out there that want to come and relocate to Australia. Please do.
Hollywood C.
I’ll make sure to send them your way, of course it goes without saying that finances are an extremely important aspect of this. Do you have any advice or recommendations, particularly for our Australian audience? As you mentioned, it is different globally.
Mr. Alexiou
Look, the finances are extremely important, and I would, I always recommend you see a broker or a financial advisor first, to see what your capacity is. Because you don’t want to go out and buy something and then struggle to get the finance for it ’cause that’s just a disaster for a lot of sleepless nights. And you know relationship breakups, so you know. You want to be able to sleep at night, so buy within your capacity. Now if your capacity is not as much as you would like it to be, there is still always a property at that price point. That you can buy, and you can get your money working for you in the meantime. So, in Sydney, for example, you know the average price of the house is over a million dollars now. Like crazy. Most people can’t afford that. Someone says to look my capacity, the bank says its only 800,000 or 600,000. OK, well let let’s look at where else, we can what we can do here and so we’ll look at the Queensland Market, which is cheaper, or Melbourne and Victoria. Uhm, and so they’re still able to enter the property market. They’re still able to get that money working for them, and when it gets to a point where they’ve got enough equity in the property and their financial situation has changed and they can afford something else then they can move up. So, it’s all about a staging process, yeah? If you are. Uh, but you know, if some people said, look, I’ll just keep saving until I have nothing to deposit. Then they’re always just behind the 8 ball because the market keeps moving.
Hollywood C.
No, that’s a lot of sense. That’s very good advice, especially like I think that’s pretty universal advice just for everywhere, of course we can’t. We hit like all the continents so I can’t really speak about each individual country as much as I would like to
Mr. Alexiou
Yeah, you don’t want to have sleepless night. That’s mine, it’s not worth it, it really isn’t worth it.
Hollywood C.
One of the other topics that I was interested in hearing your thoughts about, was designing for the future, especially in homes. How do we, as designers or future designers plan for future?
Mr. Alexiou
Good question, with design… Clients don’t often think about what I call future proofing a home because a home is something that you will buy and own and live in for years and years and years and years and how you function and how you function within the house would change. For example, you know if you’re a young family, it has a different purpose. You know you’ve got kids running around and all that stuff. But what you need to do is, you need to think forward and say OK, those kids are gonna start going through school and the importance of running around in the backyard is not gonna be as important as a study or something like that. And then you, know you gotta think again further forward and say OK, they’ve grown up and they’ve left home. And then you aren’t as healthy. So yeah, stairs, those sorts of things need to be taken into consideration in order to future proof a home because it’s purpose changes, its overarching purposes of having a roof over your head is the same. It doesn’t change, but how you function within it does change. Actually, important so that it has that flexibility to do that. So rooms that were used for a certain purpose can be used for something else. In the future, so you don’t, if that makes any sense. And the other thing is also just little things that can be done at from the very beginning that play can make a huge difference for example, having corridors that are slightly wider so a wheelchair can get down it. I’m not saying that you know you’re gonna need it. It that’s when you don’t but you know we’re humans, we don’t know what the future holds and if you’re in a wheelchair, or your partners in a wheelchair, you know you want to be able to get them easily from room to room. So all these and having light switches slightly lower like at arm’s length as opposed to up there. Uhm, you know just little things like that can make a huge difference. So yeah, I’ve had, because people don’t want to leave their home. As they get older and older, they just don’t want to leave their home, and so if you can make those minor changes at the beginning, then it makes it very comfortable for them. And it gives them longevity in the home. Uhm, they’re happier, and they’re not put into, you know Home or whatever. And and uh? I think it’s just like a win, win, win all round.
Hollywood C.
No, that makes a lot of sense, especially the light switches. It’s not something, like an everyday thing that you don’t think about when you’re in the prime of your life.
Mr. Alexiou
You don’t think twice about bending down or stretching up into those tall cupboards or things like that. But yeah, you need to think or yeah, and things like just having an extra wide shower recess, you know? So, if you are. Yeah, I mean you may just maybe just you might be in a car accident, you’ve broken a leg. Or you’ve gone skiing, you know, in the South of France, and you know, uh, and you’ve, you’ve broken your leg and you’re in a cast you want to be able to still have a shower. Yeah, and in the meantime, you’ve just got a comfortable shower.
Hollywood C.
That is very true. And finally, one of my favorite questions, I always like to ask one fun question at the very end of the interview.
Mr. Alexiou
Oh, here it comes.
Hollywood C.
If you had an unlimited budget and a client who is willing to give you complete free reigns. They just said design for me whatever you would like. Over the scope, the parameters, what would your project be? Whether that’s an entire city, or private home, or utopian society, it’s all up to you.
Mr. Alexiou
I think utopian society is one of those things that mean so many things to different people, so you’ll never get something that everyone agrees on. Uhm, so I’m gonna leave that one. I’m going at it by method of elimination. Uh, a city I think is one of those things that, uh. is so multilayered. Uhm, it’s it needs a team of great minds to do that. Uhm, so I would actually go for a private home. And the way it and the reason I like that is because I have a connection and I get to know the client really well. And so, what I’m actually able to do is I’m able to provide them a solution to their needs. Whereas with a, uh, a city, or you have to make certain assumptions. I don’t want to speak for everybody, but I can certainly work with the client to create their forever home. And that gives me great satisfaction and always I would always like to chunk things down and I like to start with, you know, one thing at a time. One client at a time. As opposed to 20 clients simultaneously, the beauty about that is because I can connect with them. I can provide them with what they want. And I also get that, you have no idea the satisfaction I get when I give them the key. Just before they’re going, and yes, they’ve been in during the construction time, and they’ve seen certain there. But that last thing where you know it’s all clean and it’s all been painted, and it’s all been styled, and they come back and just give them the key and they walk in, and it just gives me so much joy. I’m like beaming from earlobe to earlobe, for weeks.
Hollywood C.
No, that’s an amazing feeling. That was a very sweet answer. I was kind of expecting like death rays or.
Mr. Alexiou
You said final thing, and was like oh no, she’s gonna make me take my clothes off and run around the room or something.
Hollywood C.
But where can everybody find you if they are in Sydney and looking or Australia looking for your firm? Or to see what you have available?
Mr. Alexiou
Well, they can. Just go to our website (https://mcmhomes.com.au/home) and our office is in the heart of the city in Sydney. In a building called Australia Square, which happens to be round, but it was designed by Harry Seidler and yeah, and so we’re in one of his towers in the in the city. But you know our projects that are sort of all over the place. Get it everywhere and come, uh, yeah. I mean, if someone visiting, I’d love to take them around and show them around. If they want, I’ll show them you know architectural significant areas as well. Yeah, so it might be my next career, you know? Architectural tour guide.
Hollywood C.
Well, I hope not because your projects are that I’ve seen online are absolutely beautiful. The ones that you have.
Mr. Alexiou
Thank you again, I really appreciate. Thank you for inviting me. I’m super excited and you know, stay in touch.
Hollywood C.
Awesome, well thank you so much.
Interview Ends
A big thank you once again, I am so excited to kick off this new chapter of Architecture, Coffee, & Ink with a wonderful interview. And if you are interested in speaking on the show, whether it’s yourself, a firm, or just a topic that you are particularly passionate about. Don’t hesitate to reach out to either the website or email address. While both are included in the show notes, both are now architecturecoffeeandink, all spelt out. So that’s architecturecoffeeandink@gmail.com and https://architecturecoffeeandink.com/ I got rid of the funky old domain, but no worries I have a redirect set up, so even if you type in the old address-you will still get the new site. But once again a big thank you to all my listeners! Please rate, review, and subscribe. It truly helps. Please feel free to send me art, letters, suggestions, firms, projects, whatever! I love hearing from everyone! I am excited to meet with all my designers, dreamers, and DIY enthusiasts next week, with the long-promised Donald Judd episode, I got asked to include some clarification in the episode, so look forward to this new chapter of Architecture, Coffee, & Ink and
May your coffee mugs be full, and your ink wells never run dry.
60 secs end song re-looped.
