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Sketch Design - Greensy Kitchen & Rear Living Renovation (2025)
Crafting Healthy, Beautiful & Sustainable Homes
At Fabric First Architecture Studio, we design thoughtful and healthy homes that balance innovation, comfort, and affordability.
Specialising in residential architecture and Passivhaus design, we prioritise practical, durable, smart, and energy-efficient design solutions that enhance everyday living.
Whether you are building new or transforming an existing space, our tailored approach will help bring your vision to life - beautifully and responsibly.
Explore our projects to see how we turn ideas into healthy, enduring, and livable spaces.
Our Services
Architectural Design & Consultancy Service
Whether you are after a full architectural design and consultancy service for your home, or a partial one, we are happy to assist.
The full scope of services we can offer includes:
- Schematic Design
- Design Development
- Town Planning / Development Application
- Building Permit / Construction Documentation
- Construction Contract Administration (including regular site inspections)
- Defect Liability Period
Our architectural design will always be based on solid Passive Solar design principles - at a minimum. Passive Solar design is a building design approach that utilises the sun's energy for heating and cooling the home, without heavily relying on mechanical systems. By thoughtfully considering a home’s orientation, layout, and materials, we design spaces that stay warm in winter by capturing the sun’s heat, and remain cooler in summer by minimising unwanted heat gain.
Passive Solar Design
Source: https://psci.princeton.edu/tips/2020/7/20/passive-solar-design-retrofits
Our Services
Passivhaus Architectural Design
In addition to traditional architectural design services, we also offer Passivhaus design.
Passivhaus is a high-performance building standard that originated in Germany in the 1990s, focusing on comfort, health, and energy efficiency. Homes built to this standard undergo strict quality checks to ensure everything functions as intended. The approach is grounded in science and proven performance, delivering excellent temperature control, moisture management, and durable building materials. Unlike many modern homes, a Passivhaus is designed to provide clean, fresh air year-round, consistent indoor temperatures without hot or cold spots, and virtually no mould. Best of all, it uses very little energy—meaning lower power bills and a smaller environmental footprint.
All these are achieved via 5 key design and construction principles, which must be undertaken as a system to be fully effective:
- Uninterrupted Thermal Insulation
- 'Thermal Bridge'-free Design
- High-performance Windows and Doors
- Airtight Design
- 24/7, continuous, balanced Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (such as HRV/ERV systems).
The full life-cycle cost and health benefit of Passivhaus design and construction have long been proven overseas, and this design approach is gaining more awareness and momentum in Australia in recent years. Further information can be found on the Australian Passivhaus Association website (https://www.passivhausassociation.com.au/) and Your Home - Australia's Guide to Environmentally Sustainable Homes (https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/passive-house)
We can assist in designing your home towards a Passivhaus target, whether you aim at actual Passivhaus certification or not.
Passivhaus Principles
Source: Passivhaus Institut (Darmstadt, Germany)
Portfolio
Welcome to our works.
Explore projects to learn more about what we do.
About
I am a Registered Architect, Certified Passivhaus Designer, with extensive experience across architectural design and planning in Vietnam, Singapore and Melbourne.
I specialise in sustainable, high-performance residential design, with a strong focus on Passivhaus and passive solar principles. I am passionate about helping families turning their vision of a healthy, comfortable and truly sustainable home into reality.
- Duong [Zeng] Tran.
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