David Turnbull is owner and lead Architect at A’ARKATE’KT A’ARKATE’KT Red Hill, Brisbane, QLD 4059.
Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got to be where you are now.
As one of four boys I learned to share and not necessarily get everything I wanted and grew up way out west in Kenmore, spending my formative years living in an Architect designed house: proud to be becoming a second-generation Architect.
With kids intended (we managed the “pigeon pair”) my wife and I didn’t want to live too far from the city commuting hours daily. We chose scaled-down inner-city living in Petrie Terrace; everything we needed (work, fun and schools) was a walk away. It was also as close as we could move to the city without crossing to the “darker sides” of Brisbane and leaving the western suburbs. It also allowed us to live in a house rather than an apartment.
As an Architect I have worked for a variety of sizes and types of Architect firms before working from home during our childrens’ early school years. Recently I have moved away from the inner-city again to our Red Hill Office.
I understand you are a local property owner, investor and architect. Tell us about what you offer as an architect.
This Architect’s interest is helping people live small footprints; to preserve our planet’s resources while saving my clients’ energy and time. The ¼ acre “sub-urban dream house” requires occupants to devote too much time traveling to and from the outer suburbs; mowing large unsustainable trophy lawns; furnishing, maintaining and cleaning vast oversized houses…and the list goes on. To sustain such a dream requires a larger income, more time and stress to maintain. The result is less time with our families enjoying the home and lifestyle we have been trapped trying to achieve. Why would anyone choose to do this?
I also have an interest in multiple/co-housing & multi-generational living. These can also be smaller, more sustainable, affordable, and provide small, close-knit communities with improved safety and security. Existing historical examples can still be found in the well-serviced inner city where every occupant does not need to have their own car nor empty rooms and yards to maintain. Such properties I see will serve changing families including mums and dads and kids and blended families share costs, while still providing their own mini castles.
My family of four live in what I feel is an overly large 175 sqm house (we could comfortably remove about 30sqm). Our house sits on a 7.5 perch (170 sqm) lot which still fits a pool and courtyard.
We have invested in a similarly small house and lot (which one day will provide at least three modern flats) and a historical share-accommodation house, operating since before WW2, providing budget accommodation for just under 20 people on a 394 sqm lot. All our investments prove living smaller can be good for everyone: owners, tenants, and local communities.
How long have you been living in Petrie Terrace?
We purchased our home in Petrie Terrace last Century…early in 1999, having travelled long distances from our 1950’s flats in Chapel Hill. When we purchased in Petrie Terrace could be buy for under $200,000. Interest rates were just over 8.15%. We chose a house requiring renovation rather than spending the equivalent purchase price and renovation budget on a brand-new unit in Toowong.
What drew you into the area?
We had decided to move closer to work in the city; it was taking us a ridiculous 30 minutes each way to drive to and from work; not something we wanted when we had kids! As an Architect and Town Planner team, we wanted to prove small-lot living could be comfortable; even when potentially shared with unrelated people. Our first house was flats so we knew it was easy. We wanted to live out our ideals.
We had found four flats in Fortescue Street, Spring Hill, but on discovering them riddled with termites with an owner unwilling to budge on price, we drove home dejected taking a different route home. It was before the internet and Realestate.com.au; you had to search shop windows or drive around. No searching on-line 24/7.
Around the first turn we discovered an unloved wreck of a house (also riddled with termites). We walked around the vacant khaki shell peering into its pink interior and made an offer the next day. Even though my grandparents were distressed we were buying into the slums, paid $183,500 after haggling the price down from $215,000. The agent was unimpressed when she had to go back and forth (and this was before emails) and ultimately argue over $50; maybe we decided this amount was to make up for the holes in the floor. She completed the contract and we were able to call Petrie Terrace home.
Do you have a favourite building or place in the area?
I’ve had to close my eyes and zoom around the suburb, but both The Jackson’s Granary Warehouse (8 Petrie Terrace, Petrie Terrace) and Brisbane Arts Theatre (also on Petrie Terrace) both appeal to me. Both not character houses and both predominantly brick. Strange because brick monoliths are so unlike what I design.
Both buildings are old, but not in comparison to some of the houses in Petrie Terrace. Each preserve remnants of their past use and various occupants’ alterations. Both have elements which remain unapologetically rough; true to their past. And while they have been re-purposed to their current mixed uses, they could again be given a new life with different purposes and occupants in the future.
Beyond our home, my other favourite place is Hargrave Park. An underutilised relatively vast triangle of greenspace extricated from the suburb of Petrie Terrace, by roads, one called Petrie Terrace. It is a space if provided better connection to the suburb could be claimed by the locals to use its shade, sun, gardens, and mini vista to the city.
Since you have been here, how has the suburb changed?
The population has diminished marginally over the last 21 years and slightly fewer rental properties remain. When we arrived, there were no children. By the time we had our first, he was one of four boys in our street. Elvis left the street first, but today two of the boys remain in the street. Now there are many more other young children; and ours are the oldest.
Current generations continue to remove any remaining enclosed verandahs, built-in when the original two-bedroom cottages had to provide rooms to house large families. Now those verandahs sit vacant only occupied by symmetrically placed topiarised pot plants either side of the front doors with the reproduction “Chalet Bungalow” name plaques hung above.
For me Petrie Terrace has lost much of the character built-up from generations of residents’ additions and adaptations to the houses to make them fit their needs. Too many of the Queenslander workers cottages have had their character and the sole of past generations ripped and scraped clean to make them into something foreign. They were small, simple, beautifully crafted, pre-cut kit homes. Sitting on timber stumps with timber balustrades and timber screens surrounding timber walls and windows, their perimeters were wrapped in gardens. And their stumps meant they floated above the ground with open space below them.
Now we have extravagant, glitzy, over-scaled houses with cast iron gleaming in the sun, multiple bathrooms, numerous bedrooms and too many living spaces for their two occupants and a dog. So, the amazing well-worn character from when we arrived is missing from our Petrie Terrace…progress.
What are some of the things that most people may not realise about the area?
Not too many people immediately know where Petrie Terrace (the suburb) is. Like many parts of Brisbane, Petrie Terrace is partially lost in a fold in the landscape. And it is tucked between major arterial roads. Its seeming invisibility may in part be because it shares its name with one of Brisbane’s arterial roads, Petrie Terrace. I think it is luckily still largely hidden in full sight of passing grid-locked traffic.
Petrie Terrace also retains its 4000 post code after losing its status as a locality of Brisbane City. It comes without an inner-city price tag for a detached house. And remains affordable, so long as you can cope with lots half the size of a 16 perch suburban lots, which most think is tiny.
What is your favourite thing to do here when you have some time off?
Time off can be spent quietly chilling with the family at home, because even this close to the city as wrapped on all sides by multi-lane roads, it heart remains quiet.
When we need to escape roads, busways, railways, bikeways and increasingly connected parklands radiate out from our suburb, providing many choices. The arts and other events in the city and Southbank are favourites and all an easy bike or bus ride, or sometimes walk away.
How are you coping with life in this time of CO-vid 19?
Life has been different but good. The home office, abandoned when we shifted to our Red Hill office, has again been filled with work and learning with our teenage children home schooling. Gym, literally across the road, has been ZOOMed into our rear courtyard daily. The dog is happy for the company.
We are not looking forward the return of busy traffic, not that this makes our walking commute to work much slower, it just adds to the hum of traffic, which will again soon hide the ambulances which are currently more audible.
I have left too many of those home chores, which should have been done during lock-down. I have preserved them; waiting for the second viral wave…which I hope does not occur.
And I have not made sour dough, nor taken any challenges!
Who or what inspires you the most in life?
People taking or making the opportunity to try new things and reinvent the way they do things is inspiring. Doing a daily activity in a slightly different way allows the potential you might make improvement in the way you do it, or to discover something new, creating a spark and inspire us more.
I’m inspired by parents taking a break to smile, laugh, breathe and spend time enjoying the current pause with their family. Maybe they have been doing this behind closed doors but now they are more visible. I am sure it is encouraging others to do it too. After the pause, I can only hope this continues.
And in getting outside during his pause, be it walking or on bikes, I hope everyone has momentarily stopped and looked around to see how amazing our little bit of the world is.
My details are listed below if you are interested in a preliminary discussion about how I could assist you with your next project:
David Turnbull
A’ARKATE’KT A’ARKATE’KT
105 Musgrave Road, RED HILL Q 4059
email: Architect@Aarkatekt.com
www.aarkatekt.com