3 minute read
Inside the mind of holistic designer, Frank Macchia.
the HOLISTIC
designer
With an unmistakably evocative body of work, Frank Macchia’s designs along Australia’s East Coast, from Sunshine Beach to Byron, are often described as grand. But, for the seasoned designer and his team, the future of our family homes is grounded in the beautifully imperfect, small, harmonious, and sustainable.
Hi Frank! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I’m a designer with over 30 years of experience mostly in designing homes, although I have also worked on various commercial projects such as cafés and restaurants. With my family, I also run Shack Palace, a retail store in Byron Bay and a guest home in Noosa.
What motivated you to become a holistic designer rather than an architect? I’ve always been interested in patterns and the way things are connected. I generally like to view most things holistically as opposed to separately, so the process of designing a home where you only focus on meeting a brief has never felt like enough to me.
What does a day in the life look like? Every day is different, but my morning generally starts with meditation and visualisations for the day ahead, then I’ll head over to my work sites and meet with the trades. Afterwards, I’ll head home to make a morning ‘brew’ which is usually a blend of coffee and other herbs, spices, and nootropic goodies to keep me alert and creative for a day of zooming, emails, and client calls. Evenings are spent enjoying dinner and discussions with my wife, daughters, and their partners.
What about your career fulfils you most? Connecting with clients, builders, tradespeople, and my team, as well as the creative aspects of my work, are the first things that come to mind. There are many different places a person can go to get their home designed, so I’m always intrigued by the clients who come to me!
What inspires your designs? For me, designing is always about how spaces make us feel. Aesthetics is of course a part of this; visual details, forms and materials are interconnected with the way we feel and live in a space, so it’s all about finding the right harmony between aesthetics and felt experience.
As I’ve evolved as a designer, I’ve begun to see the joy and bliss in imperfection more and more.
When you’re not at work, what are you doing? Everything in my life is very interconnected. It’s difficult to draw a clear line between work and not work. I listen to a lot of podcasts whilst I’m driving around during the day, generally focussed on cultural evolution, with a bit of politics and science thrown in there. The relationship between people and nature informs a lot of my designs so I’ve found that camping with the family can also be a source of inspiration.
Any words you live by? Less of a quote and more of a philosophy: humans have two base emotions – love and fear. The more you live on the fear end of the spectrum, the harder it becomes to navigate the day-to-day. The more that you can live predominately in love, the more you can see the things that happen every day as magical and beautiful.
What’s in the pipeline at the moment? I’ve got a lot of fun projects on and I’m making a conscious effort to take on more renovations and try to get people to lean into the idea of smaller homes. A nod to having a more sustainable process is questioning how big our homes really need to be, especially given that there can be a lot of stress associated with living in and managing a large home. We live in a small home and have even re-designed the interior of our van as part of this exploration into smaller living.
As I’ve evolved as a DESIGNER, I’ve begun to see the joy and bliss in IMPERFECTION more and more. It’s often what makes us feel most comfortable in a space.”
