ABOUT
Talina Edwards: My Story
I’m an Architect & a mama, with a love for environmentally sustainable design, healthy homes, and natural living. My Ballarat-based studio is Talina Edwards Architecture.
I was always going to be an architect. Different types of buildings and how people live always fascinated me. All my childhood play revolved around homes, creativity and construction (you can read more about this here). This early architectural-exploration set the foundations for what would become my obvious career-choice.
I’m not sure when I started loving trees and our natural environment, I suppose it was also instilled in me from early childhood, or perhaps just intuitive. It never made sense to knowingly do something to harm our earth. I chose to become vegetarian in my teen years because “it felt like the right thing to do”… I trusted my instinct about that, before I was fully aware of the ethical, political and environmental weight behind my decision. In my adult years, I became interested in anything considered eco, green, environmental, and sustainable. I care for the future of our planet – especially since having children – and try to make informed decisions to help look after Mother Earth.
Not only do I care for the health of the planet, but also for our health and wellbeing…this is an evolving quest of mine. From choosing natural and healthy food (see more here), trying to avoid chemicals, toxins and pollutants, making ethical selections…both in my personal life and in my architectural practice.
I’ve also always been interested in teaching and helping others…whether informally with friends, tutoring architecture-students at uni, helping teach english to asylum-seekers, and now with my own kids (although sometimes I learn more about life from them!). I get a lot of fulfilment out of seeing others thrive and learn and often find this exchange is two-way, so we all benefit! This also absolutely applies to my love of sharing things about architecture and sustainability with my community, and collaborating with clients to design their dream homes!
My regular blog also combines my love of all things elemental design: green buildings, sustainable architecture, healthy homes and natural living… to hopefully help inspire you on your dream home journey.
So when all of these loves of mine combine in the studio, the culmination is my architectural practice, Talina Edwards Architecture: elemental design.
TALINA EDWARDS: PROFESSIONAL STORY
Talina started the practice after more than a decade of working as a Project Architect with architecture practices in Melbourne who excelled in sustainable architecture. Talina is a highly skilled and qualified professional, who cares deeply about the interests of her clients, and takes pride in offering quality architecture and sustainable design services. She now has a passionate team on board to help deliver architectural services – see Staff Profile page.
She gained her Bachelor of Architecture (Honours) and Bachelor of Planning and Design degrees at the University of Melbourne, and became a registered Architect with the Architects’ Registration board of Victoria in 2006. Talina is a member of ArchiTeam, and a member of the Australian Institute of Architects. She also has memberships with Ballarat Business Women, the Australian Passive House Association and the Building Designers Association of Victoria. Talina was honoured to be the recipient of the Peter Davies Scholarship for Small Business for the 2016 LBWR (Leadership Ballarat and Western Region) Leadership Program, through the Committee for Ballarat. Talina and her colleague Mia recently became Certified Passive House (passivhaus) designers.
TALINA EDWARDS: SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE & MORE
In addition to be a registered and practicing Architect, Talina also likes to be involved in bringing the message of the importance of sustainable design to her community. This includes:
Talina is on the team of the fabulous community workshop, The Creative Cubby Project. The team work with local children and their families to create an enormous eco-cubby house and garden from recycled materials. Focusing on learning through play and imagination , hands-on making and creativity, with an appreciation for sustainable living themes. See more and find out when the next event is: www.facebook.com/CreativeCubbyProject
Talina is one of the team of volunteer organisers of this monthly event held in Ballarat. A worldwide movement, Green Drinks is a social event with no political associations, the aim is to bring like-minded folk together with an informative guest speaker to learn a bit more about sustainability, the environment, climate-change, etc.
Talina has presented at Ballarat Green Drinks about “What is a sustainable house?” and hopes to discuss more about HOW to achieve this at future events. For details see: www.facebook.com/pages/Ballarat-Green-Drinks
Talina regularly writes posts on her blog to help inform and inspire her readers about all things to do with elemental design (green buildings, sustainable living, healthy homes and more). Head to https://talinaedwards.com.au/posts/ to read the latest offering.