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While on tour as a young US Marine, Josh Oqueli was stationed in Spain for 6 months. In Barcelona, he walked into the Basílica de la Sagrada Família. At the time, he didn’t know about the architect and master builder, Antoni Gaudi, but the experience of entering this enchanted space inspired Josh to find out. Gaudi’s skill as both a designer and a builder resonated with Josh and led him on the path to creating the Bonsai Design + Build.
Bonsai Design + Build
Inspired by Gaudi, Josh has a strong belief that the best person to oversee the creation of a project, is the person who had the vision for it. By offering design and build, Bonsai is in a small but important niche, explains Josh. In an architect led design build practice, the process is the inverse of a regular construction company. When the project is led by the architect, says Josh, they take direct responsibility for the client and the project, all the way from concept to final inspection.
“There’s really nothing more sustainable than working with the existing building stock”
Passive House
Josh is a Certified Passive House Designer and Certified Passive House Tradesperson through the Passive House Institute, an international organisation dedicated to designing and building radically efficient buildings.
As Josh explains, Passive House focuses on 5 design principles and the team at Bonsai strive to apply these principles to all of their projects. Their guiding principles of design are:
- Maximise wellness user comfort, durability and energy efficiency
- Reduce or eliminate thermal bridging
- Build airtight envelopes
- Use high-performance windows
- Manage moisture and fresh air with whole-building ventilation
At Bonsai Design + Build, Josh also tries to use the sun’s energy directly for heating as much as possible.
Sustainable Building
A lot of Bonsai’s work is in remodelling and updating existing buildings. And this has a lot to do with sustainability. “There’s really nothing more sustainable than working with the existing building stock”, states Josh.
Collaborating with Clients
Josh and his team employ a collaborative design approach, involving clients as much as possible right from an initial meeting to discuss the vision. They use virtual conference meetings, with screen sharing to look at different layouts including the 3D views. Josh says that this type of technology allows clients to get a real sense for their project.
Josh enjoys the flexibility of running a small practice and he instils a strong sense of work-life balance. During 2020, they’ve become adept at working from home, but they still work, albeit for only four days a week. Having every weekend as a three day weekend “makes us better, sharper designers and managers” says Josh.
Check out Bonsai Design + Build projects on their website and various social media channels.
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