Michiel Gerber architect

Michiel Gerber Architect

184 St Johns Rd
Glebe
NSW 2037
Australia

mobile 0414 938 008
fax 02 9566 4908
telephone 02 9566 1502

email: michiel@gerber.net.au

Michiel Gerber has worked with projects over $2 million and as little as $5,000.

With 25 years experience building, and 15 years in architecture, Michiel is highly skilled at budgeting, and finding ways to use materials and design in efficient ways to make the most of the available budget.

Michiel Gerber’s designs aim to minimize impact on neighbours, including body corporates.

Justifiable objections can be time consuming and expensive for the client.

However, Michiel Gerber has had significant success with local council negotiations and client advocacy when a design has integrity and should be approved.

A wide range of creative and innovative solutions are available. Passive solar design and water saving are integral to Michiel’s design practice.

“Managing light and heat, and saving water can become an architectural tool, not an imposition.”

Michiel Gerber’s designs emphasise light and sustainability, are highly liveable and comfortable, while also uncluttered and minimal.

The aim is to create a dwelling that clients and household enjoy.

“I don’t believe in making people live to a design. So the design needs to embody the client’s needs and habits as well as having its own integrity and balance.”

Questions of how long the client expects to stay in the residence, investment and capitalisation issues are discussed as part of the overall design and construction plan.

With 25 years of building experience, Michiel Gerber knows how to design not only for the page, but for the construction process itself.

His experience overcomes the inefficiencies that can develop for a client consulting both a builder and an architect.

Michiel works closely with the clients, discussing and inspecting the site, whether it be an existing house for renovation, or new site. He looks at the building’s or site’s orientation, sun and weather, the existing building’s orientation to the street and neighbouring buildings.

This discussion covers the client’s needs, their own design ideas and preferences, and the budget; as well as issues of local council regulations, and the streetscape.
Taking all this information back to the office, Michiel’s design purpose is always to create beautiful, sustainable space.

• First design sketches are offered and discussed with the client. Discussion with neighbours if needed.
• Fee and contract finalisation.
• Detailed designs are then produced for the Council drawings and the lodgement of the Development Application.
• Negotiations with council and neighbours where necessary. Further alterations to design if necessary.

• Once the DA has council approval, tenders for building can begin. The work may be undertaken by Michiel Gerber and his building team, or completed by an independent builder or subcontractors.
• Building commences. If using another builder, a client may continue with Gerber’s architectural services in the administration of the building contract, or supervise building themselves.

Michiel Gerber’s practice provides a complete design, building and project management package:

• Architectural excellence in design
• 3D CAD computer renderings and ‘walk-throughs’
• Architectural photography and model building
• Skilled project management, building and construction practice
• Extensive skill and experience with local councils, governmental agencies, neighbours, body corporates

Michiel* Gerber’s Sydney based architectural and construction practice dates from 1993, with over 50 housing projects completed since then. His building and construction experience dates from the early 1980s.

He works with clients on all stages in the design and construction process and manages projects from first sketches to when the clients move into their home.

As a builder he was a joint winner with his then building partner, of two Master Builder Awards for excellence in building. A graduate of the University of Technology, Sydney Michiel was awarded the 1993 WA Nelson Memorial Prize for best honours dissertation.

With extensive contacts in the building and architectural industries, the practice regularly works with skilled cabinet makers, artisans, landscapers, and artists on various design and construction projects.

*‘Michiel’ is pronounced as ‘Michael’. Born in Holland, Michiel immigrated to Australia in 1972.