We don’t impose. We only listen to the land. Every site has a logic. A grain, a light, a material memory.
Grounded began in 2004 when founder Tom Alcott returned from three years working with a practice in rural Japan. He came back with a conviction that architecture in Australia had become too concerned with how buildings looked from the road, and not nearly concerned enough with how they felt to live in — and how they sat in the landscape around them. The first project was a small timber house in the Pemberton forest. It won nothing. But the clients still live in it and haven’t changed a thing.
Because most buildings fight their sites. We exist to change that. To make architecture that starts with the land, reads its grain and light and material logic, and responds rather than imposes. The result is buildings that feel like they belong — to their place, their climate, and the people who inhabit them.
Our Values
We use materials for what they are, not what they can be made to look like. Timber weathers. Concrete marks. Steel rusts at the edges. We design for that, not against it.
The best building on any site is usually the quietest one. We resist the urge to add more and ask instead what can be taken away without loss.
Every client knows something about what they want that they haven’t said yet. Every site has a logic that reveals itself slowly. Our job is to be patient enough to hear both.
A small team of five architects and designers. We work closely, share credit generously, and take collective responsibility for everything that leaves the studio under the Grounded name.
Our Team
Twenty years of practice. Over 140 completed projects across residential, commercial, and public sectors. A small but growing list of awards from the institutions we respect most.
Credentials
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