Mountain On Fire
Gadigal Country / Camperdown, NSW
Cambewarra is the name etched into the half-moon window above the front door of a 1904 Camperdown terrace built by the Fowler & Sons pottery works on the boundary of their adjacent works. The name is taken from a Dharawal word for "mountain on fire" (to be confirmed via first nations engagement) - joining cambe (fire) and warra (mountain) - and it holds the two questions the project is built around: how do we live as stewards of the natural environment, and how do we adapt the buildings we already have to a heating climate.
The house is being upgraded to the EnerPHit standard, the certified renovation pathway within Passive House, using bio-based and recycled building materials. The governing brief is short: nothing leaves site. Existing fabric is deconstructed and re-deployed wherever it can be, hazardous materials excepted. Pre-construction, the house has been instrumented as a working laboratory - internal temperature, relative humidity and mould levels have been measured across rooms over a full annual cycle to inform every decision in the upgrade.
ASA founder Alexander Symes and his wife Liz purchased the property in 2022 to fulfil a long-held intention to renovate a terrace as their family home. Their two sons, Henry and George, will move in with them. The original front rooms - including pressed cornices, marble mantels and joinery - are being retained and reinstated. A new addition widens the existing footprint creating two central courtyards connecting to landscape, light and ventilation.
Material selection is a testbed for circular and low-carbon construction. New work aims incorporate hemp, cork, bamboo, algae-based products and recycled Australian hardwood. Original bricks will be lifted, cleaned and re-laid. Furniture, joinery and a digital material library are being produced in collaboration with The Wattle Road, applying their Full Circle Design methodology - each piece documented from material origin through to finished object, and each material catalogued for future use elsewhere.
The full process is being recorded as Mountain on Fire - a long-form documentation project intended as a guidebook for designers, builders and clients undertaking similar retrofits. A seventeen-part documentary series will track the project from first demolition through to final blower-door test, followed by an e-book to be used as a practical learning guide. Construction began April 2026; completion is targeted for mid 2027.
Nothing leaves the site
Project Team
ASA - Alexander Symes - Fergus Hayes-Sant - Bill Job Bella Wise - Vita Atrill Harry - Coxhead-Wear - Katherine Madden - Irina Nitzschke
The Wattle Road - Full Circle Design furniture, joinery and digital material library
Red Cedar Constructions
Carrington Construction
Inner West Window Specialists
Status
Construction Q2 2026 - Q3 2027
Documentation
Mountain on Fire - seventeen-part documentary series · e- book