We need to stop designing buildings that isolate us.

It’s not just about bricks, concrete, or climate targets anymore—it’s about connection. Connection to place, to each other, and to the natural systems that sustain us.

As architects, we’ve spent decades refining the sealed box. Perfectly calibrated interiors. Mechanical ventilation. Controlled light. Controlled sound. Controlled everything. And while this has led to some impressive engineering feats, it's also contributed to buildings becoming part of the problem.

Buildings currently account for 39% of energy-related CO₂ emissions globally. That’s not a stat we can ignore. And yet we keep building as if windows are optional and fresh air is a luxury.

In the pursuit of control, we’ve disconnected.

Disconnected people from their communities.
Disconnected interiors from their environments.
Disconnected design from lived experience.

Externalization changes that.

It's a concept that rethinks the envelope of a building—not as a barrier, but as a threshold. A filter. A negotiator between inside and outside.

The team at Carnegie Mellon University developed a framework that actually maps this idea: measuring the degree to which a building connects environmentally and socially to its context. And it’s not some esoteric academic exercise—it’s practical. It’s buildable. It’s necessary.

Here in Brisbane, we’re uniquely placed to lead the charge.

Our climate is temperate, generous. We live half our lives outdoors—walking, eating, chatting, playing. The architecture should reflect that. Embrace it. Leverage it. And when it does, it doesn’t just reduce energy loads—it supports mental health, community wellbeing, and resilience.

Take the Green Square Affordable Housing project.

It proves what’s possible when externalization becomes design DNA.

This building isn’t just for show. It’s for people doing it tough. And rather than giving them an efficient little box to live in, the design team gave them space to breathe.
Each level opens up to the sky. Natural ventilation flows through central atriums. Creepers and vertical gardens weave through communal areas. Light, breeze, and openness aren’t afterthoughts—they’re features.

What does that do for energy use? It drops.
What does that do for social connection? It skyrockets.

Too often, sustainability in architecture gets reduced to materials and metrics. Externalization reminds us that it’s also about experience. That how we feel in a building matters. That how we relate to our neighbours, to a garden, to a breeze—matters.

And that maybe, just maybe, part of the climate solution is as simple as opening up.