Tone Wheeler is an architect, author, educator and consultant with an abiding interest in environmentally sustainable design (esd). in the mid seventies at the university of sydney he assisted in the construction of the "autonomous house", a working example of a low energy house constructed entirely from recycled materials. upon graduation tone worked for the australian government in canberra where he designed a range of low cost social housing that won the r.a.i.a residential design award (c s daley medal) in 1980.  for the past thirty years he has worked in his own practice.
tone is a past chair of the aia national environment committee & a past member of the sustainabilty committee. after a ten year association, he retired from the board of ABSA (association of building sustainability assessors) and he was also a member of the building professionals board.
tone has taught extensively over the past 30 years, he has been on the faculty of 3 universities, is a sustainability advocate and frequent speaker at architectural conferences and seminars. he has been a judge on ABC tv  ‘the new inventors’,  a member of the ‘woodies’ and a ‘homie’ on ABC radio.

Articles


Tone on Tuesday 212: The most sustainable homes
At the end of last week’s ToT on the history of sustainability we arrived at our current dilemma: finding the ‘Goldilocks’ density.
Design Notes: Ideas, issues and idiocies from the last fortnight
The Reserve Bank of Australia has to be the most malevolent of institutions.
Tone on Tuesday 211: A short history of sustainable houses
The environmentally responsible home morphed over the last 80 years, from passive solar to alternatives to ‘passivhaus’ to inner-urban apartments. The changing focus, and names, is the story of sustainability itself.
Tone on Tuesday 210: Housing in the Missing Middle - 6 bedrooms, 6 packs, 6 storeys
In recent weeks, Tone on Tuesday has been looking at suburbia: ways to make it more sustainable, how to develop good quality social housing, and addressing homelessness. This week the iceberg issue: How to increase housing density in our suburbs.
Design Notes: Ideas, issues and idiocies from the last fortnight
The NSW government has released a map of about 100 well-designed housing schemes, collected together by the Government Architect (industrious advocates for ‘design excellence’). Launched in a media release this month (see top of image) it extolled the virtue of built examples in ‘your backyard’.
Tone on Tuesday 209: Homes won’t solve homelessness.
In addition to the $9.3bn in last week’s federal budget for social housing (discussed in ToT 208 last week), there’s another $1bn for homelessness. Good intentions. Presuming they mean to alleviate, not increase, it. But the idea is fraught.