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

Design notes for week 48/2023 from Tone on Tuesday
50 years ago, our most innovative design school was founded. The School of Environmental Design at the then Canberra College of Advanced Education (CCAE), pioneered cross discipline education in Australia.
Design notes for week 47/2023 from Tone on Tuesday
Not many will know that this month's popularly attended Sustainability Summit was the seventeenth in a row, or that the name has changed several times in those years, which begs the question about how the face, and name, of sustainability has changed over time.
Design notes for week 46/2023 from Tone on Tuesday
Last week's Design Notes looked at Los Angeles. Established in just 50 years from 1920s to the 1970s, it then appeared to be the city of the future, especially through the eyes of Reyner Banham and his ‘four ecologies of Surfurbia, Foothills, the Plains of ID and Autopia’.
Design notes for week 45/2023 from Tone on Tuesday
50 years ago, in the ‘year out’ between architecture degrees, most of my cohort went overland to London, following a path laid out just a couple of years earlier by Tony and Maureen Wheeler, which became the foundation of Lonely Planet.
Design notes for week 44/2023 from Tone on Tuesday
Costs and quality in construction are under the spotlight. 2213 building companies declared bankruptcy in the last financial year in Australia, up 72% from the year before. Most of these were attributed to the rise in materials and labour costs for companies who had signed fixed price contracts in the years before when rates were lower. Two issues spring to mind.
Design notes for week 43/2023 from Tone on Tuesday
The Sydney Opera House turned 50 this week. All manner of media carried copious copy with the usual suspects: Utzon’s turbulent times, cost blowouts, building difficulties, finally success. Ho hum. The building itself was barely discussed.