Northern Edge Studio

30/10/2026

Today I took part in an amazing day - the Barossa 100 Lunch in aid of Tour de Cure Australia

Stunning food and incredible w**e put on by some of Australia’s best w**eries to raise funds for cancer research.

This is a charity that is very close to my heart and next year I will be riding (again) in the SA discovery tour to do my bit.

Today I was part of an army of volunteers that helped organise the event. Was a pleasure to play a small part in the day. Big thanks to all the w**e makers on the day for the generous donations that raised over $220k for cancer research

If you’d like to donate to my page you can find the link below.

https://sadiscovery.tourdecure.com.au/p-cooksey

27/10/2026

Very lucky to be working on restoring this amazing home.

13/10/2026

Day 2 in Chicago

I could share literally thousands of photos from my afternoon in Oak Park.
The trip up the Sears (Willis) tower was a lovely way to see the city and lean a bit more about the late mid century movement in from the Chicago Architecture Center tour guide and the sky deck is something else.
But after that it felt like a pilgrimage.
is a place you have to visit - quiet different from the big city and only 45 mins out from the centre but a insightful look back at early 1900s. Apparently it was super conservative “a place of large homes and small minds” according to Hemingway who grew up there and was a segregated community and alcohol free for decades.

Also the home of the Frank Lloyd Wright.

His first family home has its own chequered and interesting history. Built with a loan from Louis Sullivan - on terms Frank later reneged on - and is an evolution of his style with constant re-workings, borrowed details and “repurposed” elements from other projects he was working on at the time for Sullivan.
His later studio and office - where Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony met - next door is a more polished thesis on his Prairie Style and use of space. It’s wonderful to be in.

You can see more of this evolution of this style in 25 homes around Oak Park. I think I saw 15 doing over 25k steps. A bike would have been a good idea.

And lastly I joined a few other very excited architects from all over the world in touring the Unity Temple.
This was very special. Took so many photos. The building is still used by the same congregation and listed as a UNESCO site of world heritage. It was renovated in the 70s with a render coating of shotcrete - done by FLW’s son - as the original concrete finish wasn’t properly protected. It would have been good to see the original finish but that didn’t take away from the interior which is just stunning and after visiting the home you can read the way in which early experiments in lighting and space is refined. A wonderful experience.

FLW is a difficult man to celebrate as a person but as an artist, marketer and salesman he was amazingly talented. Just don’t get him to design to a budget

12/10/2026

Day 3 of Chicago Trip was another treat

Took a ride to the amazing Chicago University campus. So many amazing building that you just kind of stumble across around an extraordinary Gothic courtyard.
Treats include SOM, Eero Saarinen, Mies but the main event (for me) was the Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wirght. A much more mature and resolved Prarie style home. 1910.

Then a trip to the Obama centre by Tod Williams
Billie Tsien. Amazing Landcape and building as an artifact. It’s quite the space. And very popular

And at afternoon a tour from the Chicago Architecture Center to see Interior treasures of the Golden Ages. Slightly overwhelming spaces from some earlier architects from Chicago and amazing stories of conservation and adaptive reuse of each of these spaces.

Another big day

06/10/2026

Recently featured in
Sage Valley House

A small but might mid century inspired home

04/10/2026

Recently featured in Mid-Century Home
Sage Valley House

A small but might mid century inspired home

04/10/2026

Recently featured in
Sage Valley House

A small but might mid century inspired home

Builder:
Structural:
Photography
Styling .stylist

01/10/2026

Wonderful for Sage Valley House to get some international attention with a feature in Mid-Century Home

A compact Australian home combines mid-century principles with contemporary strategies for lower-energy living.