About Ciaran Rothkamm

Sustainable building designer and passive solar building project manager

Culturally curious, lateral thinker

Thanks to a nomadic European childhood, I grew up speaking German, French, Danish, and finally English.  I got good at figuring out what made different people and places tick and developed the knack for adapting to anywhere.

Twenty-two years ago, I landed in Western Australia. Now I’m a contented southwest local, settled in Busselton with my family, two dogs and a business and lifestyle I love.

Top Takeaway

Your design ideas will never be too exotic or too every day for me. If there are challenges, we’ll adapt or work around them, stay true to your vision, and create a home or commercial building with an unmistakable ‘sense of place.’

Construction industry veteran

I’ve always drawn and designed sustainable spaces. I’ve also estimated, scheduled, problem solved, and project managed hundreds of successful home and commercial builds. I’ve worked for and with some of the southwest’s most renowned and established builders. I’ve also supported niche builders doing things differently.    

Top takeaway

I’m older than I look. Fifteen years of hands-on, inside-out construction industry experience means I’ve got the expertise and the networks to take care of every aspect of your build.

Championing best practice in passive solar design

My work draws on sustainable building principles underpinned by over 30 years of research and development by The Passive House Institute (PHI).

This three-minute video (left or above) shows why PHI is a global powerhouse of quality-controlled sustainable design innovation.

My mission is to adapt the best evidence-based elements of established European passive solar design to fit our temperate climate.

Top takeaway

Work with me, and you’ll get impeccable passive solar design with a very long pedigree and heaps of contemporary cred.

Hands-on advocate for cleaner, greener construction

I’m keen to spread eco-friendly building practices however and wherever I can.

As project manager on the award-winning St John Ambulance Emergency and Training Centre in Busselton, I developed an eco-wash bay to help protect the environment from the harmful residues in paint, plaster and other building materials that get washed away on site.

Before Designed by C consumed every minute of my working life, I did my bit to develop the passive solar design skills of the next generation of design drafters and builders. I taught Certificate IV and Diploma students at TAFE and delivered sustainability units for the Builders Diploma at the HIA in Perth.

Top takeaway

If you think having your home or workspace designed by someone who’s not afraid to get down and dirty on site is a great idea, you’re right.

If you want a designer who makes everything crystal clear and answers all the questions you can think of, trust someone who’s taught expert builders and fledgling drafters.

Like what you see here?