Candour X Cantilever Interiors Visit
As part of our regular visits to local manufacturers in Melbourne, the Cantilever team recently got to step inside the impressive operations of Candour, a Melbourne-based prefab business.
Photography Dijana Risteska
Author Aleesha Callahan
Building community and sharing knowledge is part of the Cantilever philosophy. As part of our ‘Local Like Us’ initiative we took the team to visit the Candour facilities in Melbourne’s west.
Candour, founded by five architects, stands out as an innovator in prefabrication. Its blend of design and manufacturing offers a transparent process for creating high-performance buildings. For us, this resonates deeply, especially given our focus on modernist aesthetics and spatial efficiency.
Jas, one of Candour’s founders, offers a perspective into the challenges architects face in delivering high-performance buildings. Prefabrication and modular construction, he argues, isn’t the silver bullet many think it is. “Prefab in itself isn’t the solution,” Jas says. “There’s often an information gap between the designers and the people making the building. We wanted to address that by developing a platform that gives architects more control and transparency.” Candour’s software allows designers to see real-time changes in pricing and embodied carbon as they refine their plans, offering more certainty in the process. “It’s not always about being cheaper,” Jas explains, “but about giving clients confidence that what they’re designing can actually be delivered within their budget.”
Sustainability is another area where both businesses align. Candour’s use of timber-based construction, sourced from local suppliers, reflects a dedication to reducing the environmental impacts of building. “We’ve been working on transitioning to more sustainable timber sources,” Jas says. “It’s a challenge, but one we’re committed to solving.”
While Cantilever and Candour operate in different scales, there’s a clear alignment in both our approaches to precision and process. Candour’s workshop features innovative solutions for handling large sections of material. Seeing the operations behind-the-scenes offers insight into our own set-up. “We’ve gone through four revisions of our workshop over the years,” Travis says, Cantilever’s co-founder. “It’s about constant refinement, and it’s interesting to see how other companies, like Candour, face similar challenges.”
As Travis explains, these visits are about much more than inspiration. “When we do these trips, it’s about connecting the team – bringing our sales, design, and workshop teams together with other design-driven businesses. It’s a way to open up dialogue between the front and back ends of what we do.”
For the Cantilever team, visits like this one are an essential part of our ethos – sharing knowledge, learning from others and continually pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in design and manufacturing. “There’s always something to learn,” Kylie, Cantilever’s co-founder says, “It’s about fostering community, building connections, and staying open to new ideas. That’s what drives us forward.”
The synergy between Cantilever and Candour highlights how two companies, working in different parts of the design world, can find common ground in their approach to craftsmanship, innovation and sustainability. As Kylie so perfectly sums it up, “At the end of the day, it’s about creating environments that people love to be in, whether it’s a kitchen or an entire building.”
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Design Stuff X Cantilever Interiors | Heart of the Home
