Ella McFarlane

2024 | Trade - Carpentry

Hi everyone, I’m Ella and I was lucky enough to be a 2024 Global Footprints Scholar.

I’m a qualified carpenter and I live in Melbourne. I’m really passionate about trying to make the construction industry more sustainable and more inclusive for women.

After receiving this incredible opportunity, I spent a month working in Germany to learn about sustainable building practices and Passive House principles and to see how a circular building economy operates.

After arriving in Berlin, I battled the jet lag, did some sightseeing and caught up with friends who took me to a beautiful lake.

In my first few days, I also began my intensive German course. I had been taking German classes beforehand to try to get a head start, immerse myself more deeply in the culture and connect with people more meaningfully.

My host was Construct Here, which was led by two young carpenters, Carlo and Karl, who had an abundance of knowledge and were true master craftspeople.

Sustainability and innovation were top priorities and it was so exciting to see the methods used in Germany and consider which principles we could adopt in Australia.

During my placement, the systems were followed very closely and precisely. This really reinforced the importance of an airtight structure and a vapour-permeable barrier to allow small but constant amounts of moisture to escape outside the footprint of the home.

We used framing material much larger than we do in Australia to support the use of maximum insulation, whether this was a standard Earthwool batt, compressed recycled wood fibre or even hemp.

Creating an airtight building envelope and incorporating an internal service cavity minimises penetrations and reduces the need to disrupt the airtight layer, helping maintain the building’s energy efficiency long term.

Without sounding too clichéd, this is easily the best thing that I have ever done in my life.

I feel I’ve walked away so capable, confident and empowered, not only in my carpentry skills but as a person too.

I’m so grateful to BBM for such an amazing opportunity and it was such a pleasure to do it alongside a bunch of enthusiastic scholars as well.

Vielen, vielen Dank to my amazing host company. You guys were so welcoming and knowledgeable and I just couldn’t have asked for anything better. I’ll be back.

To anybody hoping to apply, I could not encourage you more to do so.

Ella’s scholarship relates to these UN Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs):