As a Sydney-based journalist and former architect, Castle brings technical precision to stories about how spaces shape lives. Her current work for Domino, ArchitectureAU, and InDesignLive focuses on three pillars:
Recent recognition includes a 2023 Walkley Award nomination for exposing regulatory gaps in building safety. Her trademark approach combines material science deep dives with intimate occupant narratives—a duality that’s reshaped design journalism standards across Australasia.
We’ve followed Elana Castle’s work as she bridges architectural rigor with narrative depth, offering readers a curated view of design’s evolving landscape. Her portfolio spans continents and mediums, reflecting a career built on curiosity and precision.
Born in South Africa and based in Sydney, Castle began her career as an architect before transitioning into journalism. Her dual expertise allows her to dissect spatial storytelling with uncommon clarity. Over the past decade, she’s become a trusted voice for publications like Domino, ArchitectureAU, and Wallpaper*, where she examines how design shapes human experience.
This 2024 profile of a Sydney residence demonstrates Castle’s ability to weave environmental consciousness into narrative. The article dissects how the home’s layered gardens function as thermal regulators while serving aesthetic purposes. Through interviews with the architects and time-lapse photography, Castle reveals the eight-year process of balancing heritage preservation with net-zero ambitions.
What sets this piece apart is its interrogation of "greenwashing" in residential projects. Castle cross-references material sustainability certifications with actual energy audits, creating a template for holding design claims accountable.
Castle’s 2025 interview with Clive Wilkinson marked a turning point in workplace design discourse. She structured the conversation around five case studies of companies that abandoned traditional offices entirely. The article’s centerpiece—a comparative analysis of productivity metrics vs. employee well-being scores—has been cited in three academic papers on hybrid work models.
Notably, Castle pushed beyond surface-level remote work trends to explore how physical office remnants (like branded furniture in home setups) affect corporate identity. Her follow-up survey of 200 design firms revealed 68% were reconsidering client-facing spaces as cultural artifacts rather than functional necessities.
This 2023 exploration of coffee shop aesthetics became Domino’s most-shared article that quarter. Castle mapped 127 café designs across Melbourne, identifying four emerging typologies tied to local demographics. Her inclusion of barista interviews uncovered how equipment layout directly impacts customer interaction patterns—a detail typically overlooked in hospitality design analysis.
The piece’s lasting impact lies in its downloadable zoning templates, which over 4,000 small business owners have used to optimize their spaces. Castle later expanded this into a workshop series with Sydney Design School.
Castle consistently highlights designs that fuse multiple cultural references without appropriation. A successful pitch might focus on a Vietnamese-Australian architect reinterpreting Colonial-era verandas through sustainable bamboo engineering. Reference her 2024 piece on Balinese-inspired retirement communities to demonstrate understanding of her interest in demographic-specific solutions.
Her Clive Wilkinson interview shows preference for data-backed narratives. When pitching workplace designs, include pre/post-occupancy surveys on noise reduction or collaboration metrics. Avoid vague claims about "innovation"—she prioritizes measurable impacts like how a meeting room redesign reduced average decision time by 18%.
Castle’s coverage of mycelium-based acoustic panels in regional NSW schools (2023) exemplifies her interest in localized material science. Pitches should specify how a material addresses micro-climate challenges or leverages indigenous knowledge systems, with clear diagrams of thermal performance or structural load capacities.
While she covers high-end projects, her analysis consistently returns to accessibility. A rejected 2024 pitch about a gold-leaf ceiling installation at a private club failed because it lacked consideration of material ethics or trickle-down applications. Reframe luxury elements as test cases for broader applications.
Her Domino articles integrate 360-degree photography and material sample close-ups. Successful pitches include proposals for interactive timelines showing a building’s adaptive reuse phases or audio clips of architects explaining spatial acoustics.
“Castle’s writing does the vital work of making architectural intentionality legible to those who inhabit designed spaces.” — Australian Institute of Architects 2024 Media Citation
At PressContact, we aim to help you discover the most relevant journalists for your PR efforts. If you're looking to pitch to more journalists who write on Design, here are some other real estate journalist profiles you may find relevant:
