Episode Details

What would it look like if your architect understood not just how you live, but who you are at your deepest level, and designed your home from that place outward? In this episode, guest host Zara D’Cotta sits down with Jo Gillies, registered architect, director, and founder of Archisoul Architects, for one of the most expansive and genuinely surprising conversations this podcast has had on the intersection of architecture, health, and the human spirit.

Jo’s path into this work runs through Guillain-Barré syndrome at twenty-five, a long journey of questioning what we put into our bodies and our buildings, and decades of sacred retreats across Africa and Peru that have shaped a design philosophy unlike anything you will hear from a conventional architect.

Together, Zara and Jo explore what sacred intention in architecture actually means in practice, how Jo uses the five love languages and the DISC personality profile to draw out what a client truly needs from their home, and why sacred geometry is inert until you activate it through intention.

They also get into Jo’s project in Costa Rica called The Vessyl, a copper dome sound healing space in the jungle where passive house technology was applied to achieve a stable ambient temperature year-round despite the humidity and a nearby volcano, and what early contractor involvement actually looks like when a building team is genuinely working together from the start.

Jo also speaks about why she refers building biologists as essential consultants on her projects rather than trying to carry that knowledge herself, and what she tells homeowners who are nervous about asking hard questions when interviewing an architect. This one covers a lot of ground and all of it is worth your time.

THINGS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• The Vessyl, Costa Rica: https://archisoul.com.au/portfolio/vessyl-frequency-dome-costa-rica/
• Passive House Design: https://archisoul.com.au/passive-house-australia/
• Pyramids of Chi, Ubud, Bali: https://ubud.pyramidsofchi.com/
• Zara’s Healthy Building Materials Mastermind: https://www.thehealthyhome.com.au/healthy-building-materials-mastermind
• Ashley’s Conscious Construction Container: https://courses.awakeningspaces.com/ccc
• Brent Little, Pinehaven Healthy Homes: https://pinehavenhealthyhomes.com/
• Mevissen et al. (2025), Effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic field exposure on cancer in laboratory animal studies: A systematic review. Environment International, 199, 109482. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40339346/
  A 2025 systematic review of laboratory-animal studies, partially funded by the WHO radioprotection programme, which found high-certainty evidence of increased glioma in male rats while noting that extrapolating risk to humans remains complex.
• The Body Keeps the Score (referenced concept): https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/18693771-the-body-keeps-the-score
• Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) model: https://www1.bca.gov.sg/growth-and-transformation/procurement/progressive-procurement-approaches/early-contractor-involvement-eci/
• NCC National Construction Code 2025 provisions for daylight, indoor air quality and VOCs: