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CLT offsite bathrooms emerge as part of Brother Nature’s modular strategy.
Brother and sister team Annalise and Andy Knight have spent the past decade shaping Brother Nature into a construction business that blends design, technical problem-solving, and a philosophy grounded in sustainable building. Based in New South Wales, the company has steadily grown from a small family-run builder into a practice working across residential, multi-residential, and small-scale commercial projects. Today, the siblings are drawing on that experience to expand into new territory: factory-built cross-laminated timber (CLT) offsite bathrooms. (main image: On site at a Brother Nature project, a CLT offsite-constructed bathroom is craned into place, slotting neatly into the mass timber build.)
From Cooma to construction
The roots of Brother Nature lie in Cooma, on the edge of the Snowy Mountains, where Annalise and Andy grew up in a large family. Their father was an electrician who built the family home with the help of relatives, and that experience left an imprint. “Brother Nature is our first series of endeavours,” Annalise said in conversation with Built Offsite publisher Michael Dolphin. “We have a design arm, a residential construction side, and a commercial construction side. We’ve been building Brother Nature for ten years now. Andy has a very innovative mind and is technically capable—he’s able to identify problems and find ways to solve them. Our dad was always tinkering in the shed, fixing things, and I think that rubbed off on us.”
Andy reflected on those years: “He cursed me with what I’d call the curse of the working class—mainly instilling a work ethic. You can look at that in many ways.”
It was a household shaped by hands-on labour and resourcefulness, where building things from scratch was second nature. Annalise added: “When we first started out, we looked at how we could help people run their homes more efficiently. Quite quickly, we realised we could have a bigger impact if we played a larger role. We started with renovations, then moved into building, and eventually into design. We felt there was a bigger part of these projects where we could add value.”
Watch the installation of their new offsite-built CLT bathroom in a mass timber duplex development.
Curiosity that led to CLT
The Knight siblings soon turned their attention to different ways of building. Andy recalled: “It was all about curiosity. We quickly realised that stick framing and concrete weren’t the only ways to build. But we also found that the level of skill in the trades coming through wasn’t enough to deliver the high-quality, high-performance products we wanted. So, we started looking for products that helped us achieve that without needing expensive, highly skilled trades that simply weren’t available. That’s when we searched worldwide for different approaches and stumbled across mass timber about six or seven years ago.”
For Annalise, the decision to embrace CLT was clear. “Probably longer if you count the research time before implementation. For me, it was a clear decision—better for people, the planet, and site safety. But our technical team had to really level up to ensure we fully understood the product and were ready to work with it. Led by Andy, they did just that and really enjoyed what mass timber allowed us to achieve.”
Andy described the early learning curve as steep but rewarding. “The best part of building on site is constructing the structure—it gives real satisfaction as a carpenter or any trade. With mass timber, our team could deliver that quickly and feel proud of their work. And in rural areas, we were often the only ones doing it. That was huge for us.”
He added: “One of the team called it the ‘pathway of naivety,’ which was spot on. The learnings were huge, but we’ve been able to share them with engineers and the broader community, which has been valuable. Early on, the main challenges were trusting the product, understanding how to price it given the upfront work required, and taking clients along on the journey so they understood. Retooling and managing the nuances of projects was another hurdle.”
Annalise sees their role as bridging a gap. “We do see good work from the smaller end of the market as well, but we position ourselves in the middle—not tier one or tier two, but not just the local builder either. The missing middle—townhouses and low-rise—offers big opportunities for mass timber.”
Andy pointed to a recent delivery that proved the approach. “Recently, we delivered a 9-suite hotel in Perisher Valley from slab to turnkey in 18 weeks using mass timber. I don’t see another form of construction achieving that.”
Why build offsite bathrooms
That same curiosity has now taken shape in CLT offsite bathrooms. Andy explained: “We’d been building them for our own projects and saw how they improved programmes and productivity. They’re scalable and solve labour and efficiency challenges. We can service builders and developers who might otherwise miss out on MMC solutions. We believe offsite-built bathrooms can be a gateway into MMC for many.”
The attraction lies in certainty. “Quality and certainty,” Andy said. “We build in a factory-controlled environment and provide certification. A bathroom involves around eight trades, significant materials handling, and risks with waterproofing and tiling. By removing that block of work, we offer certification and confidence. We also provide smaller contractors with design assistance. Bathrooms can represent over 35% of a home build—removing that burden adds huge value.”
Annalise added: “We have a standard design, close to silver compliance, but it’s not mandatory.”
Andy confirmed their flexibility. “At the moment, we’re working across a range—disability compliance, social housing, high-end homes. The practices are conventional for us, but using mass timber gives added benefits not yet fully recognised by others.”
Turning ideas into modular solutions with Building Elements
To take their offsite bathroom work further, the siblings established Building Elements, a dedicated arm of the business focused on modular products like CLT offsite bathrooms. It provides a platform to develop repeatable offsite solutions and bring them to market independently of their project-based building work. “We were able to see many problems with existing buildings, as well as designs coming through our books, and we set about solving some of them,” Annalise said. “Building Elements is one way we’re doing that. We think we can really help to drive the uptake of MMC in the residential and small commercial market, where even players willing to try something new often don’t have access to the solutions out there because they’re building custom.”
At the NSW MMC Open Day in Mascot on 19 September 2025, Brother Nature was invited to reassemble the Demonstrator Apartment with Building 4.0 CRC and ARKit. For Annalise, it was a significant opportunity: “It was an honour to be invited.”
The momentum from that event was immediate. “Our building pipeline is solid,” Andy noted. “Since last week’s event, the phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Building Elements will grow into its own identity.”
Reflecting on Building Elements’ first steps, Annalise noted: “The response has been fantastic.”
Andy sees offsite-built bathrooms as only the start. “Builders have always built some components offsite—it’s just about scalability. Offsite bathrooms were the low-hanging fruit, but there are many other elements mass timber can enhance.”
That willingness to test boundaries is evident in their most ambitious experiment to date. “We harvested 550 radiata pine trees,” Andy said. “We’re milling and drying them, then turning them into CLT for 35 dwellings.”
It was a chance to take control of their own supply chain in a rural setting. “We’re not looking to manufacture CLT commercially, but this project was a one-off opportunity to give trees a second life. It’s a circular economy story—never done before commercially in Australia.”
Annalise views Building Elements as part of that same trajectory. “We were able to see many problems with existing buildings, as well as designs coming through our books, and we set about solving some of them. Building Elements is one way we’re doing that. We think we can really help to drive the uptake of MMC in the residential and small commercial market, where even players willing to try something new often don’t have access to the solutions out there because they’re building custom.”
Andy is equally direct about the bigger picture. “Builders have always built some components offsite—it’s just about scalability. Offsite-built bathrooms were the low-hanging fruit, but there are many other elements mass timber can enhance.”
See: Brother Nature
