Green Magazine #74 July-August 2020

I imagine, like me, many of you have been feeling the need to be amongst nature. Being confined during a pandemic is bound to increase our dreams of escape. In this issue, our six homes are all in regional and coastal locations. They inhabit very different landscapes, from the dry and rugged to the densely fecund. Ben Daly of Palace Electric turned his hands (literally) to the transformation of a shearing shed south-west of Christchurch in New Zealand into a home, reusing as much of the structure as possible and preserving remnants of its past. On the banks of the River Derwent in Otago Bay, Tasmania, Topology Studio has designed a more robust home in order to capture and store heat whilst withstanding the cold and blustery north westerlies. South of Sydney, at…

Bauhaus Baby Designed by Helen Kontouris, the “Bauhaus Seating System” imagines the defining shapes of the iconic movement as a flexible furniture collection. Interchangeable formations are encouraged and pieces are available in a range of colours and textures. stylecraft.com.au Inspired Mullumbimby, NSW-based ceramicist Jenn Johnston looked for inspiration abroad when making these sculptural vases. “My work is influenced by my love of the Japanese design aesthetic and my desire to showcase the materials I love to create with,” she explains. jennjohnstonceramics.com True Love It’s no secret that we’re head over heels for timber. And so we present this beauty: the “No. 11” pendant, made to order in Melbourne from solid American oak. apparentt.com.au Bling Zuster design director, Wilhelmina McCarroll describes their doorware as “like jewellery for your doors”. The sartorially-inclined among us might consider accessorising their homes with…

For some, a river is just a river. But for Michael Tink and Erin Malloy, it’s an opportunity. The duo search country Australian waters with their own hands to uncover treasures from the depths; natural sapphires to be transformed into jewellery under their Melbourne-based label, Wild to Ware. Materials travel directly from the earth, to their hands and then to those of a finished piece’s lucky owner – can a supply chain get more transparent than that? Michael and Erin are makers of different strokes who share a commitment to sustainability. Michael is a jeweller and Erin a graphic designer, object maker and self-confessed “dabbler”. The pair are partners in life and now, business. It all started when Michael crafted a ring for Erin from hand-sourced gold and sapphire. “Friends and…

Shifting this shearing shed from agriculture to architecture became a race against time for Ben Daly who, with good, keen spirit, was getting stuck into the project so he and his wife, Dulia could move in before the birth of their first child. Suffice to say, Mother Nature played an ace when little Hattie arrived a month early. “That certainly threw out the schedule,” says Ben. Travellers along the road to Leeston, half an hour south-west of Christchurch, could be forgiven for thinking Ben, an architect with a hands-on approach, had done nothing at all to make this utilitarian building habitable for a young family. It stands in a long grass paddock backed by a former grain silo and a stand of rumpty macrocarpa trees. There is a commitment to its…

On this cool autumn morning, the River Derwent is a deep pewter blue. A single dinghy scuds across, leaving a silvery wake. Suddenly, the wind picks up and the copper-tipped sheoaks sway. The pewter surface darkens as heavy raindrops fall. A faint rainbow shimmers over the hills that fall away to the north, from kunanyi / Mount Wellington. This is the outlook Lance and Mel wake up to every day; but no two minutes are the same, as the tides, wind and light are in constant flux. They were already happily living in Otago Bay, a semi-rural enclave on Hobart’s eastern shore. When they couldn’t subdivide this block, they found another, on the far side of Otago Lagoon Reserve, comprising one house and two spare pieces of land; they lived in…

Coledale, south of Sydney, lies on a narrow stretch of land at the foot of the Illawarra Escarpment, overlooking the Tasman Sea. The area has been gently transforming in recent years, with its historical beach cottages and fishermen and miners’ shacks being renovated or replaced, often by larger houses at odds with the character of the coastal town and landscape. Blade House, designed by Takt Studio, demonstrates how a spacious dwelling can be achieved in a more nuanced way that responds to the local surroundings. Blade House is home to Charlotte and Anthony and their two young children. The couple purchased a vacant 450-square-metre corner block and engaged Takt Studio to design a four-bedroom house with garage and granny flat. They wanted it open and hardwearing to suit their social and…