Ideas & Advice
Airtight design
If you’re planning to build an airtight home, it’s important that you also consider indoor air quality. We ask building scientist Jenny Edwards to tease out the issues around mechanical ventilation with heat recovery – including when it’s needed and when it’s not.
Read more
Ideas & Advice
A new solution to our waste crisis
Creating new materials from waste products is essential if we’re to solve the global recycling, waste and emissions crisis.
Read more
Ideas & Advice
Materials frontier: Composites reforming the way we build
Sustainable designer Dick Clarke explains some of the new developments reshaping the way we build in Australia and around the world, including composite materials that reduce carbon, interrupt waste streams and even re-assemble themselves.
Read more
Subscribe to Sanctuary magazine
Modern green homes in Australia's premier publication dedicated to sustainable home design.
Subscribe
Ideas & Advice
Buyer (still) beware
Australia has a new National Construction Code that doesn’t adequately address local climate, compliant building materials or construction quality.
Read more
Outdoors
Upcycled glasshouses
Are we in a new golden age of conservatories? Secondhand glazing is being given a new life as greenhouses – but far from being plant-only spaces, we visit five conservatories which double as cosy extra rooms for relaxation.
Read more
Building materials
Thin skin: getting cladding right
Cladding has become controversial, but every building needs a skin. What should you consider when choosing cladding material?
Read more
Ideas & Advice
Light saviours: ways to upswitch your lighting
With so many lighting products to choose from, why are most homes – even sustainable ones – still so poorly lit? We ask three lighting luminaries for their advice on how to avoid the 'she'll be right' status quo.
Read more
Sustainable Design
Adaptable design and why you’ll keep hearing about it
Houses should be designed to match the way we live, which in the 21st century means being adaptable for ageing, climate, working from home and variable household sizes. Kirsty Volz explains how to ensure your home is flexible and fit for purpose.
Read more
Ideas & Advice
Renovate on any budget
Wanting to improve your home but don’t know where to start or how far your money will stretch? Experienced designer Simone Schenkel shares her tips for sustainable renovations with a starting budget of $10,000 through to $350,000-plus.
Read more
Outdoors
Shared yards
Tearing down the backyard fence or installing a gate between your house and next door sounds good in theory, but what’s it like in reality?
Read more
Ideas & Advice
Energy upgrade: From 1 to 7 Star
Danielle King and her partner were keen to find a way to measure the impact of their renovation, and she explains what they did to improve their 1 Star home into one with a 7 Star energy rating.
Read more