Sanctuary 43 out now

The drive to downsize isn’t just about cost-of-living pressures, although expensive real estate is often a contributing factor. At Sanctuary we’re hearing from people with other motivations, such as retirees wanting to downshift and those who just want the chance to ‘live well with less’, which makes sense in an era where it’s easy to acquire more stuff than we need. In this issue, we look at how small you can go and still maintain a good quality of life. We take you to Wellington and Wanaka, Sydney and Geelong to visit dwellings from 24 to 57 square metres, including a super-efficient residence in a new housing estate (our cover story), whose 30-square-metre footprint is smaller than most of the neighbourhood garages! Smart design can transform tiny spaces into liveable homes but crafting functional dwellings at this scale requires great skill and discipline, and even bravery. We hope the lessons from our five triumphant feature homes will test assumptions about what is ‘enough’, and also galvanise any plans you might be nurturing for a teeny tiny dream project of your own.

Of course, tiny living isn’t for everyone. We also visit sustainable homes built with flexible floor plans to cater for any household size, and where there’s room for exercising, grandchildren and custom-designed art studios. Many of these homes are built with natural materials, including a mudbrick barn renovation, a sub-tropical hempcrete home and a ‘burnt cypress’ clad house in Tassie.

Have a look inside Sanctuary 43

Also in this issue…
Dick Clarke tracks progress in the hemp regenerative materials industry, Chris Crerar traverses Tasmania to photograph a range of new architecturally designed hiker huts and Anna Cumming updates us on how the Nightingale Housing model for multi-residential living is developing. Through price capping and a focus on community, their financial model aims to break the supply-and-demand nexus that’s pushing up property prices. New approaches like this, together with individual choices to build greener and smarter homes, are what we need if our cities and towns are going to weather the population and climate change impacts we know are coming. It’s a great privilege to reflect in this magazine the real change happening at the grassroots which we believe is showing the way forward, for the benefit of all.

And as always we feature a wide range of innovative sustainable products and design tips for your home.

We welcome your feedback. Perhaps there’s something else you would you like to see in Sanctuary? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter or by email.