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Issue 62 - Living in the Environment Issue

Issue 62

Living in the Environment Issue

Issue 62 is the first issue of the year and always a great time to put our best foot forward. With Adam Goodrum, the loveliest man in design, as Guest Editor, we draw on his insights as a furniture designer, artist and educator to look at the makers shaping our design world. Sustainability has never been more important, and increasingly this is a consideration from the start with projects designed to address their immediate environment as well as the longevity of the planet. From the coldest winters to the most tropical of summers, addressing how we live in the environment is crucial to creating the perfect home.

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A Plot in Common
HomesHolly Cunneen

A Plot in Common

Australia

When the Shoo family fell in love with an old brick barn they didn’t know it came with a house connected to Robin Boyd and a neighbour with an eye for local history.


When an old house changes hands, the new owners often only get the briefest glimpses of its intimate history as a home for other people, but in those rare situations where past lives are revealed, the experience can be so rich and rewarding.

A Plot in Common | Habitus Living

This has been the case for the Shoo family, who relocated a few years ago from the Gold Coast to a small farm an hour or so north of Melbourne. The Ben and Tash Shoo have thrown themselves into the local community, but it’s been the relationship they’ve forged with their neighbour, Bruce, who lived on their farm as a small boy, which has arguably been most enlightening. His illuminating stories have covered everything from the nineteenth-century origins of the beautiful brick barn to how his dad bought plans for their house from The Age in the 1940s, as part of Robin Boyd’s Small Homes Service.

A Plot in Common | Habitus Living

70 years later, Ben has designed a modern extension to the house, Tash is curating an ongoing series of gatherings and workshops to support and connect the local community of artists and artisans, and their family is living off the land, growing veggies and fruit, and breeding and raising animals for meat. This property was already rich with history, and that richness is echoed in the daily life of its latest occupants.

Read the full story in Habitus issue #34, available now.

Words by Mark Scruby

Photography by Marnie Hawson

A Plot in Common | Habitus Living
A Plot in Common | Habitus Living
A Plot in Common | Habitus Living
A Plot in Common | Habitus Living
A Plot in Common | Habitus Living
A Plot in Common | Habitus Living
A Plot in Common | Habitus Living
A Plot in Common | Habitus Living

About the Author

Holly Cunneen

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A Plot in CommonHome ArchitectureHouse ArchitectureKynetonResidential ArchitectureRobyn BoydShooThe Old Girltreechange


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Issue 62 - Living in the Environment Issue

Issue 62

Living in the Environment Issue

Issue 62 is the first issue of the year and always a great time to put our best foot forward. With Adam Goodrum, the loveliest man in design, as Guest Editor, we draw on his insights as a furniture designer, artist and educator to look at the makers shaping our design world. Sustainability has never been more important, and increasingly this is a consideration from the start with projects designed to address their immediate environment as well as the longevity of the planet. From the coldest winters to the most tropical of summers, addressing how we live in the environment is crucial to creating the perfect home.

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