Consumption
It is well known that as Australians have, by global standards, a high standard of living but an unsustainable way of life. There is an urgent need to rationalise the way we establish our home environment and modify it to our specifications, and an equally important need to investigate the way in which design influences the ambitions and aspirations driving the consumption around home-making.
This research area investigates everyday design influences on our unsustainable lifestyles with a focus on the domestic housing market, and the process of home-making and re-making. Shelter, security and comfort are fundamental premises of making home, and yet most people have ambitions far beyond the basic requirements when they search for the perfect home environment. Personal reflections of participants give clues to the dilemmas faced by people trying to match their homes with their aspirations and expectations, peer-group pressure, and forces of innate creativity.