Australia's leading sustainable architecture and landscape design magazine for inspirational stories on local and international houses, gardens and profiles. It seems to me that the holiday shack has been replaced by something that distracts from the experience of being away from the city. What’s the point of being in nature if you’re not immersed in it, if when you step inside you are drawn into the usual modern conveniences of home? Our cover house was designed on the principles of the beach houses of its owners’ youth. A step up from the ‘yurt’ that they had been inhabiting on the site, they looked to the modest design of a classic New Zealand bach for inspiration, small in scale with the intention of drawing the family outside. For architect Hannah Tribe, building something unpretentious and unadorned was important when designing a prototype kit house for her own family to escape to. Respecting the traditional beach house vernacular of the area was top of mind, as was keeping the scale small, being environmentally sensitive and supportive of local trades. All attributes of beach houses of the past. In this issue, we have also selected six kitchens that have been designed with durability and timelessness in mind. From the beautiful and considered design of a small space by YSG Studio to a raw and robust tout by Polly Harbison, these are places we would happily spend time in beyond the cook-up. Note: Issue #83 is on sale in newsagents. Your subscription commences with issue #84 (Mar-Apr).