Whether it’s cars passing nearby, a neighbour’s blaring music or the constant drone of a lawnmower, the trouble with sound is that – unlike light – it can be hard to block out completely.
Simon Chapple, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; Kate C. Prickett, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington, and Michael Fletcher, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Resilience, humour, hardship and tragedy – a unique survey reveals how ordinary New Zealanders coped during one of the world’s strictest COVID-19 lockdowns.
If coffee and wine are things you love, then you need to pay attention to climate change.
Shutterstock/Ekaterina Pokrovsky
The music we choose to listen to not only allows us to retreat into a place of peace and privacy, but also helps frame our daily routines and interactions with others.
The Ori ‘Cloud Bed’ is lifted and lowered from a ceiling recess to create space that doubles as bedroom and living room.
Ori/YouTube (screengrab)
With space at a premium, robotic furniture can transform a room in seconds. How will this affect our sense of belonging and feeling at home, when everything can change with a voice command?
Transportation and food are two major contributors to household emissions.
Halfpoint/Shutterstock.com
Think moving won’t change you? You might want to rethink that. To feel ‘at home’ you need to accept the new place where you live as part of your changing identity.
It’s not all smiles and cups of tea.
Shutterstock.
The latest 2016 Census data assesses what the national home ownership and rental rates are and how these vary location. It also gives us a picture of mortgage and rental costs.
A host of spaces that were once immune to commercial intrusion – from parks to our friendships – are now being infiltrated by advertisers. Are we being enslaved by a ‘merciless master’?