Blueprint For Living - Separate stories

Despite his penchant for a white Christmas, Paul Bangay reflects on the consolations of Christmas in the Australian garden, reinforced by an insistent marsupial.Find more of Paul's Garden Rudimentals on the ABC RN website.

Former director of the Royal Botanic Garden Victoria, Tim Entwisle and Jonathan Green take a tour of Maranoa Botanic Garden and Australian plant garden and reflect on the definitional dilemma of the Christmas tree: Is it spruce? Pine? An en-baubled mountain ash?

Penury is often the mother of invention. Just look at the inventor of the dishwasher, Josephine Cochrane.

Rachel Roddy, is an iconic food writer whose scholarly approach to the subject of Italian food is shaped by her identity as an English woman living in Rome. She talks pasta, literary influence, Roman food culture, and writing about Italian food as an outsider.

Former planning manager of the Canadian city of Vancouver and now advisor to City of Reykjavik, Iceland, Brent Toderian, discusses Reykjavik’s urban development plan competition, the problem of car dependency, and the populist backlash to even the most modest attempts at sustainable city design.

Chef Annie Smithers finds inspiration in broad bean leaves and, ever the proponent of simplicity, sautees them in garlic for a delicate taste of spring.Find more of Annie's past Kitchen Rudimentals here.

A discussion about fashion in the era of AIDS - from the way in which it was used as a tool for political action, its role in shaping, concealing and articulating the masculine body, and the impact of AIDS on the fashion industry and a generation of international designers. 

Kenzo Tange is often seen as the father of Japanese modernism and the Yoyogi sports halls stand as perhaps his finest moment.

As higher education evolves – with a growing reliance on remote learning, diminished student life and political engagement on campus, and universities increasingly playing the role of property developers – we reflect on the history and legacy of Australia’s built campuses.

Gary Emery's always functional, often witty, sometimes bold designs have, for decades, shaped Australian urban landscapes. We take a tour of his designs through the city of Melbourne and survey the long and rich career of one of Australia’s most renowned designers.