Blueprint For Living - Separate stories

The celebration of spring continues with a vibrant green asparagus soup.Find more of Annie's past Kitchen Rudimentals here.

It's springtime at award-winning landscape designer Paul Bangay’s house… and that can only mean one thing — it’s a Buxus pruning party!Jonathan visits Paul just in time to nip, tuck, and trim the tens of thousands of box hedges dotted across his property… and finds out why these plants have been a staple of garden design for centuries.  Find more of Paul's Garden Rudimentals on the ABC RN website.

In the early 2000s, Kate Reid thought she had it all. She made it into her dream career, working as an aeronautical engineer for Williams’ Formula 1 team in the UK. But in the space of three years, her health nosedived, and was back on a plane to Australia to heal.As part of her recovery, Kate took a chance and booked a one-way ticket to Paris. Within days, she found herself at a dial-up internet café the size of a broom closet, working up the courage to email a Boulanger for an apprenticeship — and luckily for Kate — he said yes.  If it wasn’t for that moment, we might not have Lune — the bakery Kate created after her departure from the racetrack. Since its founding, its croissants have taken on a cult status, and now have their own cookbook, Croissants All Day, All Night.Jonathan pays a visit to Kate’s workshop to see what all the hype is about.  --This conversation briefly touches on an eating disorder. If you, or anyone you know is experiencing body image concerns or an eating disorder, you can call the Butterfly Foundation National Helpline on 1800 33 4673, email support@butterfly.org.au or chat online.

British architecture and art collective Assemble raised eyebrows when they were awarded the 2015 Turner Prize — the UK’s highest art accolade — for a public housing renewal in Liverpool.Since their founding in 2010, Assemble have forged a non-traditional architecture practice, bringing a variety of makers, creatives, and locals into the business of building. Co-founder James Binning joins Blueprint to discuss Assemble's first Australian project, which is the design and master plan of a new mixed industrial neighbourhood at Dairy Road, Canberra — a 14-hectare site developed by Molonglo. During his Australian visit, James will be presenting free public lectures at the National Gallery of Australia, the Australian National University, and the Melbourne School of Design. Find more Blueprint For Living via the ABC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.

The radiator grille is the face of a car. It's been an important design feature for over a hundred years, a defining element that helps identify the brand of vehicle while giving a hint to the car's character. But with the rising popularity of electric cars, maybe they're destined to disappear. 

A springtime homage to asparagus in which Annie Smithers explains why it’s one of the best vegetables to grow and why the simple combination of blanched asparagus, herbed crumbs and a coddled egg is a sublime gastronomic experience.Find more of Annie's past Kitchen Rudimentals here.

Tom Wilkinson on why Kracauer’s analysis of class – specifically a spiritually homeless petty bourgeoisie - and urban spaces might provide a useful means by which to make sense of today’s domestic interiors and the economic and cultural conditions of which they are a very greige product. 

The invention that heralded the merger of fashion and perfume, with scent becoming the essential and luxurious finishing touch.

Renown garden designer and tv host, Peter Donegan talks to Tim Entwisle about why the hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) is his favourite tree and why it is considered an ugly duckling both in Ireland and Australia

Raw meat, egg slonking, seed oil panic and the war on “soy globalism” -  welcome to the dizzying dietary fixations of the alt right.