Blueprint For Living - Separate stories

Colin Bisset delves into the design of the sitting room in the latest instalment of his series on the evolution of comfort in the home.

Jess Pryles was born and bred in Australia but now calls Austin, Texas home where she revels in her love of meat and barbecuing the American way.

We dip back into the vault of the National Herbarium of Victoria in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens with manager of collections Alison Vaughan.This time we go on a journey to the Northwest Passage of Arctic Canada via a small specimen of chickweed from the 1850s.

In his series on the evolution of comfort in the home, Colin Bisset explores the way comfort has transformed that most private of spaces, the bathroom.

Manoella Buffara Ramos is a leading chef in South America. She shares her last meal of a favourite family recipe for sticky rice with coconut and spices, eaten with BBQ squid.

What impact did European émigrés have on the architectural landscape of Australia mid last century?Natica Schmeder is an architectural historian and principal at Landmark Heritage and Warren Andersen is a Perth based former planner and architectural enthusiast who is the author of 'The Architecture of Iwan Iwanoff'.They presented at the Robin Boyd Foundation recently on the legacy of central European immigrants for Australian Modernism.

When Estonian-born American architect Louis Kahn died in 1974, he left behind a collection of notebooks that revealed the sketches and musings of a creative mind.His daughter Sue Ann Kahn shares what the recently published 'Louis I. Kahn: The Last Notebook' tells us about her father.

How can governments address the housing crisis and what role can good planning play?Patrick Fensham, principal and partner at SGS Economics and Planning, weighs into the debate.

Former director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Tim Entwisle takes us on a Springtime stroll and shares some of the stories behind his favourite spaces in Melbourne's Kings Domain including the Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden.

Colin Bisset takes us into the world of window design in his series on the evolution of comfort in our homes.