In a Room is a conversation series where we ask our friends to share their favourite domestic spaces. For this edition we’re joined by writer Penny Craswell, editor of The Design Writer.
Penny Craswell is a Sydney, based editor, writer, and curator who specialises in design, craft, architecture, and interiors. She is the former editor of Artichoke magazine, deputy editor of Indesign magazine, and creative strategy associate at the Australian Design Centre. Craswell has been published widely in design periodicals, books, and online media around the world and writes a blog called The Design Writer.
She is also the author of a number of books on the subject of interiors and architecture, including Reclaimed: New Homes from Old Materials and Design Lives Here: Australian Interiors, Furniture and Lighting. Penny's most recent publication is The New Sustainable House, published by Thames & Hudson Australia.
In this edition, Penny shares some domestic insights and reflections, both from her home in Sydney as well as through some of the incredible homes she has discovered for her latest book.
SThe New Sustainable House by Penny Craswells
Which room are you in today?
Today I’m in my front room at my house in Erskineville. This is my study most of the time, and also the guest bedroom. I like to write here because it is quiet, with an ergonomic desk, chair and monitor, and a view onto the front garden and street, and our frangipani tree. It’s one of the only spots in our house where you can sit and watch the sky.
Which room is the most active in your house?
The most active room is our living room / dining room / kitchen. This room is for cooking, eating, relaxing, socialising and watching tv. It is also where my husband likes to work during the day, and where I sometimes break out the sewing machine. We have a few designer pieces – two Walter Knoll “Bob” swivel chairs, a “Flower Pot” lamp by Verner Panton – but mostly it’s hand-me-downs and Ikea. And lots of books.
Which room gets the least amount of use?
The attic is the least used room. Even though we have set it up properly now as a study and library with a nice desk, armchair, rugs and lamps, the necessity of using the attic ladder to get up there makes it too much of a hassle.
Which is your work-from-home room of choice?
I work best in my front room because it is quiet and removed, but interestingly some people prefer to work in the middle of all the action, like in the kitchen or living room. And, more often than not, especially during the pandemic, WFH was whatever you could manage, whether you liked it or not. Back in my front room, I like having my bookshelf next to me as I work with all my favourite design, architecture, art and non-fiction books nicely arranged. I also have a plant on my desk that my brother got me for my birthday last year – it seems happy here.
Off-grid house in the Bass Coast by architect John Wardles
A fossil-fuel-free home in Tottenham by Hayhurst and Co Architects
Architect Adam Haddow's bathroom in Surry Hills
What defines a great room?
A great room has to have balance to it – not too cluttered nor too empty, not too colourful nor too stark. It also helps to have natural light and good insulation and cross-ventilation, or, even better, clean air via a ventilation system. Once you go into a house designed to the passive house standard, a sustainable architecture standard that is increasingly being used worldwide, you immediately understand its value. These rooms feel “right” thanks to their comfortable temperature all year round and clean fresh air, plus designing this way is also incredibly energy efficient.
One of the most stunning rooms in my recent book The New Sustainable House is at an off-grid house in the Bass Coast designed by architect John Wardle, where the living room interiors, floor and ceiling, are lined in spotted gum. Another gorgeous room I wrote about in this book is a two-storey fossil-fuel-free home in Tottenham in London by Hayhurst and Co Architects, where a green staircase and yellow curtain create a stunning contrast against the cross-laminated timber walls. Also in that book is the bathroom in Sydney architect Adam Haddow’s own solar-powered home in Surry Hills, which has to be one of the best bathrooms ever designed, pairing jungle-like plants with wine red tiles.
What is your favourite type of room?
I love a library. Even just a wall of books in the living room is a thing of beauty. Growing up, my grandmother had built-in bookshelves in her living room at her house, which was a Queenslander in Brisbane, and she encouraged me to choose a book and read it when I visited. It fostered a love of books and writing, but also made me love how bookshelves look in a home. Almost every room in our house now has one of these!
What is your all time favourite room?
As a writer about architecture, I have written about some amazing houses, and other buildings too. But for me, the all-time best room has to be the Pantheon in Rome, which, to this day, has the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. Constructed by Hadrian between 118 and 124 AD, the dome was built with heavier stone at the base and lighter pumice stone near the top. No-one knows how they did it. Standing inside, the sheer size of the building is bewildering. Open to the sky at the crown of the dome, the rain drips through as it has for millennia. Overall, a truly sublime architectural experience.