Outlandish

Ebony Hopmans

Supervisor: Ian Nazareth

The Australian Dream was built on ownership, stability, and future-plans, forming the foundations of suburban living in the 20th century. Throughout this time, new Australians migrated to the country and found moments of celebration in the seemingly ordinary. Granny flats with manicured front gardens, ornamental balustrades, and terrazzo finishes were examples of how the suburbs became an opportunity to portray celebrations of memory and pride of place.

Today, the notion of the quarter acre block is no longer a dream, for some, it is seen as unattainable. Those who wish to pursue their own slice of Australia are sprawling further out from the city. The dream’s holy trinity has been replaced by desire for access, identity, and freedom - not always by choice, but by necessity.

In a post-pandemic world, the definitions of ‘home’ and ‘work’ have been manipulated into a covid-normal. For many, the introduction of radiuses and curfews births the requirement of a new local. Outlandish speculates how the humble suburban strip can densify and behave in an urban manner, responding to infrastructural collisions and overlap. It proposes a new type of dream-like condition, one that is hyper dense, but truly suburban.

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