House of Meaning Podcast

In each episode, we’ll share practical advice, design insights, and real stories to help you plan and build your dream sustainable home with confidence.

House of Meaning Podcast is a arts podcast hosted by House of Meaning, with 24 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

House of Meaning hosts House of Meaning Podcast, a arts show with 24 episodes published.

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  House of Meaning Podcast

  Why You Should NOT Build A Barely Legal Home

  Aug 18, 202619 min

  Walk into most Melbourne homes on a two-degree July morning and you will feel the problem immediately. A bit of plasterboard. A timber stud. Maybe some weatherboards on the outside. That's what separates an Australian family from the cold. As Simon puts it in this episode: a glorified tent. Simon Clark, founder of Sustainable Homes Melbourne, has spent over a decade walking into homes across Melbourne. In this solo episode, he makes the case that Australia's "don't overcapitalise" culture was designed for property investors, not for families building a home they intend to live in for 30 years. We have borrowed investor logic and applied it to the most important decision of our lives. The result is homes that make us uncomfortable, cost a fortune to run, and slowly compromise our health. Simon traces where the overcapitalise framing comes from, why it has no useful application to owner occupied family homes on a long time horizon, and why building fabric is the non negotiable place to spend well. He also addresses the NCC 7 star minimum energy-efficiency requirement and why building to the legal floor today means building below tomorrow's standard, with the code expected to rise to eight stars by 2031 and 2032. The episode closes with a reframe that lands the whole argument. Resale value is not the goal. It is the consequence of a home built well. You'll learn: Why the "don't overcapitalise" rule was built for investors and why it fails families on a 30 year time horizon What Simon means when he calls most Melbourne homes glorified tents Why a home is a consumption product and what that changes about how you build How a weather resistant barrier actually works and why cladding alone is not enough Why 7 stars is the legal minimum, not a standard worth building to Who it's for: Melbourne homeowners planning to build or renovate a family home they intend to keep for decades, and anyone who has been told not to overcapitalise and quietly wondered if that advice actually makes sense. If you'd like to know more, please reach out to Sustainable Homes Melbourne or call us on 1800 683 697.

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  House of Meaning Podcast

  Interior Design Mistakes That Stop Your House Feeling Like A Home, with Petrina Turner

  Aug 4, 202656 min

  They listed the house six months after renovating it, and of all the rooms the photographer chose to lead with, it was the one everybody had warned them was too bold. A tealy green vanity, marble Ming green fan tiles, wall to wall. It sold the house, because people could feel the quality. In this episode of House of Meaning, Simon Clark sits down with Petrina Turner of Petrina Turner Design, an accredited interior designer and educator with thirty years behind her. Petrina names the mistake she sees again and again: people design their homes for a stranger, the future buyer who may or may not turn up in five years, instead of for the people actually living there. That single habit is what stops a house ever feeling like home. Petrina started not as a decorator but as a draftsperson, and that technical brain still underpins everything she does, but her real subject is why colour is an emotional tool, not decoration. Petrina explains why even neutral isn't neutral, how every white paint shifts with the light and the direction a room faces, and why she starts a project with your favourite holiday and your core memories instead of a spec sheet of sinks and ovens. We hear how she found the "DNA" of a heritage home in its raw stud walls and soot-stained chimney bricks, why a bold tealy green bathroom was the room that sold a house, and how her volunteer work with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre showed her that colour and design are really about dignity. You'll learn: The one mistake that stops a house ever feeling like home, and what to do instead How to start a renovation from your own story and memories rather than paint charts and tick boxes Why even neutral paint carries an undertone, and how light and orientation change it hour to hour How texture and material can do the heavy lifting when you're not ready to commit to colour Why biophilic design, bringing nature indoors, measurably supports wellbeing and how to apply it at home Who it's for: Melbourne homeowners planning a renovation, extension or forever home who want a space that feels like them rather than a safe resale box, plus anyone curious about the psychology and craft behind great interior design. If you'd like to know more, please reach out to Sustainable Homes Melbourne or call us on 1800 683 697. Explore Petrina's work at https://www.petrinaturnerdesign.com.au/

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  House of Meaning Podcast

  Renovation Optimism Is Costing Melbourne Homeowners Years of Their Lives

  Jul 21, 202614 min

  Seven years from first sketch to building contract. Two builder quotes on the same design, one at $900,000 and one at $1.8 million. A home designed, approved through council, and quietly shelved because it came back three times over budget. These are not rare stories. They are the renovation industry's default setting. In this episode, Simon Clark, founder of Sustainable Homes Melbourne, names the thing that derails more renovation projects than bad builders or bad luck: renovation optimism. The belief that the lower quote is probably right. That the design will come in on budget. That things will work out. Simon opens with three real client stories: a Brunswick terrace that took seven years to reach a building contract, multiple enquiries returning after years working with designers and architects, and a homeowner who proceeded through town planning on the strength of the cheaper of two wildly different quotes. He unpacks why the building industry's fragmented structure makes optimism not just understandable but almost inevitable: designers working in silos, builders pricing in isolation, and nobody accountable for the gap between the two. He then leaves listeners with three questions to ask any professional before engaging them: When will you get a real price from a builder who does this type of work? Who is accountable if the design comes back over budget (including what the Architects Institute of Australia's standard agreement actually says about cost overruns)? What past clients have to say about the process (you're about to embark on) rather than the finished product? You'll learn: Why getting a real builder's price at concept design rather than after town planning can save hundreds of thousands of dollars How the standard Architects Institute of Australia client agreement handles cost overruns, and why most homeowners sign it without reading it Why the lowest building quote is almost never the right one What early contractor involvement means and why it changes the renovation experience How to speak with past clients in a way that surfaces genuinely useful information about a builder or architect's process Who it's for: Melbourne homeowners, inner-city property buyers, anyone who has saved a heritage terrace on realestate.com.au and wondered about its story, and anyone who has ever stood outside an old Melbourne home and felt something they could not quite explain. If you'd like to know more, please reach out to Sustainable Homes Melbourne or call us on 1800 683 697.

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  House of Meaning Podcast

  Melbourne Heritage Homes: The Mysteries They Hold with Elio Sarpi

  Jul 7, 202650 min

  Most Melburnians have a saved search on realestate.com.au they will never act on. A terrace in Fitzroy. A cottage in West Melbourne. A Victorian on a street they drove down once and have not forgotten since. We do not just look at houses in this city. We fall in love with them. In this episode of House of Meaning, Simon sits down with Elio Sarpi, the North Melbourne resident behind one of Melbourne's most quietly remarkable Instagram accounts: Houses of North and West Melbourne. With over 30,000 followers, Elio has spent five years uncovering what is actually inside those houses Melburnians dream about. Not the floorplans. Not the facades. The lives of ordinary people from the 1800-1900’s. Simon and Elio explore what Melbourne's Victorian terraces tell us about the identity of the city we live in today. They move through how domestic life actually worked inside these homes, when front rooms doubled as grocers and boarding houses, when Italian and Greek families reshaped the way spaces were used, and when a single North Melbourne cottage held far more lives than most of us could imagine. The conversation turns to what Melbourne risks losing as the city grows and builds over its own history, and what it means to feel a personal responsibility to the people whose stories may otherwise disappear entirely. You'll learn: Why Melbourne's heritage homes carry stories the official heritage register never captures How Elio traces a family's full history from a single photograph of a front door What immigration and commerce did to the way North and West Melbourne terraces were actually lived in What Melbourne stands to lose when heritage homes are demolished or altered beyond recognition Why the houses Melburnians romanticise hold meaning that goes far deeper than architecture Who it's for: Melbourne homeowners, inner-city property buyers, anyone who has saved a heritage terrace on realestate.com.au and wondered about its story, and anyone who has ever stood outside an old Melbourne home and felt something they could not quite explain. If you'd like to know more, please reach out to Sustainable Homes Melbourne or call us on 1800 683 697. Follow Elio's work on Instagram : @housesofnorthandwestmelbourne

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  House of Meaning Podcast

  Why Australian Homes Are So Cold in Winter (And What to Do About It in 2026)

  Jun 23, 202615 min

  Walk into an unrenovated Melbourne home on a winter's morning and the heating's running flat out while you're still wearing two jumpers. The problem isn't the weather. It's the building. And it's the same story right across Australia. In this episode, Simon Clark, founder of Sustainable Homes Melbourne, breaks down why Australian homes are so cold in winter and exactly what to do about it. From the big stuff to the small stuff people overlook. Australia's housing stock is old, leaky, and built for cross-ventilation in summer. Most homes have single brick or weatherboard walls with no insulation, suspended timber floors over an uninsulated subfloor, and gaps around every skirting, cornice, and architrave you've ever walked past. You're not just losing heat. You're losing money every single minute the heater is on. Simon walks through the full hierarchy of fixes: air sealing first (the single biggest bang for your buck in an existing home), ceiling and underfloor insulation, window coverings and glazing upgrades, and how to use north-facing glass to capture free solar gain through winter. He covers zoning — heating where you actually live, not the whole house — and explains why a reverse cycle split system is almost always more efficient than ducted gas for a leaky older home. You'll learn: Why air sealing is the first thing to fix in an existing home, and where the biggest draughts actually hide How ceiling and underfloor insulation change the thermal performance of a suspended floor home Why zoning matters more than heater size in an older home How passive solar gain through north-facing windows can do a lot of the heavy lifting in winter The small wins — door snakes, lined curtains, rugs, ceiling fans on reverse — that genuinely move the needle Who it's for: Homeowners across Australia in older or unrenovated homes who want to be warmer this winter without running the heater all day, and anyone planning a Melbourne renovation who wants to understand the building fabric fundamentals before they start. If you'd like to know more, please reach out to Sustainable Homes Melbourne or call us on 1800 683 697.

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