20 years of Sanctuary magazine: sustainable living with style
Sanctuary magazine is celebrating 20 years in 2025, and I’ve been contributing stories to most issues since 2007. To mark this major anniversary, I was invited to reflect on my journey with the publication so far.
The 20th anniversary issue of Sanctuary magazine, #72, published in August 2025.
Since I found the first issue of Sanctuary magazine in a newsagent in the Todd Mall in Alice Springs - where we lived at the time - I’ve been contributing stories about sustainable and affordable houses to this ground-breaking publication.
I was drawn in by the tagline, ‘Sustainable living with style’, because it was unlike all the other magazines that were common at the time.
I seized my copy eagerly and took it home to devour every page. Inside, the featured homes revealed the magazine’s ethos of promoting sustainable and accessible housing – tying in beautifully with the themes of my Churchill Fellowship, completed two years prior.
So I emailed Donna Luckman, the editor back then, and asked if I could write for future issues. She commissioned two stories from me for issue 2, and since then I’ve contributed more than 80 house profiles, featuring in nearly every issue, with a few breaks around the births of my two kids.
Click on the image above to read my reflections, in a downloadable PDF.
The thing I love most about writing for Sanctuary is that I learn something new every time I talk to homeowners, architects, designers and builders about the projects.
I’ve written about houses in locations as far-flung as Darwin, Tasmania, New Zealand and Denmark (Western Australia, not Europe). I’ve loved hearing about how different climates shape design and building responses, and how the owners themselves often bring so much knowledge and inspiration to their projects.
You can grab a copy of the magazine from your newsagent or local library, or you can read my full reflections in a downloadable PDF, here.
My career has spanned several different industries, roles, employers and locations, and in all of my changes and evolutions, and contributing to Sanctuary has been the longest-standing consistent activity of my life.
Nothing else I’ve done comes close to the 18 year relationship I’ve had with this publication - I’ve worked with six editors in that time - and I’m incredibly grateful for the chance to keep telling important stories about the value of good design, especially as it relates to climate emergency and affordable housing.
Here’s to many more conversations and stories.
Would you like to get your work published?
If you’d like to submit a project for the Sanctuary editor’s consideration, feel free to send me an email and we can discuss your pitch.
Or if you want to tap into my insights around getting your work published in other print magazines or online platforms, you may like to take my CPD training Get Published for Architects.