ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates some of the ways in which people engage with and shape the objects in and materiality of their suburban, detached houses, and how this engagement is motivated by and shapes feelings of homeyness. It draws on interviews with residents of new suburban developments in Sydney to elaborate aspects of domestic practice that may illuminate household sustainability in unintended ways. An increasing volume of research demonstrates the ways in which the possibilities and pitfalls of household sustainability are connected to materiality's and imaginaries of home. Homeyness is both a motivation for and outcome of homemaking practices as inhabitants materially and figuratively ensure that their house is a home. In-depth interviews were conducted in 2004 as part of a larger project concerned with the aesthetics and material geographies of the mass-produced suburban housing that dominates the Australian suburban landscape. The majority were Australian born and there were no recent migrants to Australia.
