Renovating with media. An interdisciplinary exploration of renovation practice towards lower carbon homes in Australia

Renovation is an opportunity for decarbonising existing homes, particularly in high home-ownership societies such as Australia. My thesis explores the complexity of renovation as a practice embedded in the homemaking of 13 Australian households. Drawing on theories of practice and adopting a focused-ethnography and participatory methodology, I use home-tours and a workshop to connect the actors of the practice. My findings contribute to the understanding of renovation as a socio-cultural practice, extending further than the materially-engaged construction periods, and highlights media as informal intermediaries, which shape, incubate and accelerate the elements of renovation and homemaking, as meaning-making agents, materials and competences.