Shared Living

by Emily Hutchinson, Thames & Hudson

It sometimes feels as though the world of design books is dominated by showcases of grandeur and single-family homes. So, Emily Hutchinson’s book, which explores well-designed, rented spaces, is a welcome change of pace and one that acknowledges the changing nature of home dynamics. Shared Living is as much a guide to decorating your rented home on a budget as it is a foray into the faces and personalities that make up our modern, urban fabric. 

Laid out as a series of narratives and interviews alongside practical tips, this book paints a picture of the diverse group of people now living in shared spaces. Just as diverse as the types of people featured are the styles on display: from mid-century to contemporary and bohemian to eclectic. Shared Living looks at the ways in which individual styles can merge together, as we peek into the lives of city-dwellers from Los Angeles to London and the many places in between. 

Hutchinson writes in the introduction: “So often, share houses are portrayed in a negative light, but there is a new member of the share house: the grown-up”. Indeed, this book is a refreshing look at interior design for a new generation of grown-ups and it is well worth the read for home-owners, lone-dwellers and renters alike.

Book review by Ashley Cusick

City Quitters

by Karen Rosenkranz, Frame Publishers

There is something rhythmic about commercial capitals. You can feel it alongside the commuters on sidewalks and around the veritable hives of urban homes; everywhere, or so it seems, people are moving without pause. In City Quitters: Creative Pioneers Pursuing Post-Urban Life, we meet creatives and entrepreneurs who have left metropolises so as to free themselves of this pace – and the concomitant anxieties, pressures and consumer cultures – sowed by cities. 

It’s hard to emphasise the self-assurance, not to mention the courage, behind these moves. Beyond the “folkloristic and sanitised expressions of country life” are the challenges of bringing in income, mercurial weather patterns and the realities of isolation – all of which are explained (not romanticised) by the people in this collection of Q&As.

On a micro-level, what they present are revisions of luxury, born out of a desire for work-life balance and for greater connectedness to nature, which give new form to what has long defined wealth and success. On a macro-level, they are honest beacons of alternative ways of living, which show us the possibilities and the power of post-urban life. If you have ever contemplated leaving the city’s enduring thrum, read this tome for a reassuring nudge forward. 

Book review by Julia Gessler

This article first appeared in Houses magazine.

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