Karen Pakula is a staff writer at the Sydney Morning Herald. After 15 years of her own home renovations—on one old terrace, with one old husband, a builder—she headed to Melbourne, Australia, for a tutorial in pragmatic, economical modernism from ultra-creative couple Cat Macleod and Michael Bellemo. Pakula returned with a valuable lesson she plans to pass down to her children: The smartest way to build a dream home is to start from scratch.

Bellemo & Cat's Cradle
Architect-sculptor double act Cat Macleod and Michael Bellemo first came to our attention with their Cocoon weekender, a...
Winds of Change
Caught in the grip of the worst drought in a century, Australians are showering together.
Long Division
The dark, primeval mountains and jagged ravines of New Zealand are free of rampaging Orcs, but Middle-earth, 2007, has another...