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Fibro Dreaming: Greenwashed Beach-house Development on Australia’s Coasts

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  • Wendy S. Shaw
  • Lindsay Menday

Abstract

New Urbanism has been appropriated in an Australia context and deployed in the marketing of a peri-urban housing development on the far north coast of New South Wales. Mimicking the ‘neo-traditional’ focus in the US, developers offered a resurrection of quintessential Australian beach house architecture ‘lost’ through the suburbanisation of the coast. Symbolic references to a more ‘authentic’ past, represented in the built form, were contemporised using tropes of environmental sustainability and integration with nature. The image of beach housing and a green lifestyle have successfully attracted buyers and housing price premiums. This paper demonstrates that the cultural capitals of ‘heritage’ and ‘greenness’ are valued as distinction to the suburban norm. It is concluded that, while this development appeals to the notion of an enlightened consumer, this new model of development ultimately offers little to challenge issues of environmental degradation associated with other versions of (sub)urban sprawl.

Suggested Citation

  • Wendy S. Shaw & Lindsay Menday, 2013. "Fibro Dreaming: Greenwashed Beach-house Development on Australia’s Coasts," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(14), pages 2940-2958, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:50:y:2013:i:14:p:2940-2958
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098013482507
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Maria Kaika, 2004. "Interrogating the geographies of the familiar: domesticating nature and constructing the autonomy of the modern home," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 265-286, June.
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