Home is where the hut is

Background
Radio National’s Bush Telegraph had a great item yesterday (23 June) on Huts in the Wild.
Greg Muller interviewed Dianne Johnson about her new book on Huts.
Dianne has been interviewed by Radio National’s By Design program too.
In her Bush Telegraph interview, Dianne made some fascinating observations that helped me think further about my changing sense of space and place. She found a great ally in Greg in the interview. He too was passionate about huts.
Hutness
Amongst the points Dianne made in her interview were:

• Being “struck dumb” by the beauty of the Waldheim Chalet on Cradle Mountain
• Huts as liminal spaces  that mediate between the built landscape and nature
• Huts are spare and sparse: they are not designed as stores (unlike sheds)
• Huts offer enchantment and are imagined, mindful and slow spaces
• Huts are creative spaces within which to think and reflect and on some occasions take on demons
• You must not stay for a long time in huts and avoid Martin Heidegger’s experience of overstaying
• You are the honoured guest in a hut. It is a place of respect and hospitality.
• Huts are egalitarian, they are inclusive. Each has its own distinctive portal.
• Each of us has a sense of our wild spaces and our hard country. These are places of wonderment that energise the spirit.
• Huts tend to be built in magnificent places.
• Huts are temporary and  raise issues about preservation. Part of the experience of a hut is its ephemerality … ‘hutness’ is about coming from from the earth and returning to earth.

At the end of the interview Greg asked Dianne if she had a favourite hut. She mentioned Dixons Kingdom Hut.

Place and Space
I have been thinking a lot about space and place. My recent journey started whilst contemplating Everywhen. Developments around Commons spaces at the University of Canberra have accelerated my reflections.
Dianne and Greg have helped me travel further in my thinking. Given the essential characteristics of ‘hutness’ I wonder if I ought to stop thinking about research centres and units and work to develop huts for ideas and practice. It would be wonderful to develop a way of being that stimulated the imagination, enhanced sociability and celebrated liminality.
Such huts would not be places of permanent residence. They would be way stations that had varying configurations of people and ideas that were nourished by the place.
Photo Credits
Wallaces Hut
Davies Run (Tasmanian Huts Preservation Society)
Dixons Kingdom Hut (Tasmanian Huts Preservation Society)