Homes of Nostalgia is a photographic series that examines how nostalgia is embedded in domestic Australian architecture. Centred on Sydney’s Inner West suburbs shaped by post‑war migration, the works explore how memory becomes material and how houses operate as expressions of cultural identity.

In these neighbourhoods, local housing styles reveal a strong neoclassical influence. Migrants arriving in the mid‑twentieth century brought with them memories of home and a deep respect for the architectural languages of ancient Greece and Rome. As families gained stability and social status, they began to express this heritage through their dwellings. The home became a place to assert pride, aspiration and continuity with an ancestral past.

Balustrades, columns, architraves, porticoes, capitals and ornate balconies, once associated with civic grandeur, were adapted to the suburban scale. These features were not merely decorative; they were statements of identity. With greater access to resources and skilled trades, migrants embellished their houses with confidence, transforming modest structures into personal monuments. The classical vocabulary was reinterpreted and sometimes exaggerated, creating a distinctive suburban aesthetic that blended Australian domestic life with Mediterranean influence.

In this way, these houses are symbolic statements of their owners and are tightly linked to their identity. As symbols of nostalgia, they present the past in a new world context, where historic architectural symbolism is part of a new cultural identity.