Slow Lane: Exploring housing, design and community connection

A NEW event exploring how Australians can live smarter, smaller and more sustainably will debut in Torquay next month as part of the expanded Nightjar Festival series.

Slow Lane – presented by Nightjar Entertainment – will take place on Sunday 4 January under the Big Top at Torquay Common, running from 11am to 9pm.

Following the success of Nightjar’s sold-out 2025 program, the inaugural one-day event will bring leading designers, thinkers and community advocates together for conversations about reimagining home, housing and connection.

Hosted by broadcaster, comedian and design advocate, Tim Ross, Slow Lane will delve into Australia’s relationship with place and the growing interest in small-footprint, sustainable living.

The program blends talks, design showcases and hands-on experiences, with topics ranging from building a second dwelling and navigating tiny-house design to retrofitting homes for resilience and creating stronger community ties through design.

Speakers across the day include:

James Goodlet from Altereco Design, who will join Ross to discuss second dwellings and retrofitting

Rachel Thompson of LJM Tiny Homes, local architect and Australian Tiny Home Association board member Wayne Reid, and his daughter Sophie, who will share their lived experience of tiny-house life

Diana Connell of Global Sisters, who will speak about housing inclusion and the Little Green Houses for Her initiative, which empowers women who’ve experienced violence to take steps toward safe and secure housing

James McLennan of Farm My School, who will explore community-driven food security and the power of transforming school grounds into thriving community farms, and

Jade Miles of Black Barn Farm, who will close the day with insights from her book Huddle: How We Build a Tomorrow of Togetherness, which explores belonging, connection and community in an era of change.

Tiny houses and van conversions will be on display across the site, offering visitors a look at innovative compact-living designs.

Food trucks, sustainable-living stalls and children’s activities will complement the talks, with Victorian musician Tom Harrington and Tasmania-based Rupert Bullard performing in the evening.

Nightjar Entertainment director, Lyndelle Flintoft, said Slow Lane aimed to create space for ideas and connection.

“Slow Lane is about more than sustainable housing and design; it’s about people – how we live, interact and create meaning together,” she said. “It’s about moving off the fast lane and into the Slow Lane.”

Event host Tim Ross said the event was a timely reminder that thoughtful design need not be large-scale.

“It’s about connection,” he said. “When we build small, we often end up living larger in the ways that matter most.”

For more information or to purchase tickets, head to nightjarfestival.com.au.

Nightjar Entertainment has also teamed up with Your Tiny Home Co. to give someone the chance to win a custom-built tiny home.

Want more entries or want to learn how it all works? Head to yourtinyhomeco.com.

//SPONSORED CONTENT