The ternary suggests there is always a third alternative in our binary world. One issue is housing where the binary is homes or high rises, but neither is sustainable. Detached homes are low in density, far from services, requiring energy hungry cars on underutilised streets that are ground killers. By contrast, high rise units increase the density, and hence proximity of residents to services, but have massive energy demands for lifts, AC and exhausts. A third way is low + close..

Last week’s column on the major shift in Australian politics and life, from binary to ternary, raised a few questions, such as where did the name ‘ternary’ come from and how did I come to that notion. First answer - easy, computer theory. Second answer - bit harder, but it gets to the heart of this column’s main interest: design and politics. Like many, I am constantly disappointed in the quality of political journalism in this country, its limited horizons, its right bias and, more than anything, its complete lack of understanding of the importance of design..

For so long, Australia has been a binary nation: Indigenous + Invaders. Labor + LNP. Men + Women. Cities + The Bush. Owners and Renters. But seismic shifts are happening. We are moving to ‘ternary’, or base of 3. Now everything is ‘three-way’. Noel Pearson, in his searing analysis for ‘The Voice’, identifies indigenous, white settlement and multiculturalism. The demise of the LNP in the last two years has seen the rise of Greens, Teals, and Independents as a third force..