Frank and Eunice Corley drove through suburban streets in the late 1960s and 1970s, photographing houses and selling the prints to homeowners. More than 60,000 of their prints were gifted to the State Library of Queensland. The exhibition, 'Home: a suburban obsession', shared a selection of their black and white photos and a group of artists were invited to respond to the Corley's work. Safe as Houses takes its cue from distinctive building materials that recur in the images, specifically those that mark boundaries or enclosure — making places of refuge and protection. Picket fence, brick, breeze block, louvres and casement windows were reference points for the tower structures of Safe as Houses.

An installation was also created for The Corner, the library's dedicated space for young audiences. Five towers were made from honeycomb cardboard. "Inside, each was painted incredibly beautiful, bright colours, just one single colour, and my objective was to introduce little people to a space where they could imagine... where they could sit and read or play and just let their imaginations go wild."