The Design Writer

By Penny Craswell

Welcome to your one stop shop for ethical gift ideas during 2024’s festive season. Reuse your Christmas (or other festive) decorations, go recycled or recyclable, support small, handmade and/or Indigenous-owned businesses, and, where possible, give to charity. Oxfam has Charity Gift Cards That Do Good, Child Fund Australia has Christmas Gift Ideas, Barnardos has Gifts for Kids, and there are plenty more out there to choose from. Because there is enough selfishness in the world already, so add some goodness to your festive cheer!

1. These gorgeous Turning Candle Holders are by Sydney-based designer (and Design Academy Eindhoven graduate) Marlo Lyda. In an excellent example of zero-waste design, they are made out of camphor laurel offcuts, sourced either from the production of turning or from mills in the Northern Rivers Region. $85.00 each marlolyda.me

2. Eau Bags are not only stylish, they are made from recycled nylon made from waste, like old carpets, fishing nets and industrial scraps. This one is the Marché in French Rose and Chocolate. $89.00 eaubags.com

3. Where possible, buy handmade from a small business as this can make a huge difference in the lives of artists. This little guy is Finley, designed and made by Ginny Lagos AKA catbirddog. $55.00 catbirddog.com.au

4. Plants are a great gift, especially when you include a handmade pot by a local ceramicist. This one is hand made and hand painted by Christina McLean of Trade the Mark in her studio in Umina Beach on the Central Coast of NSW. $125.00 tradethemark.com

5. The Sydney Sock Project works with a dozen different charities, donating for each pair of socks purchased. This pair is linked to Save the Bees, but other socks support a range of important causes. $19.95 sydneysockproject.com

6. Magpie Goose is an Aboriginal owned and led brand bringing fashion and social impact together. Shown here is the kid’s shirt (unisex) in Camp Out, a fabric designed by Alan Collins from Ewyenper Atwatye (Hidden Valley) in Northern Territory. $89.00 (shirt only) magpiegoose.com

7. The Joyrolla is a shopping trolley’s that’s stylish and made to last, designed by Sydney-based Vert Design Studio with the bag, foot, wheels and cart all replaceable. Plus for every trolley sold, 10 meals will be donated to food charity SecondBite Australia. $339.00 joyrolla.com

8. Melbourne label Elk is a sustainable brand with multiple charity partners. Shown here is the Jaana tshirt, which is made with 55% hemp and 45% organic cotton. Hemp requires minimal water, fertilisers and pesticides to grow, plus it’s very strong and durable. $89.00 elkthelabel.com

9. With a lovely geometry that’s also tactile and some fantastic colourways, Lattice Rug is designed by James Walsh and available from Stylecraft, plus a percentage of proceeds from the sale of each rug goes to Tjanpi Desert Weavers (TDW). $5999.00 stylecraft.com.au

10. Craft kits are a great gift idea for the so inclined both young and old, and this one’s a beauty. The Numbulwar Numburindi Arts Weaving Kit includes a guided video, a needle and enough raffia to make a small bowl, sold via Kakadu Plum Co. $59.95 kakaduplumco.com

By Penny Craswell

I have some fantastic news to share – my new book The New Sustainable House will be on sale from 29 October and is now available to pre-order online or at all good booksellers! The book will also be on sale in the US and the UK from 2025. Published by Thames & Hudson with graphic design by Claire Orrell.

This book features sustainable 25 houses from all around the world, from Spain to India to Mexico, from Australia to the UK and the US. Publisher Paulina de Laveaux and I spent a long time choosing projects for this book and it features some of the best architecture from around the world, with each project also being sustainable thanks to its design, systems, materials or other features.

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Review by Penny Craswell

How to Create Things for the World Sustainably

Sarah K, Supercyclers (Near Future Publishing), 280 pp hardback, RRP $90.00

Of all the “wicked problems” of the world, the problem of too much stuff is one of the most difficult to solve – and it is one that falls directly into the lap of designers. Designer, educator and author Sarah K is one person who has taken on the problem as a calling, dedicating her career to teaching, exhibiting, designing and consulting on the topic.

In her book How to Create Things for the World Sustainably, Sarah K tells the story of how she came to put sustainability at the centre of design – that “flip the switch” moment that shocked her into dedicating her life to the cause. “I think it’s important to acknowledge this first shift in thinking, so that we can recognise in ourselves that we are moving from the mindset of the old paradigm into the new one.”

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By Penny Craswell

Melbourne’s Never Too Small, known for their beautifully produced videos about small footprint living, recently curated a new exhibition as part of Melbourne Design Week. “Multifunctional Pet Furniture” featured 11 different pieces of furniture designed by an international cohort of architects and designers. Each piece was made locally with plywood thanks to Castlemaine-based makers Jem Selig Freeman and Laura Woodward from Like Butter and exhibited at Never Too Small’s offices in Collingwood.

“There’s a hard rubbish room in my apartment building,” explains Colin in the exhibition precis. “People often discard pet houses or furniture and it [made] me wonder if their pets passed away or if they simply didn’t use the pet house and found it too bulky for their apartment. It’s disheartening to see that 90 percent of the time, these pet houses are still in perfect or near-new condition, leading to a significant waste of materials.”

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By Penny Craswell

Hidden in plain sight – a new exhibition of design objects by curators Dale Hardiman and Tom Skeehan of Friends & Associates was exhibited amongst the books at Bookshop by Uro in Collingwood as part of Melbourne Design Week.

Before visiting Bookshop by Uro in Collingwood last week, I felt I knew it, having done an online book launch with Mat Ward during lockdown, despite having never been in person. Walking in, my eyes scanned the shelves and I vaguely wondered where the exhibition was, before asking for Mat. It was only after we had said hello that he pointed out one of the exhibits – the Tome portable lamp by Charlie White, an artist who creates works out of second-hand materials.

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By Penny Craswell

Launched this week in Milan as part of Milan Design Week, ‘Me and You’ is a new range of lighting by Australian designers Volker Haug (Volker Haug Studio) and David Flack (Flack Studio).

They say that necessity is the mother of invention or as Plato wrote in the Republic: “Our need will be the real creator”. This plays out in the story of Me and You: when David Flack was installing a vintage light and the glass fitting broke, he contacted Volker Haug to come up with an emergency replacement.

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By Penny Craswell

The house is large, with rounded concrete walls, a half moon pool and stunning views of the surrounding valley. James Bond enters the sprawling living room through a glass door looking for Mr Whyte. “Well, hi there,” says a woman from a red armchair before cartwheeling out of it, “I’m Bambi.” James Bond can only take a few steps towards her before her colleague, sprawled out on a rock in a tiny yellow bikini says: “And I’m Thumper.” What follows is one of the most memorable fight scenes in James Bond history.

It’s also the scene evoked by architect and ex-Grand Designs presenter Peter Maddison at the recent Metricon conference Master of Design in Hobart to make an important point. “Architecture is about more than just habitation,” says Maddison. “It can be both memorable and iconic.” This scene from the 1971 movie Diamonds are Forever was filmed in the Elron House designed in 1969 by US architect John Lautner for interior designer Arthur Elrod. Even the armchair is iconic – this is Serie UP 2000 by Gaetano Pesce for B&B Italia.

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The Pacific Sisters is an artist collective based in Auckland combining costume, fashion, performance, dance and filmmaking in their work, which is rooted in Māori, Pacific, and Queer identities. This year, as part of the Biennale of Sydney ‘Ten Thousand Suns’, their work is on display at the Art Gallery of NSW from 9 March to 10 June.

The Pacific Sisters is a Tāgata Moana art collective that emerged from the fringes of mainstream arts and culture in Aotearoa New Zealand in 1991. Members are: Lisa Reihana, Rosanna Raymond, Ani O’Neill, Suzanne Tamaki, Selina Haami, Niwhai Tupaea, Henzart @ Henry Ah-Foo Taripo, Feeonaa Wall, and Jaunnie ‘Ilolahia.

Pacific Sisters advocate for the environment, Indigenous, POC and Queer rights and body sovereignty. The collective is an active and influential part of the wider Moana arts community, nurturing and mentoring younger artists, as well as inspiring and supporting each other’s individual art practices.

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By Penny Craswell

The future of housing was the topic of discussion at the Master of Design conference Mo.D/24 held recently in Hobart by Australian building company Metricon. 

The company, which builds homes in four states of Australia – Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia – chose to hold their inaugural conference in Hobart – a chance to get away from the everyday and gain a new perspective.

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