Writing about the ideas behind design. Think about it.
Articles on design and philosophy, writing, thinking, ideas and the world.
A florist and cafe is always a wonderful combination, allowing you to consume your hot beverages in amongst some flowers. Based in the Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford, La Fantaisie is especially appealing thanks to a beautiful interior by Bergman & Co.
The interior of La Fantaisie had good bones to start with, located in a two-storey Victorian building with brickwork, arched windows, a gorgeous entry door and generous proportions.
Read moreSydney designer and jeweller Bic Teieu explores concepts of cultural hybridity and the home by exploding and rearranging floral motifs in a series of metal objects made from sterling silver and precious sheet metal alloys, which was recently exhibited at UNSW Galleries.
Created as part of Tieu’s PhD, this body of work has a strong conceptual and theoretical basis, exploring the designer’s own identity as a Southeast Asian Australian woman living between cultures.
Read moreThe design challenge set for Riofrio Carroll Architects by the owners of this house in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton was to combine two long narrow terraces, demolish additions from the 1950s and 1970s, and reuse the bricks to build a new extension.
Each terrace is five metres wide with a heritage facade in patterned brick with decorative plasterwork above. These two facades were retained as a part of the property’s history: “An important aspect of the architectural project was to maintain the layers of history that had made their mark over the decades on the property,” says Nelson Riofrio from Riofrio Carroll Architects.
Read moreI’m excited to announce that ‘Reclaimed: New homes from old materials’ will be on sale in Australia from 30 August and is now available for pre-order from Booktopia Australia. The book will be available for sale in the UK from 2023 and in the US as well (to be confirmed).
Marisia Lukaszewski of aestheticalliance reviews the ‘Future of Fashion’ exhibition by Stella McCartney and RE-CUT by Toogood x Carhartt, two shows proving fashion is a vital part of Salone del Mobile and Milan Design Week.
Micro dosing the ‘Future of Fashion’ exhibition by Stella McCartney
As one approaches the venue of Caselli 11-12, a 1800s neo-classical tollbooth located near the Turati metro stop in Milan, a collection of resin mushroom statues herald the location for the latest preview of ‘Future of Fashion: An innovation conversation with Stella McCartney’.
Launched originally at the UN’s COP26 climate conference, the evolving and travelling installation aims to leverage UK fashion designer Stella McCartney’s past and present achievements to inspire future action. Salone del Mobile is a ‘laboratory’ for design experimentation, innovation, and cross-pollination, making it a natural platform to introduce the designer’s proposed construction and supply-chain solutions of our shared tomorrow.
Read moreAustralian-born UK-based designer Brodie Neill recently presented a body of work made with reclaimed, recycled and waste materials as a demonstration of circular design at Sotheby’s in London last month called ‘Material Consciousness’.
The show features nine pieces grouped into three categories: ocean plastic, reclaimed timbers and circular metals. “Each design has a story of what it once was, is now and could be in the future. As designers, we inherit these materials from nature, industry, and society and play an important role in reshaping them with better purpose,” says Neill.
Read moreSet within a vineyard in South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, 45 minutes drive from Adelaide, is Esca Blewitt Springs, a luxury off-grid retreat with prefabricated architecture by Das Studio.
The building is the second of two prototype suites designed by Das Studio and inspired by director Dino Vrynios’s travelling fellowship to research the world’s best practice in modular construction and prefabricated construction methodologies.
Read moreDesign is not just about creating products to sell and buildings to live in. Many designers are now looking past the traditional forms of design and architecture, and exploring design’s potential to positively impact the world in other ways. This includes how design can help rebuild habitats for bees and other pollinating insects whose natural homes have been destroyed or degraded by humans.
In The Netherlands, Matilde Boelhouwer has turned her research and design skills to reversing the drastic decline in insect population in urban environments. As part of her project Insectology: Food for Buzz, she collaborated with university researchers, scientists and engineers to design five different artificial flowers that can be installed in any urban environment to provide an emergency food source for bees and other insects.
Read moreThis house in Melbourne’s Brighton East features a new extension with a distinctive roof that architects Wowowa describe as a colonnade. It also has a colourful new interior with a kitchen in chocolate brown, yellow, pink and multi-coloured terrazzo, and bathrooms in green and blue.
The architects have added four bedrooms and two bathrooms, extra living spaces, storage, and increased connection to the exteriors in one fell swoop with the colonnade – a new section of the building connected by a row of columns. “The hardworking colonnade is the innovation in this design,” the architect’s statement says.
Read moreFeaturing a number of bespoke details, this new modern Mexican restaurant in Sydney’s Freshwater was designed by local interior design studio Five Foot One.
Called St Alma in reference to its ‘big sister’ restaurant Alma in nearby Avalon, the restaurant has a large open dining room with banquette seating on one side and booths on the other, a gorgeous burgundy bar and a semi-enclosed kitchen with open windows.
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