The Design Writer

Uncovering Australian Architecture at WAF 2019

December 16, 2019January 1, 2023despc

Nic Granleese, Eszter Riga, Celeste Bolte and Ben G Morgan from BowerBird report on the World Architecture Festival in Amsterdam, held from 4 – 6 December 2019.

The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has been a fixture of the global design and architecture calendar for over 10 years. The event includes speakers from across the globe, as well as presentations to juries of the WAF Awards each year. It is an opportunity for architects to meet, learn, and to teach. In 2019, the team behind BowerBird.io attended the festival in Amsterdam as Media Partners, uncovering stories of architecture from international and Australian architects.

Welcome to the Jungle House by CplusC. Photo: Murray Fredericks

We had previously attended the World Architecture Festival in Singapore, so we knew it was an exciting event that acts as an annual gathering place for architects. What we had underestimated was the sheer scale of the interaction. WAF (as it is affectionately known) is close to the hearts of many architecture practices, and the annual awards program is highly regarded internationally.

Design Lives Here: Australian interiors, furniture and lighting

December 13, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

I’m excited to announce that my first book has been published by Thames & Hudson Australia!

Australian design has forged its own unique trajectory, influenced by geographic isolation, a distinctive natural environment, and a modern sensibility.

Interview: Rina Bernabei on ceramics

December 5, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Sydney industrial designer and UNSW academic Rina Bernabei has turned her hand to ceramics in a new range. So what’s the difference between designing for production and making by hand? We asked her to find out.

Ceramics by Rina Bernabei. Image: Supplied

Tell us about your industrial design work. And why the move to ceramics?

While, I have always loved ceramics from afar, I actually got into ceramics when I received a grant to do a 3D ceramic printing project. I felt I needed to understand the material more so signed up to a four-week course, which included wheel throwing.

Top 10: Ethical Gift Guide

November 28, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

It’s that time of year again, when we spend up big to give presents to friends and loved ones, with many gifts ending up surplus to requirements and just so much extra landfill. One option is to donate to charity in lieu of a gift. If this approach appeals to you, Care Australia is offering Christmas Gifts that Save Lives and the Australian Red Cross has Real Good Gifts. If you still want to buy something tangible, make an ethical choice that puts profit in the right people’s pockets without doing harm to the environment. Here’s ten options to get you started in your hunt.

Haigh’s Chocolates Leadlight Gift Bon Bon

1.This Christmas Bon Bon features graphics inspired by leadlight windows and is filled with delicious chocolate. According to the Shop Ethical! App, Haigh’s Chocolate is a Member of the World Cocoa Foundation committed to creating a sustainable cocoa economy and signatory to the Australian Packaging Covenant, a voluntary agreement to encourage waste minimisation. Only $19.90 from Haigh’s.

Review: MPavilion 2019 by Glenn Murcutt

November 18, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Australia’s only Pritzker Prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt is best known for his long, horizontal, climate-responsive architecture; shed-like residential buildings made for viewing the Australian landscape.

This year, Murcutt has been commissioned by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation to design the sixth annual MPavilion, a project that brings temporary architecture to Queen Victoria Gardens in the heart of Melbourne. His response has been to create a long, horizontal shed-like structure – but this is where the similarities to his other projects end.

Object Stories: Broached Goulder Collection

November 1, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Working from a studio set up inside the Adelaide office of Norwegian architecture firm Snohetta, Jon Goulderhas crested his latest collection, Broached Goulder, for Broached Commissions, bringing his work full circle to the boy in Bowral who worked in the family furniture factory.

Broached Goulder Chaise Lounge. Image: supplied

Goulder left school at 16 to join his grandfather, father and uncles in the family furniture factory, reupholstering Victorian antiques. But four years later, he turned away from this practice and its chaise lounges towards a new path, inspired by his mother’s belief in the importance of education.

Review: Royal Nut Company

October 28, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Breathe Architecture has transformed a vacant warehouse into the new home of the Royal Nut Company, a family business that has been selling wholesale nuts in Melbourne’s Brunswick for more than 30 years.

Royal Nut Company by Breathe Architecture. Image: supplied

Breathe Architecture’s approach to the adaptive reuse of the building was to maintain the industrial aspects of the existing architecture, including exposed roof trusses, high-level steel windows, existing brickwork and concrete floors, while creating a functional space for the production, packaging and retail sale of nuts.

Object Stories: Colour Shift Panel Rose by Rive Roshan

October 11, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Colour Shift Panel Rose is one of a series of works by Ruben de la Rive Box and Golnar Roshan from Amsterdam studio Rive Roshan that explores subtle shifts of colour and the way light reflects and alters a room.

Colour Shift Panel Rose by Rive Roshan. Image: supplied by Sally Dan Cuthbert Gallery, Sydney

Light, reflection and colour shifts are an important part of Rive Roshan’s work, which blurs the boundaries of art and design. They have described the colour effect of the Colour Shift Panel Rose as inspired by the soft light of Amsterdam.

Review: Marrickville Library by BVN

October 4, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

The new Marrickville Library by BVN is a strikingly beautiful adaptive reuse of an existing hospital building, which was originally built in 1871 and is heritage listed. BVN won an invited design competition for their scheme, which favours a community-first approach with a heavy emphasis on sustainable building practices.

Marrickville Library entrance by BVN. Photo: Brett Boardman

“Incorporating a building as historically rich as the old Marrickville Hospital, and developing it into a piece of contemporary architecture, to meet the needs of Marrickville’s diverse community, was a truly rewarding project for us,” says BVN Project Director Brian Clohessy.

Review: Lucy McRae: Body Architect

September 9, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

In The Institute of Isolation, a woman in a beige body suit with padding, cap and sneakers goes through a sequence of actions alone. She runs along a raised concrete platform, she breathes through a mask, she visits an anechoic (sound-absorbtion) chamber, she steps the internal circumference of a microgravity trainer while suspended from the ceiling. A voice-over describes her mission: she is preparing for space travel.

The Institute of Isolation by Lucy McRae. Image: supplied

This is the most recent work of Australian-born, LA-based artist Lucy McRae to be included in her first solo exhibition Lucy McRae: Body Architect, currently showing at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne and curated by Simone LeAmon. As a filmic imagining of the preparation for a female body to travel to space, The Institute of Isolation encapsulates many of the themes in McRae’s work, including her fascination with testing the limits of the body (physical and psychological) and her preoccupation with the future.