Writing about the ideas behind design. Think about it.
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.
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.
Read moreThe 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.
“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.
Read moreIn 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.
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.
Read moreNgalya is a project by Koskela that celebrates contemporary Indigenous fibre arts in Australia. This powerful work that play an important role maintaining cultural practice is also incredibly sought after as lighting.
Created to mark 10 years of Koskela’s collaboration with Indigenous Arts Centres (that began with Yuta Badayala by the weavers of Elcho Island Arts), Ngalya sees Koskela working with Indigenous makers from six different Arts Centres across Australia to create a series of completely new lighting designs.
Read moreThe latest collection from Sarah Gibson and Nicholas Karlovasitis, designers and owners of Sydney brand Design By Them, is called Confetti, named for its vibrant multi-coloured material made from 100% recycled plastic.
The range includes an armchair, bench, modular lounge, booth and ottoman, which combine the recycled plastic with upholstered shapes in a range of colours, and a series of tables, an umbrella stand and a planter.
Read moreSam Crawford Architects has refreshed and rationalised the interiors of this townhouse in Sydney’s Blackwattle Bay to create an expanded, streamlined and light-filled home with a focus on the beautiful things in life, including art, objects, books, and views of the bay and city skyline beyond.
The first step in this renovation was to shift and expand the kitchen and living areas by moving the study. The newly enlarged kitchen features a generous brass-clad island bench as a centrepiece, with green tiles on the splashback, white cabinetry on the back wall and black cabinetry on the island. Along one side of the kitchen and adjoining living area, a wall of plain white cupboard doors conceals a large pantry to the left and a stunning drinks cabinet and bar with wine storage in warm timber to the right.
Read moreOn a recent visit to Denmark, I was totally overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of beautiful Danish design objects. Probably my favourite store was Illums Bolighus, which is conveniently located next door to Georg Jensen and Royal Copenhagen in Copenhagen’s main square (opposite the excellent Cafe Norden).
From ceramics to glass, metalwork to leather, I have included my favourite Danish design pieces and brands in a handy list for those travelling to Denmark or just wanting some design inspiration.
Kähler first started creating ceramics in Denmark in 1889. The Hammershøi series, designed by Norwegian designer Hans-Christian Bauer, is a modern interpretation of the classic ceramic vases that Dane Svend Hammershøi created for Kähler in the early 19th century. The new version features the same distinctive vertical ribs.
Read moreIn Como, a small town on the southern shore of Lake Como north of Milan, the Museo della Seta (Silk Museum) recently showed the textile works of Lithuanian artist Inga Liksaite in a solo exhibition called ‘Waterhome’.
The works are a mixture of hand-stitching and machine-stitched canvases, making use of small stitches to create a pattern that only translates its subject when viewed from afar, like an Impressionist painting.
Read moreThere is no question that the world is in climate crisis, with school children on strike and increasing numbers of governments around the world declaring a climate emergency, so the theme of the XXII edition of the Triennale di Milano this year is particularly apt. Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival is an exhibition and series of international installations that explores what designers are doing to tackle the problem.
Broken Nature takes as its starting point the inevitable extinction of humans and explores the myriad ways that designers are attempting to tackle the problem. “Humanity is in peril… the strain we are placing on environmental bonds is significant, the needle measuring the tension is already in the critical zone, and the pressure is mounting,” writes Italian-born NY-based curator Paola Antonelli in the catalogue essay.
Read moreOn the ground floor of the Harbour Rocks Hotel, with dining overlooking busy pedestrian street Nurses Walk in Sydney’s The Rocks, is Tayim, a new restaurant, bar and deli with design by architecture studio Welsh & Major. The exterior brick facade has been restored and updated, while the interiors are a lesson in successful adaptive reuse, pairing historic sandstone walls with minimal design insertions to create a blank canvas for complex Middle Eastern flavours.
The project was made all the more challenging by the heritage constraints to the site, which was previously the 1890s Evans’ Stores warehouse, as well as the considerable functional requirements of creating a working restaurant, bar and deli.
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