Writing about the ideas behind design. Think about it.
The news that David Bowie was a big collector of Memphis (over 100 items will go on auction at Sotheby’s in London on 11 November) makes sense – both were on the cutting edge of style in the 1980s and there is a little something of Ziggy Stardust in many of the designs.
Reflecting on Memphis, the Milan-based collective led by Ettore Sottsass that launched onto the international design stage in 1981, it is interesting to note its place in design history. Read more
Seattle-based architecture practice Olson Kundig (OK) created an ephemeral installation in Occidental Park as part of the Seattle Design Festival last month: a 10-tonne ice cube that slowly melted in the sun.
The piece acts as a statement raising environmental awareness, providing visitors with a tangible metaphor for the melting ice caps, “marking the passage of time as its waters slowly return to the sea,” according to the architects, as well as “showcasing the stages of the natural water cycle as the ice shifts from opaque to translucent”. Read more
The new extension of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) by Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta presents a soaring, monumental face, despite the challenges of a restrained site. Spanning over 10 floors, the new extension nearly triples the exhibition space of the museum, creating white, light-filled gallery spaces connected by wide timber stairs.
The old and new interiors are seamlessly integrated, with the new extension appearing to hug the side of the existing building, a series of brick-clad symmetrical volumes designed in 1995 by Mario Botta. In contrast to the bold, regular forms of the Botta building, the new design is introverted, expanding into the space but with its outer peripheries pinned back, clad in a white, rippling facade. Read more
Little Creatures is the latest Hong Kong restaurant by Charlie & Rose, a Hong Kong-based creative studio led by Australian designer Ben McCarthy. The venue is the first Little Creatures outside of Australia and is situated in Kennedy Town, where the cuisines range from seafood to Italian, to Mexican-Japanese fusion, all situated within a stone’s throw of Hong Kong Harbour.
Previously a warehouse space, the restaurant interior retains some of the original’s industrial grunge, overlaid with blonde timber joinery, bespoke furniture and some big, decorative red pipes that run through the space. Part of the brief was to create facilities for an on-site brewery and the gleaming metal brewing equipment takes pride of place behind the bar. Read more
The first permanent exhibition venue in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District has been completed – the M+ Pavilion, designed by three Hong Kong design teams: VPANG architects ltd, JET Architecture Inc and Lisa Cheung. The leaders of each team, Vincent Pang, Tynnon Chow and Lisa Cheung, first met in New York in 1999 and, despite their careers developing separately to this point, took this opportunity to come together, winning the competition entry to design the building.
The pavilion is set within the Art Park and offers a tranquil escape from the busy city centre, with gleaming facades that mirror the surrounding greenery of the park. The building is situated on a grassy slope with the upper level exhibition space cantilevering over the lawn below and offering views of the city and the harbour. Read more
A four-metre-wide terrace in Sydney’s Surry Hills has been transformed from a dark, cramped space into a light-filled home with clean lines and balanced proportions thanks to architecture practice Benn & Penna.
The new bedrooms and bathrooms are located above an open-plan living space that opens onto intimate garden spaces at either end of the property. In order to increase the liveable space in the house, these have been treated as outdoor rooms. Read more
As a source of inspiration for designers and architects, Australian Indigenous culture should not be underestimated. At a recent talk on shield carving by Andrew Snelgar and Simon Penrose at the Art Gallery of NSW, I saw first hand the beauty of traditional shields, tools and weapons made by hand. I also learnt about practices such as the harvesting of timber from trees – up to two thirds of a tree can be removed without killing it.
Two contemporary Indigenous designers drawing on Indigenous Australian traditions in their practices are Lucy Simpson, a textile and graphic designer who sells scarves, textiles, jewellery and objects under the name Gaawaa Miyay, and Nicole Monks, a designer working across art, interiors, fashion, set and surface design (Lucy and Nicole are both participants in the Arts NSW 2016 Indigenous Design Mentorship scheme facilitated by the Australian Design Centre). Read more
Egg Picnic is a Sydney-based design duo devoted to wildlife conservation. A mutual love of both design and the natural world was the starting point of the partnership which began when Chilean graphic designer and illustrator Camila De Gregorio met Australian industrial designer Christopher Macaluso in Milan in 2009. They found inspiration in each other’s work, collaborating across 2D and 3D to create illustrations, characters, prints, objects and art toys – at first in Milan, then in Santiago.
Now based in Sydney, the pair sell illustrations, art toys and objects depicting birds and wild animals, using simple lines and shapes to create characters that tread a fine line between art, design and cartoon, but also exude a serene stateliness that is utterly contemporary. Prints of individual species include the Hooded Plover, Australian Magpie, Galah and Spotted Eagle Ray (to name just a few), while larger prints such as Marsupials of Australia or Birds of Australia feature a line up of creatures. All prints are signed and include information about the species with the purchase. Read more
Based in Florence, Italy, ex.t has always pushed boundaries when it comes to bathroom design, striving for simplicity and elegance while thinking outside the basics of bath, basin and bowl. This year, they launched two new ranges, in both cases commissioning a non-bathroom designer to create something different to go alongside their bathroom products.
In the case of the new Plataeu and Raso collection, German furniture designer Sebastian Herkner was approached to design a range that includes mirrors and pendant lights in addition to washbasin, console and bathtub. An architectural language is created through the use of a shelf that sits just behind and below the rim of the basin, console and bath, creating a functional space to rest bathroom items, while also adding the illusion of a shadow or extra dimension. The mirror features the same shadow, an extension to the oval shape by way of a transparent frame on one side only. Meanwhile, the Raso lighting pendants in pink, grey, white and transparent glass offer a complementary design object that softens the bathroom interior. Read more
A ribbon of light twists and turns above a pedestrian street in Perth’s latest urban renewal project, Kings Square, this is Connect(us), the latest light installation by Sydney-based artist Warren Langley.
Warren has been working with the medium of light and glass for over 30 years, creating individual light installations for the Shanghai World Expo in 2011, as well as more permanent lighting displays and public artworks such as a tower made of glass and light at the Canberra Glassworks and Aspire, a forest of sculptural trees in light under the underpass in Sydney’s Pyrmont, as well as major project for Parliament House Canberra, the Maison de la Opera, Amiens, France and the Centre for Contemporary Art, Tacoma, USA. Read more