Ben Callery Architects has transformed a double-fronted Edwardian home in Melbourne’s Brunswick East into a contemporary design with large open spaces at the rear and a communal kitchen table for sharing food. In fact, the new design is so light and airy, it’s been dubbed ‘Breeze House’. The project also made the most of reclaimed appliances and materials.
Breeze House by Ben Callery Architects. Photo: Reannon Smith
Instead of opting for a large kitchen with the ubiquitous kitchen island, the owners instead asked for a large kitchen table for up to 12 people, creating a space for communal food preparation and sharing meals. “In our initial meeting, an inspiration [for our client] was the idea of a ‘country kitchen,’” explains Ben Callery from Ben Callery Architect.
This essay was written for the exhibition Speculation Nation: Making Utopia at Craft and Design Canberra from 18 May – 1 July 2023, curated by Penny Craswell.
Speculation Nation: Making Utopia exhibition, Craft and Design Canberra. Photo: 5Foot Photography.
The exhibition, Speculation Nation: Making Utopia, showcases craft practitioners who have engaged with some of the complex issues of a world in crisis. Curator Penny Craswell explores these issues with one eye on a bright future.
In the 21st century, more and more contemporary craft is engaging with the things that really matter to us – as individuals, as part of a society and as people on the planet. An idea for an exhibition exploring social, political and environmental issues in craft through the prism of time arose in response to a gut reaction I had to the news.
Ceto Circlet is a series of new lights by Melbourne designer Ross Gardam made from blown glass and aluminium. The light is somewhere between a pendant and a chandelier with 9, 12 or 15 individual lights in glass attached to a horizontal metal ring.
Ceto Circlet 15 by Ross Gardam. Photo: Haydn Cattach
Gardam says the mouth-blown nature of the glass means that Ceto Circlet: “captures the variation and rippling of the surface of the ocean… evoking the presence of the sea and its undulating movements.”
Part light, part room divider, Gunta Screen has the presence of a sculpture without the heaviness, and creates a gentle glow.
Gunta screen by Studiopepe for Tacchini, distributed in Australia by Stylecraft. Photo: Fiona Susanto.
Designed by Milan-based duo Arianna Lelli Mami and Chiara Di Pinto from Studiopepe, Gunta screen is made of a cocoon resin material that is sprayed onto a metal structure.
In a property as small as this, something as simple as moving a staircase can make a major difference to the amount of available space, according to architect Claire McCaughan from Custom Mad.
Living room and kitchen at Isabelle’s Place by Custom Mad. Photo: Richard Glover.
“The simple act of moving the stair over the bathroom meant the living space was 1m wider – a big deal on a 4.5m wide block!” says McCaughan.
Sydney gallerist, philanthropist and scholar Dr Gene Sherman is notable for her incredible eye for contemporary art, rigorous approach to curation and generosity as a modern-day patron. Her remarkable life and collections of art, fashion, jewellery, architecture and design have come together in a new book The Spoken Object: A collector’s journey in fashion, jewellery, design and architecture.
The book is a fantastic size – somewhere between a biography and a large-format art book – and is the perfect choice for this mix of the written word and sumptuous imagery. As editor, Sherman has limited her own writing to a short preface, instead choosing to hand the baton to other writers, including friends, former employees and collaborators, all of whom are talented and many of whom are powerful figures in their own right, including museum directors and academics.
1970s Uchiwa bamboo and Japanese washi paper pendant light by Ingo Maurer at Braelin with interiors by Don Cameron. Photo: Ross Honeysett.
The first section, written by respected curator Dolla Merrillees, is part personal essay and part short biography of Gene, charting the key milestones in her life. Joni Waka, another long-time collaborator has written his own portrait of Gene, splitting his short text into five descriptions of “Dr G” – the teacher, the friend, the phoenix, the persona, the catalyst. From here, the book is split into four main sections: Fashion, Jewellery, Design and Architecture, with between two and four short essays per section. Each writer has brought their own flavour to the essays, while focusing on the subject of the book – Sherman’s collections.
“Air” is the second exhibition by Brisbane’s QAGOMA in a series – the first, “Water” opened at the beginning of 2020, when Australia was in terrible drought with devastating bushfires that were a daily reminder of the climate crisis. As it turned out, the smoke of those bushfires – and the way they turned the sky red and black – is also the subject of the next exhibition in the series, “Air”.
Air is ubiquitous, often invisible, able to burn and be polluted, and also vital to life and health. The theme is malleable, and also timely due to the Covid-19 pandemic that has dominated our lives since 2020. In the exhibition catalogue, curator Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow writes: “At this moment in history, we are sensitive to air as never before: alert to airborne threats and aware of our shared reliance on it as vital.”
Barlow divides the exhibition into five sections, expanding the meaning of air accordingly: Atmosphere, Shared, Burn, Invisible and Change. Part of the Atmosphere section, Tomás Saraceno’s Drift: A cosmic web of thermodynamic rhythms is an installation of giant silver and transparent balls dotted through the gallery’s main atrium that represents the air itself. Kirrihi Barlow says Saraceno asks us to: “imagine air as it encircles the globe, as a vast invisible highway connecting continents, and as molecules moving within our bodies and bloodstream.”
Saraceno’s companion piece, much smaller, that hangs on the walls beside the installation is We do not all breathe the same air, a framed series of dots on strips of paper. Each dot is the pollution in the air made visible via lighter or darker grey, separated into hours, one strip per day, one hanging per week. A potent reminder that the air we breathe is sometimes poisonous.
Finding gifts for friends and family that won’t go straight to landfill can be a challenge, and this year I have some great suggestions, from items made from sustainable materials to second-hand options, to things from First Nations-owned businesses.
This is also a great time of year to give to charities helping those who are less fortunate. You can sponsor It’s in the Bag, an initiative of Share the Dignity, gifting bags full of essentials like shampoo, toothpaste and period products to women who are waking up in a domestic violence refuge or homeless shelter on Christmas. Or consider giving to OzHarvest or Foodbank to help those who are struggling to buy food this Christmas.
1. Did you know that Marimekko has a sustainable range out called Marimade? The Oiva bottle is made with part recycled glass and uses cork and bamboo, the Oiva takeaway mug is made from a compostable bio-based material and the Mini Unikko A5 Pouch is made from a cellulose material. marimekko.com
Oiva bottleOiva takeaway mugMini Unikko A5 PouchRead more →
Having originally studied woodwork at ANU, it is brass that has become a signature material for Sydney designer Henry Wilson. Adding to a variety of different objects he has designed, from table lamps to tape dispensers and oil burners, his latest piece is the Planchart Handle, which is now available in brass or aluminium.
Planchart Handle by Henry Wilson
The Planchart has a distinctive curve to it, inspired by Villa Planchart, which was designed by Gio Ponti in the early 1950s. Set on a hill overlooking Caracas in Venezuela, the house now belongs to the Fundacion Anala y Armando Planchart, which has maintained it intact, including furnishings.
This essay was written for the exhibition ‘Everything you Touch: Design from Denmark’ at The Modern Object in Canberra from 22 September to 22 October 2022, curated by Penny Craswell and Paul McInnes.
Hans Olsen and his Fried Egg chair. Image courtesy of Warm Nordic.
Penny:
For me, there is something so classically Danish mid-century about a warm brown teak tapered table leg or sideboard. Danish design from this era is so beautifully balanced in its proportions – not too heavy, nor too flimsy. The materials have a warmth and tactile quality that is missing from the machine aesthetic of the era with its stainless steel angles. I also always love to hear the Danish language as it always reminds me of my Danish godmother and her husband. What do you love about Danish design?
Paul:
I’m a modernist at heart, but I’ve always been attracted to the warmth and timeless quality of Danish design from the 1950s and 1960s. I think it’s the combination of Bauhaus functionalism and the Scandinavian concept of hygge that has contributed to its enduring popularity.
Australians have always has a strong connection with Danish design. Australian taste was shaped by post- war immigration, and the work of newly resettled European designers. In the 1950s and 1960s, Australia became a major world market for Danish (and Scandinavian) design, and many local furniture companies were quick to embrace the Danish Modern aesthetic.
Hayson furniture in Melbourne is a case in point. Its founders, Cliff & Peggy Hayton started producing Danish inspired designs following a trip to Copenhagen, selling them under the ‘Hans Hayson’ label.
