The Design Writer

By Penny Craswell

This home by Melbourne-based Wolveridge Architects creates a sense of calm thanks to a materials palette of neutral colours and natural textures. Located in Victoria near the beach, the house is built on a bowl-shape site, with the layout arranged around a set of courtyards, hence its name, Courtyard Residence. Floor-to-ceiling windows to each of the courtyards are dressed in semi-transparent curtains that billow in the breeze.

Lending architectural gravitas to the house is a rammed earth spine wall that extends through the building, broken like a perforated line and acting as both external wall at the entry and internal wall adjacent to the living room and kitchen.

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By Penny Craswell

Now showing at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Clay Dynasty is an extensive exhibition featuring a range of studio ceramic works in Australia from the last 50 years. The exhibition charts the work of Australian ceramicists over three generations and includes over 400 works from 160 Australian artists. Displayed across one vast exhibition floor, it’s an impressive project that appeals both to the old school of Australian ceramics while also offering a fascinating glimpse into ceramics as contemporary art today.

The exhibition explores three key themes: 1) Function and Beauty, 2) Form and Image and 3) Funk and Postmodern Ceramics. “The museum is revitalising its approach to ceramics and other traditional craft areas,” says Curator Eva Czernis-Ryl. “We are trying to show this incredible potential that clay has as a medium of artistic expression.”

I was most excited to see the contemporary works, which include over 70 individual objects acquired and commissioned by the Museum. This review will focus on a selection of these.

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This essay was originally commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria for publication in NGV Magazine, Issue #30, Sep-Oct 2021. ‘Designing the Unknown: Symbols and objects of death, remembrance and mourning in design and making’ was written by Penny Craswell.

We might not think of designers as being concerned with existential subjects such as mortality, but if we take a closer look at symbols and objects of death, remembrance and mourning throughout history, a different story emerges. Looking at design works in the NGV Collection as well as common symbols, from the Jolly Roger to the ‘spiky blob’ of COVID-19, Penny Craswell explores how designers confront the big questions of life and death, and how they can influence our perceptions and attitudes towards the unknown.

‘Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.’ — HARUKI MURAKAMI

I was about ten years old when I saw my first death mask. Ned Kelly’s face seemed almost serene – eyes closed, head smooth, propped up in a glass display case at the Old Melbourne Gaol. The memory of that moment has stayed with me all these years – standing there I had a powerful sense of fascination mixed with fear. This was not some horror movie or bogeyman – this was a real man, a real corpse. And his life was really taken, here, at these gallows.

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By Penny Craswell

Begin Again Again Begin is a bench seat for waiting areas with a top-heavy shape and graphic detailing in handmade aluminium. The piece was co-designed by Luke Chiswell, and Rene Linssen and Elliot Bastianon of Furnished Forever, produced by Furnished Forever and is available from Canberra retailer The Modern Object, which is based in Dairy Road.

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By Penny Craswell

Are you planning a plastic-free festive season this year? Or looking for other ways to reduce your carbon footprint at the time of year when many of us spend the most and waste the most? Or do you want to buy gifts that support charities? Then look no further than this gift guide, which has some bright ideas for how to be festive without the cost to planet or humans.

Instead of buying from multinational companies this year, consider buying from a small business or a maker. Handmade gifts can be found at these galleries and shops: Australian Design Centre, Craft Victoria, Craft ACT, Design Tasmania, JamFactory and Artisan.

You might also want to consider the option of gifting an invisible gift, like a subscription to a streaming service, or a ticket to a class or experience. Food is another great way to gift without waste.

1. Fjällraven is known for their stylish, quality backpacks and their latest offering, called Tree Kånken, is made from wood. This bio-material, called Pine Weave, is made from certified Swedish trees grown close to Fjällräven’s hometown of Örnsköldsvik and is part of the company’s efforts to find innovative new alternatives to fossil fuels. fjallraven.com.au

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By Penny Craswell

White Rabbit House is a renovation of a 1970s Neo-Georgian terrace house in London’s Islington by local architecture firm Gundry + Ducker. The house underwent a total overhaul, keeping only the roof and external brick walls, while the 1970s interiors were removed to make way for a completely new interior and a new extension was added at the back.

A simple box shape in pale brick and a mottled white terrazzo lend the back extension a contemporary feel, in contrast to the brown brick of the rest of the building. Arched windows here and arched doors inside are a nod to the Neo-Georgian style of the building, while also being (again) completely contemporary. Green steel-framed glass doors open out directly to the outside.

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By Penny Craswell

Known for his Cracked Light Log, Tasmanian furniture and lighting designer Duncan Meerding combines light with wood again in his latest design, a whiskey cabinet called ‘Light from Shadows’.

Duncan Meerding’s unique approach to design originates from his eyesight: “I am ‘legally blind’ with less than 5% vision, concentrated around the periphery. My vision showcases over all forms and light dispersing around the outside of objects and forms,” he says. “If you look at a lot of my work, it is reflective of this.”

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By Penny Craswell

Sydney-based furniture maker Nick Pedulla made this record cabinet from Black Oak with a contrasting Natural Oak with brass grilles for a couple who wanted a cabinet with custom measurements to house their record player, speakers and record collection.

The couple found Pedulla via a google search for Sydney custom furniture makers, and, as well as having specific measurements in mind, they also asked that the record cabinet be designed for ventilation. “The most important detail was having enough space for record storage as well as making it a piece to enhance the space, to provide a comfortable area while listening to music,” says Pedulla.

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By Penny Craswell

The Milan Furniture Fair (or Salone del Mobile) may have been cancelled last year, and in 2021 been moved to September from its usual April spot on the calendar, but there’s plenty of new designs on show, from the latest product releases to experimental objects, exhibitions, installations and more. Here’s some that caught my eye from afar.

The latest products from Hermés Home including textiles, ceramics, leather and more are this year displayed in an installation incorporating scenography and sound design with patterns painted on architectural elements in an array of colours. The shapes and colours echo the brand’s furniture centrepiece this year, the ‘Organic Curves’ Chair designed by Studio Mumbai, a wide-seated wooden chair coated in a cellulose material that gives the chair a slightly uneven finish, then hand painted in bold red stripes.

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By Penny Craswell

‘Future Remains’ is an exhibition at Craft Victoria in Melbourne that presents the work of seven female designer/makers whose principle material is wood. Works include furniture, sculpture and jewellery, each made with a different timber and technique.

Melbourne-based artist Makiko Ryujin draws on her Japanese heritage in the sculptural work LOOP, a series of wood-turned objects inspired by Tōrō; traditional Japanese lanterns found in Buddhist temples. The timber is blackened by fire, a reference to the Japanese cultural burning ritual ‘Otakiage’.

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