Australian design

Pottery studio, with garden by Alexander Symes Architect

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By Penny Craswell

This two-storey pottery studio in the back garden of a house in Sydney’s Inner West features a crab mural in ceramic tiles that wraps one corner of its facade. It is also an environmentally regenerative project that’s an exemplar of sustainable architecture.

Pottery Studio by Alexander Symes Studio. Photo: Barton Taylor.

Coconut Crab studio was designed by Alexander Symes Architect in collaboration with the client, Casa Adams Fine Wares and landscape architect Jason Monaghan. The brief was for a freestanding building that could be used for ceramic production, educational workshops and business administration. The studio also shares a garden with the family home.

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Koskela launches Ngalya lighting collection

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By Penny Craswell

Ngalya 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.

Ngalya is a new Koskela range of lighting created in collaboration with six Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art centres from around Australia. Photo: supplied

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.

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Review: ‘Broken Nature’ Triennale in Milan

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By Penny Craswell

There 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.

Totems, Neri Oxman and the Mediated Matter Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Triennale Milano. Photo: Gianluca Di Ioia
Totems, Neri Oxman and the Mediated Matter Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Triennale Milano. Photo: Gianluca Di Ioia

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.

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Object Stories: Shaker Family Cabinet by Trent Jansen

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By Penny Craswell

Sydney-based designer Trent Jansen takes a research-led, anthropological approach to his work that often involves delving into the history of materials, movements and mythologies, and also includes cross-cultural collaboration.

Shaker Family Home by Trent Jansen. Photo: Romello Pereira

His most recent work, which is being exhibited as part of Local Milan at the Milan Furniture Fair in April 2019, is the Shaker Family Home. This piece is simultaneously a single work, and also a collection of works, with each part folding away into the structure of the main piece.

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Miniatures from the world of Harry Potter

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By Penny Craswell

Architecture students from a Melbourne School of Design intensive have created eight intricate miniature sets from the Harry Potter world by J.K. Rowling in a new exhibition called “Smoke and Mirrors”.

The Burrow, Harry Potter project, Melbourne School of Design architecture students. Photo: Jannette Le

Teams were tasked with designing and fabricating an animated set model based on sourced material, with different models showing Gringotts bank, Ollivander’s wand shop, the Shreiking Shack, the Burrows (home to the Weasley’s) and parts of Hogwarts itself, including The Chamber of Secrets. Students built character profiles from source materials, then designed the spaces to reflect how the characters would have used the space.

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Ethics in Practice: Fashion design with High Tea with Mrs Woo

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By Penny Craswell

High Tea with Mrs Woo was a proponent of slow fashion before the term was even invented. The label is run by three sisters from Newcastle – Rowena, Juliana and Angela Foong – who began their careers in fashion running a second-hand clothing store while they were at university. Right from the beginning, the trio were all about recycling, remaking and making the most of existing fashion. “We were upcycling pre-loved garments, sourcing vintage fabrics and using deadstock fabrics from a remnant warehouse,” explains Rowena Foong, “but we weren’t making enough money to pay the rent!”

Rowena, Juliana and Angela Foong from High Tea with Mrs Woo. Photo: Alexander McIntyre

The next step was to create their own fashion label, High Tea with Mrs Woo, which was launched in 2004. And it’s fair to say that it has been a remarkable success – not only has the brand received awards and acclaim, it has achieved longevity in a field that’s all about what’s new. All three sisters are still based in Newcastle, still in the same retail store and manufacturing from their studio workshop 15–18 years on. They are also still producing garments by their own hands using high quality natural fibre fabrics.

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Review: Reflection Pods by Lucy Simpson

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By Penny Craswell

Three large dome-like woven structures have been installed in a seating area at Westpac’s Sydney headquarters as a physical manifestation of the bank’s Reconciliation Action Plan. Conceived and designed by Yuwaalaraay woman Lucy Simpson, these “Reflection Pods” are as part of the bank’s new interiors by the design team at Geyer, who worked with Simpson to realise her concepts.

Reflection Pods at Westpac Sydney by Lucy Simpson, Koskela and 21 Indigenous artists from the Northern Territory. Photo: Maree Homer

Initially Simpson had envisioned that local artists would weave the Reflection Pods, but in the end, the structures were woven by artists from Elcho Island Arts and Milingimbi Art and Culture thanks to a collaboration with Australian design brand Koskela. Koskela already has a history of working with the artists from Elcho Island Arts on their Yuta Badayala series of light shades. Read more →

Review: Full Spectrum installation by Flynn Talbot for London Biennale

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By Penny Craswell

Australian designer Flynn Talbot has designed the installation ‘Full Spectrum’ as Australia’s exhibit at this year’s London Design Biennale (4-23 September), which explores the theme of ‘emotional states’.

Flynn Talbot's "Full Spectrum" at London Design Biennale, Somerset House. Photo: Mark Cocksedge
Flynn Talbot’s “Full Spectrum” at London Design Biennale, Somerset House. Photo: Mark Cocksedge

Responding to the outpouring of love and positive emotion from last year’s Marriage Equality vote and legalisation in Australia, Talbot has created a circular screen of rainbow colours made with 150 hanging fibre optic strands. Read more →

Object Stories: Jolly light by Kate Stokes

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By Penny Craswell

The new Jolly light by Melbourne designer Kate Stokes is all about round, joyous geometries. Translucent hand-blown glass forms a bold half sphere, while its solid metal shade creates a more introverted profile in matte black, eucalyptus, burgundy or polished brass. In the wall light variety, this shape hugs the wall, whereas in the pendant variety, it sits at a jaunty angle from straight metal rods.

Jolly light by Kate Stokes was launched at ICFF in New York alongside SIA chair by Tom Fereday. Photo: Mike Baker

 

Launched at the recent International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York, the light is produced by Australian design brand NAU, which also launched the SIA chair by Tom Fereday at the same event, presenting an Australian design showcase to the world stage.  Read more →

Object Stories: Potter DS Lights by Bruce Rowe

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By Penny Craswell

Designed by Bruce Rowe from Melbourne’s Anchor Ceramics, the Potter DS is a series of lights made by hand in the studio using traditional pottery techniques.

Potter DS wall light designed by Bruce Rowe of Anchor Ceramics. Photos: Haydn Cattach taken for Rakumba Lighting

A simple vertical cylinder of clay forms the wall format of the Potter DS, with a subtle indentation in its body giving it the appearance of having two segments. A slit provides an opening to the light source within that glows against the wall behind. Read more →