The Design Writer

By Penny Craswell

A Sydney architecture studio spent nearly a year developing a new oyster shell terrazzo for a pavilion in Sydney’s Barangaroo, designed as a public place of gathering right on the harbour.

Founded by Peter Besley and Jessica Spresser, Besley & Spresser found historical precedents in “tabby concrete”, which is made from crushed or burnt oyster. However, tabby concrete does not express the shape of the oyster: “Using whole oysters and expressing this in the material is rare and much harder to do,” says Peter Besley. “It took us over a year of experimenting and testing to get it working as we wanted, and we had to certify it uniquely ourselves.”

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By Penny Craswell

I’m excited to announce that my new book Design: Art Deco: Design Inspiration from Paris to New York will be published on 7 April by Hardie Grant North America. This is a richly illustrated sourcebook that traces the movement from the Paris salons of the 1920s to the skylines of Manhattan and the first great streamlined vehicles of the industrial age.

By Penny Craswell

“A room of my own” is a cabinet designed by London designer Nipa Doshi of studio Doshi Levien that is accessible from two sides, acting as a dressing table and a writing desk to encourage quiet moments of contemplation and self-expression.

The work is reminiscent of her work Le Cabinet for French porcelain factory Sèvres, which she described to me during an interview in Sydney in 2023 as being inspired by the shapes and silhouettes of modernist architect Le Corbusier’s work in Chandigarh.

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By Penny Craswell

The Radical Yes store in North Melbourne has had a redesign thanks to Molecule Architecture and Interior Design’s Richard Fleming and Anja de Spa, who describe themselves as longtime customers and fellow locals of the dynamic shoe, bag and accessory brand.

Radical Yes began when Kerryn Moscicki decided to start making shoes in a new, radical way – in small batches, with considered materials and with a focus on flat shoes. Their slogan “hasten slowly” resonated with a lot of people and the brand has gone from strength to strength.

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By Penny Craswell

Want to celebrate the festive season the ethical way? Then this is your guide on the best way to do just that this holiday season without losing the fun of gift giving. So, whether it’s being generous with your money when it comes to charities, avoiding plastics and single-use items, or simply buying from a maker or small business instead of the big corporations, give ethical shopping a go this year. Here are 10 suggestions for gifts to give in 2025.

1. Jess Sellinger is a Brisbane-based artist who works with Australian clay and glazes, making sculptures, vessels and furniture objects by hand in her studio. Jess also donates to local charities and has a yearly charity giveaway. The Wave Wall sculpture is $450. jesssellingerceramics.com

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By Penny Craswell

This year’s IDEA Awards highlighted some remarkable work from 2025, including a Brisbane restaurant full of novelty, an earthy house renovation that did more with less and the adaptive reuse of a former mechanic workshop into a creative studio.

At the 2025 Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) in Sydney, there were several outstanding projects, but no project was awarded more than Hong Kong-inspired Brisbane restaurant Central, designed by J.AR Office. J.AR Office’s Jared Webb got up on stage no fewer than three times, for Emerging Designer of the Year, the Hospitality category and Overall Project of the Year, complete with palpable amazement and wild hair flying. At one point he said if he’d known this would happen he would have had a haircut. Simply called Central, the restaurant is situated in a basement in Brisbane’s CBD, with an illuminated gridded ceiling and the chef positioned in the centre of the space creating a sense of real drama, juxtaposing the precision of the grid against the roughness of the walls.

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By Penny Craswell

Tasmanian designer Isaac Williams presented his Cork Rebirthed Dine chair as part of the NGV Rigg Design Prize 2025, which this year focused on designers under the age of 35.

The Cork Rebirthed Dine chair is part of a series that Isaac is working on called Rebirthed, in which functional objects are created from discarded objects or materials.

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By Penny Craswell

One of eight townhouses in Sydney’s Rose Bay, this home has come alive thanks to a new interior focused on connection with the outdoors, and a considered curation of furniture and mirrors by MAC Design Studio.

The townhouse is laid out over four storeys, with a ground floor for the living spaces plus outdoor terrace that leads up to a second storey terrace, first floor with bathroom, laundry, study and guest bedroom, and a top floor with a main bedroom, bathroom and balcony. The base build is by Architect ESS.

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By Penny Craswell

Developed over five years by Sydney designer Caity Duffus, Mycelia House is a home cultivation system that includes a 3D-printed terracotta vessel for growing oyster mushrooms.

Earlier this month, Caity spoke at ‘Sensing Technologies’, a Sydney Design Week event hosted by Powerhouse Museum at the Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility in Bradfield, curated by Keinton Butler, Industrial Design Xchange (IDX) and Ed Ko.

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Made in Melbourne with 100 per cent non-petrochemical organic ingredients, OM Windows is a window treatment made from algae-derived polymers and locally-milled pigments by Melbourne studio Other Matter.

Other Matter is led by artist Jessie French, who was joined by Pollyanna and Elliot to create a small practice that became a company just over a year ago. At their studio in Melbourne, they spend a lot of time measuring and adding ingredients, heating and stirring materials in big pots, she explained during a panel discussion I attended recently at Jia CURATED in Bali.

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