The Design Writer

Top 10: Ethical Gift Guide

November 28, 2019January 1, 2023despc

It’s that time of year again, when we spend up big to give presents to friends and loved ones, with many gifts ending up surplus to requirements and just so much extra landfill. One option is to donate to charity in lieu of a gift. If this approach appeals to you, Care Australia is offering Christmas Gifts that Save Lives and the Australian Red Cross has Real Good Gifts. If you still want to buy something tangible, make an ethical choice that puts profit in the right people’s pockets without doing harm to the environment. Here’s ten options to get you started in your hunt.

Haigh’s Chocolates Leadlight Gift Bon Bon

1.This Christmas Bon Bon features graphics inspired by leadlight windows and is filled with delicious chocolate. According to the Shop Ethical! App, Haigh’s Chocolate is a Member of the World Cocoa Foundation committed to creating a sustainable cocoa economy and signatory to the Australian Packaging Covenant, a voluntary agreement to encourage waste minimisation. Only $19.90 from Haigh’s.

Review: MPavilion 2019 by Glenn Murcutt

November 18, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Australia’s only Pritzker Prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt is best known for his long, horizontal, climate-responsive architecture; shed-like residential buildings made for viewing the Australian landscape.

This year, Murcutt has been commissioned by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation to design the sixth annual MPavilion, a project that brings temporary architecture to Queen Victoria Gardens in the heart of Melbourne. His response has been to create a long, horizontal shed-like structure – but this is where the similarities to his other projects end.

Object Stories: Broached Goulder Collection

November 1, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Working from a studio set up inside the Adelaide office of Norwegian architecture firm Snohetta, Jon Goulderhas crested his latest collection, Broached Goulder, for Broached Commissions, bringing his work full circle to the boy in Bowral who worked in the family furniture factory.

Broached Goulder Chaise Lounge. Image: supplied

Goulder left school at 16 to join his grandfather, father and uncles in the family furniture factory, reupholstering Victorian antiques. But four years later, he turned away from this practice and its chaise lounges towards a new path, inspired by his mother’s belief in the importance of education.

Review: Royal Nut Company

October 28, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Breathe Architecture has transformed a vacant warehouse into the new home of the Royal Nut Company, a family business that has been selling wholesale nuts in Melbourne’s Brunswick for more than 30 years.

Royal Nut Company by Breathe Architecture. Image: supplied

Breathe Architecture’s approach to the adaptive reuse of the building was to maintain the industrial aspects of the existing architecture, including exposed roof trusses, high-level steel windows, existing brickwork and concrete floors, while creating a functional space for the production, packaging and retail sale of nuts.

Object Stories: Colour Shift Panel Rose by Rive Roshan

October 11, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Colour Shift Panel Rose is one of a series of works by Ruben de la Rive Box and Golnar Roshan from Amsterdam studio Rive Roshan that explores subtle shifts of colour and the way light reflects and alters a room.

Colour Shift Panel Rose by Rive Roshan. Image: supplied by Sally Dan Cuthbert Gallery, Sydney

Light, reflection and colour shifts are an important part of Rive Roshan’s work, which blurs the boundaries of art and design. They have described the colour effect of the Colour Shift Panel Rose as inspired by the soft light of Amsterdam.

Review: Marrickville Library by BVN

October 4, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

The new Marrickville Library by BVN is a strikingly beautiful adaptive reuse of an existing hospital building, which was originally built in 1871 and is heritage listed. BVN won an invited design competition for their scheme, which favours a community-first approach with a heavy emphasis on sustainable building practices.

Marrickville Library entrance by BVN. Photo: Brett Boardman

“Incorporating a building as historically rich as the old Marrickville Hospital, and developing it into a piece of contemporary architecture, to meet the needs of Marrickville’s diverse community, was a truly rewarding project for us,” says BVN Project Director Brian Clohessy.

Review: Lucy McRae: Body Architect

September 9, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

In The Institute of Isolation, a woman in a beige body suit with padding, cap and sneakers goes through a sequence of actions alone. She runs along a raised concrete platform, she breathes through a mask, she visits an anechoic (sound-absorbtion) chamber, she steps the internal circumference of a microgravity trainer while suspended from the ceiling. A voice-over describes her mission: she is preparing for space travel.

The Institute of Isolation by Lucy McRae. Image: supplied

This is the most recent work of Australian-born, LA-based artist Lucy McRae to be included in her first solo exhibition Lucy McRae: Body Architect, currently showing at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne and curated by Simone LeAmon. As a filmic imagining of the preparation for a female body to travel to space, The Institute of Isolation encapsulates many of the themes in McRae’s work, including her fascination with testing the limits of the body (physical and psychological) and her preoccupation with the future.

Koskela launches Ngalya lighting collection

September 6, 2019January 1, 2023despc

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.

Object Stories: Confetti armchair by Design by Them

August 19, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

The latest collection from Sarah Gibson and Nicholas Karlovasitis, designers and owners of Sydney brand Design By Them, is called Confetti, named for its vibrant multi-coloured material made from 100% recycled plastic.

Confetti Armchair, Ottoman and Modular Lounge. Image: supplied

The range includes an armchair, bench, modular lounge, booth and ottoman, which combine the recycled plastic with upholstered shapes in a range of colours, and a series of tables, an umbrella stand and a planter.

Sydney bayside home, with bookcase

August 16, 2019January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Sam Crawford Architects has refreshed and rationalised the interiors of this townhouse in Sydney’s Blackwattle Bay to create an expanded, streamlined and light-filled home with a focus on the beautiful things in life, including art, objects, books, and views of the bay and city skyline beyond.

Blackwattle Bay Townhouse by Sam Crawford. Photo: Anson Smart

The first step in this renovation was to shift and expand the kitchen and living areas by moving the study. The newly enlarged kitchen features a generous brass-clad island bench as a centrepiece, with green tiles on the splashback, white cabinetry on the back wall and black cabinetry on the island. Along one side of the kitchen and adjoining living area, a wall of plain white cupboard doors conceals a large pantry to the left and a stunning drinks cabinet and bar with wine storage in warm timber to the right.