The Design Writer

By Penny Craswell

It’s not easy to fit a home into a mere 50 square metres, but tsai design has achieved it, thanks to their use of pretty much every trick in the book, including some incredibly clever built-in furniture. The existing apartment, located in the incredibly stylish Grand Hotel building in Melbourne, was not only tiny but also dark and uninspiring, with a windowless kitchen tucked at the back of the space.

With this renovation, the client instructed tsai design to create a space for her (and her cat) that was not only brighter, but also clever, using space-saving transforming furniture. A half-height partition wall was torn down to create an open living space and the kitchen built here thanks to an l-shaped kitchen bench constructed in one corner whose hidden appliances almost make the kitchen recede from sight.

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By Penny Craswell

Last Friday I had a great conversation with Mat Ward from Bookshop by Uro about my book Design Lives Here: Australian Interiors, Furniture and Lighting, published by Thames & Hudson in April 2020. Watch the video here.

Watch at Bookshop by Uro

More on my book Design Lives Here

By Penny Craswell

A multi-disciplinary team of artists, engineers and architecturally-trained designers are behind a new pavilion in Sydney called Interchange. Studio Chris Fox, which also created the incredible sculpture Interloop made out of the old wooden escalators at Wynyard Station, designed, modelled and managed the project, which covers 350 square metres.

Three fluid forms seem to twist into the sky meeting delicately in the centre. The external structure is white, made of glass-reinforced concrete (GRC), while the internal structure is formed from Australian Blackbutt hardwood and aluminium inner rails, with the lower parts curving into seating for the public.

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By Penny Craswell

These playful mugs with a mahjong motif are characteristic of the ultra-modern and sometimes humorous take on the traditional visual language of Hong Kong that is Goods of Design.

Ever since I spent some time in HK during 2016, I have been a fan of the brand, whose abbreviation G.O.D. is a homophonic translation of the Cantonese 住好啲 (jyu hou di) , which roughly translates as to live better. The brand’s sense of humour has an Australian flavour so it’s not surprising that co-founder Benjamin Lau is Australian and Australia is one of the company’s top five shipping locations. Check out some more of my favourite designs below.

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By Penny Craswell

The incredible quantity and variety of Italian design and design brands makes this a tricky list. Considering it follows on from my other ode to Italian design Top 10: Italian Design Classics, perhaps the best place to start is with Milanese designer Elena Salmistraro’s Most Illustrious collection for Bosa Ceramiche, which pays tribute to four of the greats of Italian design – Achille Castiglioni, Riccardo Dalisi, Michele De Lucchi and Alessandro Mendini. I love the contemporary detailing, the mix of forms and textures, and the sheer humour of it.

It is wonderful to have women designers in this list, since it was tricky to find any women to include in my previous post. Another beautiful piece by a female designer is the Gilda Fringe Sofa by Milanese designer Lorenza Bozzoli for Editions Milano. Wooden-framed, goose-feathered and brass-footed, this sofa draws on 1950s glamour, with a reference to fashion via a playful fringe.

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Guest contributor and graduate of architecture Nikita Bhopti writes about Partu, an exhibition at Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert in Sydney that is the result of a collaboration between Indigenous leather saddler Johnny Nargoodah and Sydney-based designer Trent Jansen.

An experimental collaboration between saddler Johnny Nargoodah and object designer Trent Jansen has resulted in Partu. Avant-garde object maker Jansen has a history in storytelling and narrative-driven design, capturing cultural identity and history within his works. Nyikina man Nargoodah brings a different skill set to the collaboration, centred around his experience-based techniques with leather, as well as a rich history and connection to place.

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By Penny Craswell

Even for those of us who aren’t very superstitious, carrying a lucky charm can make you feel good, especially when the world is in turmoil. That’s why these Lucky Charms by Adelaide designer duo Daniel To and Emma Aiston are so appealing. Read more from Daniel Emma to hear their story and inspiration.

Penny: What is luck? 

Daniel and Emma: We don’t actually believe in luck per se, but given all that is going on currently we do think that everyone could all do with a little extra something special to brighten their lives!

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By Penny Craswell

Arkadia is a residential project in Sydney’s Alexandria that demonstrates the principles of community and sustainability. Four interconnected buildings spanning 5,590 square metres have been designed by Breathe Architecture, DKO and Oculus to provide homes for 152 families, with 85 of these apartments allocated to defence personnel and their families.

The first step for the design team was to research the site of the development, and the nearly half a million recycled bricks used in the project pay homage to the clay quarries and brick factories that stood here in centuries past.

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By Penny Craswell

Soft pink walls, white marble and cabinetry, terrazzo flooring and warm timber are enough to make this Sydney house renovation distinctive, contemporary and welcoming. This understated warm aesthetic continues with soft green marble fan tiles in the bathroom and beautiful original stained glass in the hall. But it is the curves that really set this home apart. They are everywhere – arches in doorways, a large semi-circle cut into the kitchen bench, curves to bookshelves, undulating vertical timber battens forming the kitchen island, curved edges to the bathroom mirror.

Even the furniture has curves, from the plump cushions of the green Valley sofa by Jardan in the living room, to the spherical Flos wall lights designed by Michael Anastassiades, to the Hat pendant over the dining table, designed by Melbourne designer Luke Mills for Catapult. These curves are complemented by vertical lines to the cabinetry in the kitchen / dining room, vertical-patterned tiles that line the splashback and vertical timber battens to the kitchen island and bathroom cabinet.

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By Penny Craswell

Enzo Mari is a master of Italian design. Born in 1932 and now living in Milan, he is known for his collaboration with Italian brand Danese, for whom he designed everyday objects like letter openers, buckets, pencil holders, calendars, ashtrays and more, as well as toys. Released in 1957, 16 Animali, or 16 Animals, was his first design for Danese, a wooden puzzle for children that is still in production today. Each of the animals – from elephant to hippo, snake to kangaroo – is a simple shape with a small dot for an eye.

The shape of the animals was determined through a painstaking process of problem-solving and the pieces are made with a continuous cut in a single piece of wood. A toy for teaching and for play, it is an expression of Mari’s sense of proportion, scale and balance and speaks to his ability to create visual harmony. He says: “The shapes of toys must be based on archetypal images, and these images must be realised with the highest possible quality and not in the style of ‘children’s ­drawings’.” (Interview, 2009, Metropolis.)

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