Design and architecture - News and events

Events | Featured projects | Call for entries | Announcements

Events

Craig Craft - Canberra

18 September - 1 November 2008

Craig Craft is a new body of work by Craig Harris, a furniture maker exploring the relationship between a designer and craft. In this exhibition he has designed and created new furniture based on the construction techniques of ocean-going vessels. Craft ACT.

Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award Exhibition - Sydney

6 September - 2 November 2008

The Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award Exhibition will showcase this year's ten outstanding finalists, with an expansive array of products from Braille wallpaper to coloured tabletop utensils. The 2008 finalists are: Bridget Bodenham (VIC), Matthew Conway (NSW), Ilias Fotopoulos (NSW), John Hoogendoorn (VIC), Trent Jansen (NSW), Stuart McFarlane (VIC), John Quan (SA), Oliver Smith (NSW), Christina Waterson (QLD), and Henry Wilson (NSW). Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design.

The History of Australian decorative arts. Lecture series - Sydney

4 November 2008

This series of lectures will begin with a consideration of some of the first furniture (tree-stump chairs), and metalwork (leg-irons), made in the colony, as well as the earliest buildings and their interiors. The lecture will go on to discuss the great flowering of cabinet making in the early 19th century, the possibility of an identifiable Australian style, the boom of cabinet making and gold and silver smithing that occurred following the discovery of gold.The decorative arts has come to include a broad spectrum of disciplines such as furniture, silver, metalwork, jewellery, ceramics, glass, textiles, fashion, and the popular arts, such as quilt-making. Michael Reid, Elizabeth Bay.

Green TECH Australia - Sydney

7-8 November 2008

Green TECH 08 presents an international trade show and conference with a core focus on green building, sustainable design and clean technology. GreenTECH 08 special features include SRD ChangeX 08, Green Inventors Showcase, Eco House of the Future Competition and a Green Living Zone. Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Place Makers: Contemporary Queensland Architects - Brisbane

2 August - 23 November 2008

Place makers presents the work of 22 Queensland architects in a major new exhibition. Exploring diverse design responses to climate, changing lifestyle patterns and population growth, Place Makers is the largest exhibition of contemporary architecture staged in an Australian art museum. The work is presented in an immersive exhibition environment that includes architectural models, specially commissioned films and photography, plans and concept sketches, and 3d modelling. Gallery of Modern Art.

17th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial Touring Exhibition - National

Until 14 December 2008

The Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial is an exhibition showing the most innovative textile works of the previous two years. The 17th Biennial showcases fibre textiles from national artists and is recognised as Australia's pre-eminent textile related exhibition. In The World: head, hand, heart, curator Vivonne Thwaites presents a textile exhibition exploring themes as diverse as individuality and identity politics, belonging and our place in the world, gender and sexuality, the environment and the increasing insularity and disconnectedness of contemporary life. Various locations.

Featured projects

Art & Design Education Resource Guide 2008

September 2008

This is a comprehensive guide to art and design courses at universities, TAFE colleges and private schools in Australia and New Zealand, and selected colleges in South East Asia.

Melbourne Unbuilt: An audio walking tour

July 2008

Presented as part of the Melbourne International Design Festival, Melbourne Unbuilt - An audio walking tour explores 50 years of architectural concepts which never materialised. Brought to life through maps, models and drawings, Melbourne is vividly 'rebuilt' through voices of architects and historians. Unbuilt projects include Denton Corker Marshall's designs for Federation Square from 1996; Edmond and Corrigan's pyramidal State Library Competition entry, 1986; and what was hoped to be Melbourne’s equivalent to the Sydney Opera House: Ashton Raggatt McDougall's redesign of the CUB site,1994. Federation Square.

Refurbishment of Tolarno restaurant - Mirka at Tolarno Hotel, Melbourne

April 2008

Peter Elliott Architecture and Urban Design have respectfully handled the spirit of a place that is a significant part of Melbourne's culinary and broader cultural history. Mirka at Tolarno was originally opened in St Kilda in the mid-1960's as a French bistro 'Tolarno', the third restaurant opened by Georges and Mirka Mora. They were best known for patronage by and of scores of artists, among them Charles Blackman and Joy Hester, who now comprise the backbone of Australia's twentieth-century art history. Elliot's approach has actively accepted the work of prior generations in order to weave these elements into a contemporary solution. The exterior of the building has received a light touch. New windows and a glass front door have been fitted between original tiled piers, panels have been repaired and new signage created.

architecture.com.au projects

March 2008

architecture.com.au is a gallery based around the prestigious Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) National Architecture Awards, which have been running since 1981. The gallery currently contains approximately 2,000 projects that have been entered in the awards program from 1981 onwards.

Radford College Arts and Design Centre - Canberra

March 2008

The new Radford College Arts and Design Centre by Cox Humphries Moss is the first stage of an Arts and Hospitality precinct for the school. The Centre is sited at the top of the sloping site, overlooking the school with views of the distant mountains. The Arts Centre consists of six studios and allows for art and textile activities to extend outdoors. The Centre's pitched roof folds at 90 degrees to become the back wall of the building. This creates interesting spaces internally and allows for a mezzanine within each studio. The Arts Centre uses passive heating and cooling methods, as well as natural ventilation. Entered for the 2007 RAIA Public Buildings category projects.

Call for entries

Melbourne Design Market - Melbourne

30 November 2008

Stallholder applications now open for The Melbourne Design Market. The Design Market operates on the traditional principles of a market: stallholders, in this case designers and retailers, come together to sell products to the community in a public space. Designers across all disciplines, design-led retailers and design universities are invited to apply. Federation Square.

Announcements

West End transformation - Port Hedland, Western Australia

August 2008

Port Hedland's historic and picturesque 'West End' precinct has experienced enormous transformation recently with the refurbishment of many buildings in the area - including the Courthouse Gallery and Visitor Centre and the greening of the streetscapes. As part of the West End development the FORM/BHP Billiton Iron Ore partnership is also initiating cultural programming that will challenge, entertain and educate the community.

Australian entry shortlisted for World Architecture Festival Culture Awards

August 2008

Woodhead's Pinnacles Interpretive Centre in Western Australia is the only Australian project to be shortlisted in the culture category of the World Architecture Festival Awards to be held in Barcelona in October this year. Up against projects in the US, Scandanavia, Japan and elsewhere by luminaries such as Diller+Scofidio and Renfro and Stephen Holl, the Pinnacles Interpretive Centre distinguishes itself through the ritual burning integral to its design and building process.

Institute of Architects 2008 NSW Architecture Award winners

July 2008

Highlights of the awards include: Special Jury Award: Paul Pholeros for 20 years of work with partners Dr Paul Torzillo and Stephen Rainow to restore housing amenity and health hardware for more than 5000 Aboriginal families as well as eco-resorts designs. Marion Mahony Griffin Award: Andrea Nield's tireless humanitarian work with Emergency Architects Australia. Public Architecture Sulman Award: The Bowden Centre, Mt Annan Botanic Gardens by Kennedy Associates Architects; Heritage Architecture Greenway Award: CarriageWorks at Eveleigh by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer. Small Project Architecture Commendation: Permanent Camping by Casey Brown Architecture, in the style of Ned Kelly - 'a lantern-shaped room-sized cabinet sheathed in flip-up corrugated copper shutters in a harsh, sclerophyll landscape' (Elizabeth Farrelly, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 July 2008) 

Australians win Award of Excellence

July 2008

Steensen Varming is the first Australian organisation to win an Award of Excellence from the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), awarded for the lighting of the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre, Sydney. With over 160 submissions, Steensen Varming were one of a handful of winners at the 25th Annual IALD International Lighting Design Awards Presentation. The Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre, a $40 million project commissioned by the City of Sydney, was the last work designed by the renowned architect Harry Seidler and the lighting is regarded as one of the key defining elements in the overall design. The IALD is headquartered in Chicago and is recognised for setting the global standard for lighting design excellence by promoting the advancement and recognition of professional lighting designers. indesignlive.

New National Portrait Gallery building

June 2008

The new National Portrait Gallery building, to be situated at King Edward Terrace, Parkes, Canberra and bounded by the High Court of Australia and the National Gallery of Australia, will have a gross floor area of approximately 14,000 square metres. The Gallery will provide a permanent display of 500 portraits of people who have shaped Australia and who continue to shape our nation. It will comprise of gallery spaces for the collection and temporary exhibitions, art storage, and public areas including a café, function room, theatrette, education and schools group areas, and basement car parking. 

Australian International Design Award Winner

June 2008

Brisbane-based industrial design company, CMD Design and Innovation, are the winners of the Australian International Design Award of the Year. CMD created the winning sports product, Flaik, to give skiers and riders the ability to monitor personal performance including speed, distance, altitude and air time. Flaik beat 159 entries and 61 finalists from well-known Australian and International brands including Audi, Qantas, Miele and Holden to become the first Queensland company to win the prestigious award.

2008 Interior Design Awards Result

May 2008

John Wardle Architects and Wilson Architects are award recipients at the Interior Design Awards in the category of public/institutional interior design. The Queensland Brain Institute was the outcome of the competition to design a research facility for the University of Queensland. The jury recognised this as a project of international standing 'where the interior resolution is a beautiful extension (or intention) of its architecture'.

2008 Venice Biennale Architecture Exhibition - 150 architectural practices to submit models

April 2008, event 14 September to 23 November 2008

The 2008 Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition is arguably the most important event on the international contemporary architecture calendar. 'Abundant' is the theme for Australia's entry. The Philip Cox pavilion will showcase a two-part exhibition. The first part will offer a digital journey through 'a glittering and luminous sea of our built legacy'. The second will be rendered, by contrast, as a wild and overgrown garden of 150-plus models, from architectural practices from across Australia. The Commissioner for Australia is Lucy Turnbull with curators: Neil Durbach, Vince Frost, Wendy Lewin, Kerstin Thompson, Gary Warner. Pavilion at Giardini.

For more on Australian Design, see our Australian Stories on Design and Architecture.

Key online resources

• architecture.com.au projects
• The Twentieth Century Heritage Society of NSW
• Review of the National Innovation System

Collection resources and online publications

• Art Deco Buildings of Australia
• Federation houses
• Architecture Media, incorporating Architecture Australia, Artichoke and Landscape Architecture
• Monument
• Headspace - ABC's online monthly arts and culture magazine
• Indesign
• Powerhouse Museum
• Collections Australia Network
• National Library of Australia Pictorial Collection

Institutions and government organisations

• NSW Government Architects Office - Government architects since 1816
• University of Sydney
• University of Melbourne
• RMIT University
• University of Technology, Sydney
• University of NSW
• University of South Australia
• Newcastle University
• University of Adelaide
• University of Queensland
• Curtin University
• University of Tasmania

Peak bodies and associations

• The Australian Institute of Architects
• Australian Architecture Association
• Australian Institute of Landscape Architects
• Historic Houses Trust

People

• Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate 2002 - Glenn Murcutt
• Submissions from Australia to the Venice Biennale

Featured websites/projects

• Macquarie Lighthouse