Table of contents for 90 March - April 2016 in (inside) interior design review

1 | ROB|ARCH 2016 PIER 2/3 WALSH BAY, SYDNEY 15 – 19 MARCH In 2013 the University of Sydney and RMIT started seriously considering robotics. By 2016, all major institutions of design and architecture in Australia will be exploring this fascinating area of innovation as part of the curriculum. Hosted by the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Architecture and Design in collaboration with the University of NSW, Bond University, RMIT, UTS and Monash University, the first Australian iteration of this biannual event boasts a stellar line-up of experts. Workshops, conferences, white papers and special events such as a tour of the Opera House, and a performance by Huang Yi and his robot KUKA round out the offering. 2 | SALONE DEL MOBILE.MILANO MILAN, 12 – 17 APRIL The pinnacle of…

A walk or drive around any of our cities will yield a multitude of public art, but the statue in the town or city square – often referred to by urban designers as ‘plonk art’ – is far less likely to get commissioned these days. A look at recent and upcoming projects across the country yields myriad works that interact with the environment and the pubic in far more subtle and multi-stranded ways. Public art is everywhere, from the aforementioned statue to a pattern on the pavement, a soundscape on a riverbank or a freeway assemblage best appreciated at 100 kilometres an hour. Public art can be carved, cast, painted, knitted, assembled or recorded; it can be minute or monumental, permanent or ephemeral, solid or liquid, abstract or figurative, politically…

Revelling in the diversity of Australian, European and Asian brands, Workspace has set out to both differentiate itself from the single brand suppliers while also supporting Australian manufacturing. It is a formula that has paid off and then some. Indeed, by focusing on in-house production, while locating the value-add component of manufacturing in Australia, Workspace has an agility that few can match. The recent 23-day deadline for the NSW Leather Co’s new fitout (Structus) makes this point well, in that, Workspace’s solutions – which included storage, display options and furniture – were largely customised to suit the client’s needs. To repeat, yes, the entire process went from go to whoa in 23 days! Effectively, Workspace has organically evolved as it has grown, with manufacturing capabilities across various divisions offering a…

“…the material disposition of elements, spaces and mechanisms must be devised in such a way that future visions are not inhibited.” CRAB STUDIO Monumental, grand, imposing and absolutely present, the Abedian School of Architecture is startlingly impressive. That it opens to a grand entrance and even grander volumes reads beautifully as a continuation of scale and impressive form. Where CRAB Studio has excelled, however, is in the human details that posit nooks and pockets of respite and comfort to generate an intimacy of idiosyncratic moments that support and foster the human condition in all its iterations. Chief to CRAB Studio’s realisation of the project was a first-hand understanding of the necessary shifts innate to pedagogical thinking as a society evolves. (Both CRAB Studio principals Sir Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham…

Suffi ciently grandiose to achieve destination architecture status, its flair is somewhat moot given its location on LA’s Grand Avenue... There is simply no point in differentiating between the architecture and art exhibition of The Broad – New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s latest foray into the world of museum architecture. Nor should there be. Arguably The Broad (pronounced Brode) denotes an exemplar art-exhibiting environment, in that it flexes its own built environment muscle without interfering with the art it purports to showcase. It’s also a pretty good monument to the culture of philanthropy in the US. The background: for the last 20 years philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad have been financially supporting, to the point of being largely responsible for, what is now the cultural precinct of Downtown…

Inside’s 2015 Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) took place on Friday 20 November in Melbourne at the Melbourne Museum and what a night it was. With 650 designers, architects and product makers in attendance, IDEA 2015 commenced with the opportunity to mingle with friends and industry colleagues over a glass of wine and hors d’oeuvres. The Melbourne Museum provided the perfect setting for the gathering with a special opportunity to view the First Peoples: Bunjilaka exhibition. The initial pre-party revelry over, the crowd was ushered to their seats in the foyer of the Museum, the large space filled to capacity. The Awards commenced with a video screening of every shortlisted project and product from the year’s entries accompanied by the wonderful vocal talents of Ella Hooper and her band. At…

ROTHELOWMAN’s interior design team was invited to refit an historic South Melbourne building to house the new showroom of luxury bathroom and kitchen manufacturer Abey. Once home to the South Melbourne Cycle Club, the building has been adapted for modern use while retaining the fabric of the original building that combines old and new in a contemporary fusion of design principles. The space utilises a combination of natural materials and features suspended forms that create a visually impactful interior. The showroom is a ‘selection gallery’ of Abey’s premium imported kitchen and bathroom product and, through the inclusion of floating display plinths and vertical sweeps of verdant indoor planting, the interior displays become the hero of the interior. ROTHELOWMAN’s interior design team was led by head of interior design Andrew Wales…

Consumers now expect surfaces to be more than durable shells for benchtops and bathroom walls and are more willing to match a material’s attributes to the surface results they desire. When DuPont chemist Donald Slocum invented Corian in 1967, he wouldn’t have expected this high-performing surface to one day double as a phone charger. But, like most surfaces today, Corian is getting smarter. Consumers now expect surfaces to be more than durable shells for bench-tops and bathroom walls and are more willing to match a material’s attributes to the surface results they desire. In the case of Corian, it’s even being applied to doors to achieve a sharper, square profile that’s less prone to chipping. Craig Smith, director and co-founder of CASF, which distributes Corian throughout Australia, says surfaces are…

How did you come to design? I naturally came to design because I grew up in an artists’ family. I never thought about doing something else other than ‘creating’. Tell us about your work and the interiors of your favourite projects. In several projects I realised, I sought to make the interiors a continuation of the outside of the buildings. The interior has to lead the public towards an experience, which has to be the culmination of its own perception of the building. One of my favourite interiors is the one I [created] for the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris, which is a centre dedicated to digital arts. In this project, I wanted the inside to be flexible, modular and permissive, so that it could answer all the artistic needs. The…

Enoki’s product, graphic and interior design focus is a continuation of Bilardi’s developing creativity that can be traced through a series of sole or small creative enterprises. Creativity is not an endless source of talent that a designer magically conjures at will. On the contrary, as a fundamental element of the design process, creativity must be worked at, developed and nurtured. Importantly, in a design career that may span 30 or 40 years or even more, creativity must be sustained. For multidisciplinary collective Enoki and co-director Susanna Bilardo, creativity is made manifest through a considered epistemological and organisational way of practising. Hindmarsh Residence is a recent demonstration of Enoki’s particular and deliberate creative method – the generation and application of knowledge and the employment of collaborative processes. The Hindmarsh Residence…

This is no flashy interior, but a carefully considered design that is the essence of good taste, quality and comfort. Over the past decade, workplace design in Australia has led the world in style, innovation and creativity. Many of the largest companies in Australia have, through their collaboration with designers and architects, spearheaded the workplace design revolution that is now the expected norm. Companies understand that investing in their employees’ workplace also reflects their brand, ethics and customers, and these days the quest for best workplace design is an ongoing and ever evolving discipline. The new Melbourne offi ces of AGL at Docklands in Melbourne speak volumes about this company’s credo. HASSELL was engaged by the energy giant to design the interior of a new build by Mirvac, designed by…

Each year there are a multitude of fairs and exhibitions that specialise in design in all its manifestations. In fact it would be possible to continually country-hop throughout the year and still not see all that there is on offer. For the in-demand designer or interior architect it is imperative to keep abreast of current trends, new products and unusual offerings, and so a visit to a major fair at least once a year becomes a necessity more than a luxury. The name MAISON&OBJET (M&O), which is organised by SAFI, is synonymous with lifestyle and interior decoration, and has created an enormous following throughout Europe presenting exhibitions that showcase an eclectic range of high-end objects. M&O in Paris occurs twice a year – in September and January – and is…

Gray Puksand has completed a $53.3 million multi-level education facility for Deakin University’s School of Engineering in Waurn Ponds, Geelong, complete with purpose-built laboratories, design studios, workshops and interactive learning spaces furnished with industry-leading technology. Completed in April 2015 and officially opened in November 2015, the 6700-square metre Deakin University Centre for Advanced Design and Engineering Training (CADET) is a unique facility in the Australian university sector, modelled on international experience and best practice in delivering a state-of-the-art sustainable engineering training facility with the latest in cutting edge technologies and specialist learning resources. CADET represents a transition from more traditional modes of learning and working to an innovative approach where engineering education is embedded in research activity with an emphasis on design-based learning and industry collaboration. The focus is on…

01 | FRAGRANT GARDEN ROSES They are so undulant, fragrant and grow in the most beautiful colours… the most inexperienced flower lover is able to cut them and arrange them en masse into a favourite vase. 02 | VIOLET I have loved violets for a very long time – I have them tattooed on the skin that covers my heart. Of course it is their fragrance and vivid colour that drew me to them and the humility of their scale and life cycle. Though my real affection developed when I found that the Ancient Greeks would plant the tiny flower among their enormous life-giving olives to protect the olive from bad spirits… on my tattoo they also sit among the olives I have etched on my skin. In one’s home…

There is much to love about the new Rogerseller showroom, which opened late last year in Danks Street, in the inner Sydney suburb of Waterloo. Rogerseller is renowned for its exclusive upmarket products and myriad ranges, and this new flagship store in Sydney is the quintessential space to complement the many kitchen, bathroom and furniture items on display. The project has been a year in the making, and the style and design of the new showroom was just as important as the products that were to be presented. Rogerseller commissioned McCartney Design to transform an old warehouse space into a sleek, modern showroom that would offer clients a relaxing experience in a contemporary setting. Working with the Rogerseller team, McCartney Design has produced a design that is more gallery than…

Designing for the ballet is as much about ambiance as the ballet itself. To wit, the most recent productions by the Australian Ballet could not be more different. On the one hand Filigree and Shadow is coolly minimal, while Sleeping Beauty is outlandish, lavish and a visual delight. Yet, both set designs perfectly support the performance, music and style of choreography, while simultaneously acknowledging the era of the original piece, while contextualising the whole to the present. The lights go down and a slow cool light fills the lower portion of the stage as choreographer Tim Harbour’s Filigree and Shadow takes to the stage. Professing the pursuit of “an extreme of emotion – the kind of emotion that leads to action”, the work is hard line minimalist with sharply defined…

The house was to have the relaxed feel of a beach house, but also the amenity and largesse of a substantial family home to accommodate visiting family members. Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula is a small coastal village perched on a hill with Heritage buildings, trendy cafés, boutiques and, for those lucky enough to have a house on the foreshore, outstanding panoramic views of sea, sand and sky. In summer the town is packed to capacity with visitors; however, there is a strong community in Sorrento with many in residence all year round – so the village is not so much home to beach shacks, but rather a residential area for large houses with landscaped gardens. When designing and building a house in an area such as Sorrento it’s challenging…

Hôtel Bachaumont is small, with just 49 rooms, a bar and a restaurant, but what it lacks in size it makes up for with presence. To visit Paris is to step into another world filled with art, architecture, design, fashion, food and wine – all wrapped up in a package called ‘joie de vivre’. The City of Light is still bright, the spirit of the people strong and, for the visitor, Paris is a destination without peer. There is now another reason to visit this wonderful city, however, and that is to savour the delights of the newly renovated Hôtel Bachaumont. Located on La Rive Droite (the Right Bank), in the second arrondissement, Hôtel Bachaumont is small, with just 49 rooms, a bar and a restaurant, but what it lacks…