Table of contents for Issue 51 in Artichoke

Never before at the Australian Interior Design Awards has a project taken out both the Emerging Interior Design Practice Award and the Premier Award for Australian Interior Design. But this year Dust by Sibling has done it, receiving these accolades plus the Retail Design Award. Dust (page 26) is a multi-sensory Melbourne fashion store that turns retail on its head, encouraging customers to participate in the mirrored, immersive space and its atypical retail model. The project is a credit to the eight members of the young practice Sibling and provides a forecast of the future of retailing. This year’s award recipients demonstrate the incredible interiors Australian designers are producing, but one particular award, the Award for Interior Design Impact (page 42), is worth highlighting. The award was introduced this year…

DESIGN STATEMENT Kennards Self Storage is in the business of boxes, warehouses and storage areas. The brief was to design a new work environment that encourages increased staff interaction and that says something about the nature of the business. The meeting rooms were designed as plywood boxes and the circulation became part of the leftover space surrounding the structures. With this simple design premise for the large elements, SJB Interiors introduced elegance with refined details on a small scale with joinery, steelwork and materiality. The Kennards team was intent on the outcome having a wonderful sense of design but not being over-designed. This influenced SJB Interiors’ design premise in many ways: a restrained budget, selection of simple materials and paring back the design to only what is necessary. JURY COMMENT…

DESIGN STATEMENT Robyne Latham’s immersive temporary exhibition Empty Coolamons at Melbourne Museum honours and recognizes the stolen generations of Australia. The designers worked collaboratively with Latham, whose brief was to create a sacred space with an ethereal feel, where the split between subject and object are reduced, such that the viewer becomes part of the installation. The four-stage spatial design takes the viewer on a journey through the installation. The outer chamber showcases an historic wooden coolamon. Oversized acrylic text panels provide the underlying narrative and context. The entry corridor is an evocative transitional space. Its glowing blue scrim ceiling draws the viewer from a large outer chamber to a narrowing doorway. This doorway dramatically frames the artworks within and transports the viewer through to the dark cavernous installation space.…

“Disruption” seems to be the word du jour. Whether it is being used to describe economic, social, political or technological activity, disruption is characterized as a powerful way of challenging the status quo and the mainstream in order to make space for innovation. Theoretically designers are the ultimate disrupters. They are well placed to continually disrupt through a process that involves interrogating the premise and stepping outside obvious paradigms in order to generate lateral solutions to complex problems. The circular economy is an economic framework characterized by its advocates as a major disrupter. It challenges the linear take-make-dispose drivers of production and consumption that have fuelled development since the inception of the industrial revolution in favour of a “regenerative” or “restorative” approach. The model is described as having the potential…

RETAIL DESIGN WORKPLACE DESIGN HOSPITALITY DESIGN PUBLIC DESIGN INSTALLATION DESIGN RESIDENTIAL DESIGN RESIDENTIAL DECORATION…

DESIGN STATEMENT High-voltage network company TransGrid required an aspirational workspace to co-locate previously dispersed units into an efficient collegiate work environment. Elements of fluidity, movement and illumination referenced in the design give a subtle nod to the client’s core business. Expansive floor plates made it possible to break down the space on both vertical and horizontal perspectives. An offset void and staircase across all three levels gives the space a backdrop of energy and movement. The void is framed by timber battens from reclaimed timber power poles. A naturally ventilated wintergarden is located at the northern end of the building, its double height capitalizing on premium views and light. The project is one of a handful to have achieved a 6-Star Green Star “As Built” rating by the Green Building…

DESIGN STATEMENT Cho Cho San is an interpretation of a Japanese izakaya. The design references contemporary Japanese architecture using a minimal palette of concrete, birch ply, white paint and back lighting. The design intent was to achieve a Japanese spirit without using any obvious references. The design team wanted to infuse the design with a Japanese sensibility and simplicity – a simple, effortless and honest solution. The entire ceiling is a stretched material that is back-lit to create a natural glow to the room, reminiscent of a shoji screen. This sets the overall ambience of the room. The ceiling is dimmed to achieve a beautiful light quality, which is almost unrecognizable as a light source. Simplicity is also achieved by concealing the services, airconditioning and audio behind overhead perforated panels…

Hospitality Design Workplace Design Installation Design Retail Design Public Design Residential Decoration Residential Design Emerging Interior Design Practice…

Borders are tricky things. While intended for regulation and coordination, superscribed boundaries can be disassociating and even disorienting. Crossing a border takes courage and resolve, qualities that each of the intrepid speakers of Artichoke Night School session seventeen, held recently at Space Furniture’s Melbourne showroom, demonstrated in spades. Vince Frost (founder of Frost*Collective), Caecilia Potter (founder of Atticus & Milo) and Matt Bird (founder of Studiobird) delivered inspiring talks of the changes they have taken on and the obstacles that they faced in doing so. All three presenters spoke not only of their professional lives, but also of personal situations, making for a particularly affecting and memorable episode of the Artichoke Night School speaker series. If this session of Artichoke Night School were anything to go by, it would seem…

Daniel Aulsebrook is a Melbourne-based architectural and documentary photographer. Daniel has studied both photography and classical music, and enjoys the finer things in life such as good beer and bread goods. He can often be found spending quality time with his dogs, Herb and Neato. — Phamily Kitchen (page 108) Marcus Baumgart is a designer and blogger based in Melbourne. With business partner John A. Clark, he launched the startup Baumgart Clark Architects. You can follow their adventures at archistartup.com. — Flack Studio (page 89) Peter Bennetts is a Melbourne-based, globe-roaming architectural photographer whose work appears in internationally acclaimed publications. — Nordia Group Offices (page 114) Sharyn Cairns is a Melbourne-based photographer. She is at the forefront of commercial photography in Australia, shooting a diverse range of subjects including interiors,…

DESIGN STATEMENT Dust is a multi-sensory concept store that is inspired by the brand’s sigil, the golden ratio, and a brief that encourages users to question their understanding of Cartesian space. Sibling uses these principles as the primary structuring devices: grids within grids, disturbing mirrored reflections, luminescent surfaces, spatial sound and animated screens. The brief called for an exploration of Dust’s core interests: a physical experience for its digital print on demand operation and a celebration of sensory practices. Sibling’s design for the first physical Dust store represents Dust’s DNA, and through this, becomes an immutable example of the inextricable link between design and experience. Unlike typical retail spaces, the Dust space broadens the user experience so that those in it becomes more than a mere consumer – they are…

DESIGN STATEMENT Functioning as the Ravenswood School for Girls’ central hub, the Mabel Fidler Building is a transformational building that forms a new entry and centre for learning at the school. The design created an innovative educational environment that both teachers and students find stimulates engaged learning. According to the school principal Vicki Steer, “Pedagogical theories and technology are rapidly changing the learning environment, and this building is a look into the future of education spaces.” The combination of spaces both internal and external has empowered the students and the teachers. For instance, floating the library on an upper level has enabled a number of spaces to be bathed in natural light, providing great reading nooks and quiet study spaces in places like window boxes with window seats. This light…

DESIGN STATEMENT The Melbourne School of Design (MSD) for the University of Melbourne creates a new environment for flexible teaching and learning for students, researchers and academic staff. The project is also an educational tool in itself, through the considered use of materials and the transparent overlapping of planning and spatial relationships. A number of themes were identified when the initial concepts for the MSD were developed. One main philosophy was for the building to educate the occupants; to provide a catalyst for learning. This tenet has been welcomed into the interior in subtle and overt ways. A variety of open and semi-enclosed stairs provide a theatrical and ceremonial transition between public spaces. The revealed stair forms are one particularly elegant example of the intention to actively inform the inhabitants.…

DESIGN STATEMENT Whiting Architects aimed to infuse the relaxed “weekender” atmosphere into an urban family home. The interior plays on primal themes of comfort and nesting, with texture and warmth. The design team looked to resolve budget restrictions and conceptual frameworks in innovative ways. Vintage doors and repurposed elements were sourced, materials were re-used and the design was reworked to accommodate this. Every inch is dedicated and useful. Doors and corridors are eliminated. Views from unexpected areas allow light and connectivity without inhibiting privacy. The kitchen and dining areas are merged through a step-down at the dining table edge. Unexpected private seating nooks add diversity and allow separation when required. This is a practical and informal home. Furniture, decoration and artworks sit comfortably within its context. JURY COMMENT The designers…

The Istana residential tower in A-Beckett Street, Melbourne is a short walk from the iconic Queen Victoria Market and is oriented to make the most of the heritage-listed green space opposite it. The Istana’s architect, CK Designworks working with owner Magna Prima Berhad, wanted to ensure the 320-apartment tower sat comfortably within its heritage surrounds. To achieve this, the architects designed a strong massing and facade treatment – a blend of precast textured surfaces and perforated panels – coupled with striking vertical elements. The interiors of the one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and the two-storey penthouses required the same sophisticated treatment. To achieve this objective and appeal to the luxury buyer, the right interior finishes and coatings were crucial. The interiors employ a standard palette of soft, contrasting colours for…

Flack Studio might be a brand new business, the website for which was only launched in November 2014, but founder David Flack has been around the block a few times. He knows his shadow lines from his square-set cornices, having worked variously for Hecker Phelan and Guthrie, and then for Kerry Phelan in her later venture, Kerry Phelan Design Office. As such, while it is inevitable to speak of Flack Studio as an emerging practice, and Flack himself as an emerging talent on the interior design scene, one encounters an air of purpose and sure-footedness that belies the youthfulness of the practice. The key to understanding Flack Studio, which already presents a modest but well-rounded folio of completed projects in retail, hospitality and residential, is to understand the attitude and…