Table of contents for INDESIGN #69 - Think Big in INDESIGN

You might call Education the fun-loving, free-spirited younger sibling of the Workplace. The Education space is revealing itself to be more daring, more experimental and, increasingly, the ‘early developer’ when it comes to testing new ideas and techniques. Where workplace design flowered under a strict regimen of research and careful experimentation, within the education space we’ve found the licence to let go, to fly in the face of convention and really tinker with some seriously antiquated concepts and systems. In this edition of Indesign: the ‘Think Big’ issue, we take an unconventional approach to uncovering the breadth and diversity contained within contemporary education design. We wade into one of the most prolifically debated topics out there, that being ‘high-rise education’. With land scarcity and classrooms bursting at the seams, we…

Kit Neale x IKEA “For IKEA, it was about much more than marketing. They wanted to learn from me and my studio how we operate, and understand the approach of a fashion designer – that went right through from design to communications. We also worked with them on the film – a wacky video we created. There’s hardly any product in it. It’s about the energy and identity of the characters and the unity of love with all these young people.” “The amazing thing about Coca Cola is that it doesn’t discriminate. There’s a great Andy Warhol quote about how everyone drinks Coke - from boys on the street to the president and the pope. Everyone has had a Coke in their life. For me, it’s fascinating to work with…

Muuto has become a well-known champion of innovative and visually arresting design in both Australia, and across the globe. Over the last ten years, the Danish design brand has brought fresh ideas to classic Scandinavian design aesthetics, always channelling strong senses of functionality and craftsmanship. The name ‘Muuto’ itself comes from the Finnish word ‘muutos’, which translates to ‘new perspective’, and it’s this philosophy that has driven the brand since its founding in 2006. The design journey of Muuto expands on the strong Scandinavian design tradition, but always approaches it with a new and original perspective. From the material choices, crafting techniques, creative thinking and problem solving when it comes to designs, Muuto has strived to bring a new perspective to everyday objects. For Muuto, design begins with the individual.…

“The four storey podium partially reinstates the hillside lost in 1870 when Adelaide Street was quarried to connect the city and Fortitude Valley. Now a man-made ‘ravine’ carved from the podium’s solid mass establishes another public passage,”says Michelle Bailey. The dramatic ravine, incorporating the tremendous SuperNatural Landscape art work by Danie Mellor, transports passersby into a forgotten world with scenes of verdant pre-settlement rainforest set within its two storeys. Brisbane’s new city tower at 480 Queen Street is designed “to give something back to the people of Brisbane” through its generous offering of public space and its neighbourly contribution to the city. The project, designed by BVN for Grocon, is now owned by DEXUS Property Group and DEXUS Wholesale Property Fund. Both podium and tower are intimately connected to the…

“m3architecture are, as principal Michael Lavery says,‘bringing some joy back into the building’ – by going back to the beginning,”says Paul McGillick. “We were lookingfor a playful way to reference the architectural studio, but also to have a modulation of volume.” Set in sub-tropical gardens with lawns gently rolling down to a lake, the 1974 ‘brutalist’ Zelman Cowen Building housing the University of Queensland’s School of Architecture previously ignored this idyllic setting. But m3architecture are, as principal Michael Lavery says, “bringing some joy back into the building” – by going back to the beginning, announced in the stairwell by the riotously surreal mural by the legendary Portuguese/Mozambiquan architect, sculptor and painter, Pancho Guedes. Guedes painted it while on a holiday, visiting his son, Pedro, then a student in the School.…

When Sydney-based THOSE Architects were approached to design the second fit-out for global tech company Ansarada in Chicago – following a successful Sydney fit-out in 2013 – they had already developed a deep understanding of the company. Operating since 2010, Ansarada provides secure financial services for mergers and acquisitions – all online. So their product is delivered almost entirely ‘in the cloud’. “A lot of the fleshing out of the technical challenges and how to incorporate the technological infrastructure of the business were nutted out during the Sydney project,” says Ben Mitchell of THOSE. “Being such a progressive business, most of their tech infrastructure is located off site, which frees us from a lot of the traditional issues around physical server rooms within a commercial fit-out.” Now that business tech…

The agile workplace is officially ingrained in the office psyche. And while it might not be the solution to all workplace problems, it does a decent job of addressing the crimes committed by the open plan crusaders of the fifties. Workspaces are continuously reconfigured as CEOs and designers become increasingly aware that putting a bunch of people in a room and throwing a blanket solution at them, simply doesn’t work. Educators riding on the coattails of the agile office are now grasping its inherent value by giving students a loose reign, encouraging collaboration and generally disrupting the stale rows of furniture that traditionally lined the classroom. At university’s like Sydney’s UTS, students are already enjoying the ‘Sticky Campus’ approach, which allows them to linger on campus, engage in group work…

“Indesign is a professional resource for the design curious. We look for the point and purpose of everything in design and architecture; exploring why, how and what we do. Indesign is the only place you’ll find clever, provocative (and a little bit cheeky) conversation on our industry. Indesign is by and for creative professionals – both aspiring and established – hungry to continue exploring the ideas that inform the best projects, products and icons the world has to offer.” Indesign Media Asia Pacific Chairman/Publisher, Raj Nandan. We INspire We INvite We INvestigate We INform We INvolve We INfluence We INfuriate We INvoke thought WE ARE INDESIGN WE LOVE BEING INDESIGN WE ARE FOR EVERYONE IN(TO)DESIGN Are you IN?…

It’s all too easy to write off award programmes as an exercise in vanity, self-congratulation, or ego inflation. It’s easy, that is, to focus solely on the end-result: trophies. The reality, however, is far more nuanced and meaningful than most are willing to credit. Honour. Distinction. Tribute. Appreciation. An award demarcates an especial quality of achievement – they act equally as milestones and gold standards. They are, quite simply, the indicators of our own drive as an industry determined on progression – striving to improve the way we live, work, think and create. And so, it’s really quite simple. Those visionary problem-solvers – the A+D community … you – who improve our world for the better, deserve our recognition and admiration. This is where the Shaw Contract Design Awards begins…

If for nothing else, Melbourne is known for its entrepreneurial collaborations and savvy start-ups. Thankfully, this long-held reputation as a major creative hub and hotbed of emerging design talent isn’t waning any time soon. With unprecedented widespread growth and development, the city is now more than ever an invigorating launch pad for new practices, such as the recently established MIKA Studios. Co-founders interior designer Melissa Chen and architect Kayoko Kubo aren’t new to the scene though; they first met a number of years ago as colleagues at Elenberg Fraser. Since launching Fitzroy-based MIKA Studios in 2015, they’ve built an impressive nationwide portfolio consisting primarily of large-scale hotels, retail and residential projects. Chen and Kubo each ran their own practice – Mill Interiors and Kubo Architecture, respectively – before deciding to…

In countries throughout Asia Pacific, the mall is elevated to utopian status. Think Manila’s Mall of Asia, being expanded to reinstate its former status as the largest in the Philippines, perhaps the world. Or the opulent Suria KLCC at the base of Kuala Lumpur’s iconic Petronas Twin Towers. These air-conditioned temples to consumerism are havens for people taking refuge from tropical climes. Lavishly appointed, militantly sanitised and designed to cater to your every whim for hours on end. But while the East may remain a devoted ‘Material Girl’ subject to neon dreams of a fetishised West, Australian retail hubs are looking towards its glamorous regional neighbours for inspiration. “We’ve always been fascinated by retail psychology,” says Mark Simpson of DesignOffice. “There is a shift here towards more luxe mall experiences…

“Our design outcome is a flexible, adaptive vertical campus environment that encourages learning through conversation,” says Alan Duffy, Woods Bagot’s regional education sector leader. Flexible, Flippable Learning Modes Collaboration, interaction and connection are the keywords in this vertical campus which marries technology with a mix of face-to-face, individual and group learning, all facilitated by a variety of different learning environments. Lectures are interactive experiences in ‘flip’ classrooms where lecturer and students can move around, supported by an array of technological options. Connection, collaboration and interaction – all readily identified with the contemporary commercial workplace. But universities? Not so much the case. Things are changing, though, as universities respond to new technology and the cultural change it brings, along with greater sensitivity to what works and doesn’t work in a teaching/learning…

The minimalistic approach champions a light-filled and transparent space with a grey and silver palette setting the tone for the hostel’s identity. A revolutionary new hostel experience has emerged in the heart of old Tokyo, located in the bustling area of Asakusa in East Tokyo where tradition meets modernity and tourism. Gracefully combining an authentic Japanese experience with a modern touch, it sets a new standard for design-led, affordable accommodation with its progressive design of bunk bed-style dormitories and communal areas. The word bunka, meaning ‘culture’ in Japanese, is a fitting description of how designers are looking towards the future to redefine the culture of travel through design. Located in a traditional shopping mall area, Bunka sits over seven floors of a redeveloped office building from the 1980s where the…

Designed by Davenport Campbell, the new KPMG headquarters in Barangaroo transforms the brave new world of agile working into a workplace to call home. Their lease was up, but for KPMG CEO, Martin Blake, time was up as well. It was time, he argued, for a new way of doing business for his major financial services firm. It was time, he said, to move out of their existing cellular environment with its culture of soiled businesses and across the road to the new commercial dreamland of Barangaroo. But what was required was not just a change of physical environment, but a cultural change. The new disruptive, technologically fast-moving economy required an adaptive, connected, collaborative and creative business model – highly competitive in both the commercial marketplace and in the employment…

Western Sydney University Architect Woods Bagot Woods Bagot woodsbagot.com Furniture ‘Think v2’ task and meeting chairs, Steelcase. ‘Arper’ meeting chair, high back armchair and sofas, ottoman lounge, ‘Pix’ ottoman, modular lounge, side table, lounge chair, ‘Aava’ barstool, ‘Stylus’ meeting, coffee, and booth tables, ‘Blade’ meeting and quiet room tables, layout table, quiet room table, modular lounge, events lounge, in showroom tables, Stylecraft. Stacking studio chair, ‘Pebble’ ottoman, ‘Tip Sled’ chair, ‘Milker’ barstool, ‘Centipede’ collaboration table, Zenith Interiors. Open study chair, ‘Doll Wood’ dining chair, Hub Furniture. Informal meeting chair, ‘Lucy’ barstool, Own World. ‘Kush’ bean bag, ‘OTM’ laptop table, Schiavello. ‘Saba’ lounge chair, coffee table, Café Culture Insitu. Lectern, Haworth. ‘Infinity’ tambour closet, storage units, CSM Office. Lockers, planters, Planex. Sitting bench, Products for People. Quinze & Milan ottoman lounge,…

There are around 10 high-density schools currently on the drawing board in Australia. As a relatively new education model domestically, it’s inevitable that questions arise about how security, viewlines, noise and air pollution, socialisation, play space and outdoor exposure will be managed in vertical schools. Richard Leonard, a director of Hayball says the growing presence of high-density schools is being driven by land cost and availability amidst a “confluence” of factors. “The densification of cities and new urban developments is also coinciding with the re-imagination of what schools are providing, what they deliver and how they work within the urban and the community context,” he says. In dense inner urban areas “there is a need to define the best use of budget and what that means in terms of 21st…

My personal experience of mentorship has been one of hunt and seek. Throughout my early career I was often left to carve my own path, without the gentle guidance or nurturing hand I craved. In my youthful idealism, I imagined my perfect mentor to be The Sage – that creative visionary, nerve-wrackingly untouchable, who singles you out for an intimate tête-à-tête and hands down the pearls of indispensible wisdom. Those types of would-be mentors were thin on the ground. They were too busy to bother with me. And it took time and experience to realise that I was looking for guidance in the wrong place. To be a mentor requires four very important qualities – and as an aspiring mentee these should become the check points for singling out your…

Armed with nothing more than three basic chords and a guitar stolen from the New York Dolls, four obscure adolescents assailed a queen, brought a nation down to its knees and generations up on their feet. As creatives and branding mavens not dissimilar to a new generation of architects and designers, we’d be remiss to underestimate their genius. Never Mind The Bollocks (1977) – The Sex Pistols’ first (and arguably only album) created outrage in the UK and launched the most defining cultural epoch of the 20th and 21st Centuries without so much as a millisecond of radio air time as well as retail bans, Royal Commission litigation and blank-outs in the charts. And that was the whole point – they turned their presumed weaknesses into their personal brand, and…

Over 400 projects, people, products and ideas were submitted for the 2017 INDE.Awards, demonstrating the strength and prowess of architects and designers across the Asia Pacific. Our esteemed jury have hand-picked this selection, truly believing that each submission pushes our industry to new frontiers, propelling our region’s leading design-thinkers onto the global stage. Official 2017 INDE. Awards Jury Stephen Burkes, Man Made (USA) Sue Carr, Carr Design Group (Australia) Chan Ee Mun, WOHA (Singapore) Lyndon Neri & Rossana Hu, Neri&Hu (China) Paul McGillick, Chief Design Editor & Author (Australia) Jan Utzon, Utzon Architects (Denmark) Adele Winteridge, Foolscap Studio (Australia) Tim Ross, Design Enthusiast & Entertainer (Australia) Raj Nandan, Indesign Media Asia Pacific (Singapore) Stephen Todd, Design Editor (Australia) Platinum Sponsor Gold Sponsors Partners…

Perforated steel discs in a variety of metallic hues are stacked on the window ledge of March Studio’s office. While the silver, copper and gold disks demand to be touched it’s the variety of perforations on each, which will eventually form a seat to a stool, initiating so many combinations. “We weren’t exactly sure what effect we were trying to achieve in the seat,” says architect Rodney Eggleston, co-director of March Studio, who with his life and business partner graphic designer Anne-Laure Cavigneaux, established Rigmarole. “The idea started a couple of years ago, but we’re just about to formally launch the furniture arm of the business,” says Cavigneaux, who works closely with Rigmarole’s team of five, including architect Julian Canterbury and furniture designer Lewis Edwards. March Studio has been designing…

“The space gifts architects and designers with access to a part of the industry they never had entry to before. Imagine – all that housed within the most spectacular luminary wonderland the industry has ever seen.” Talk about your “closed clubs”, lighting seems to be one of those things you either know about in far too much detail – or not at all. The language used to talk about lighting is so dry and technical that anyone without an electrical engineering degree is left out of the conversation. This is a particular set back for designers who need to consider the way light is injected into their projects. However unless you speak the lighting language and know all the technical functions of what’s available, most designers are left in dark.…

There’s something ‘old world’ about walking through Sydney’s heritage listed Queen Victoria Building (QVB). Its classic storefronts, stained glass windows and cafés full of diners enjoying high tea all fill the space with nostalgic charm. And yet, nestled within this scene, is the contrastingly futuristic Alquema. With its glowing front window, it leaps out of its surrounds and represents an entirely new era for design, not just in approach but in iternal industry relationships. Sydney studio loopcreative’s process began by visiting owner Virginia Rouse’s home and observing her obvious love of art. “She doesn’t have an empty wall in her house!” exclaims loopcreative director, Rod Faucheux. “And every piece has a story. So for us as designers, the [flagship store] needed to have its own story as well.” The resulting…

Food and coffee won’t cut it anymore in Melbourne’s crowded – and competitive – café market. At Staple, occupying a narrow-but-long 100 square-metre space at the leafier end of Fitzroy Street, patrons can not only perch or sit inside or out for coffee and food, but also stop by the café’s temporary or fixed retail stations for a box of toilet paper, milk and eggs from the fridge or fancy anchovies and tins of tomatoes from the providore. “We’re trying to give power back to the customer again,” says designer, Samantha Eades. “It’s about the experience and service, which Melbourne’s just lacking a bit these days.” It’s an example of designers today responding to a new culture of hospitality, where retail, dining and curated interactive experiences are thrown into the…

A Lesson In Self-Education Even Carr Design was not immune from the awkward process of self-education they had been tasked with creating for BCGVD. Dan Cox, Carr Design’s director of commercial interiors recalls: “How do we choke? How do we disrupt? How do we define the new? How do we truly imbed the client deep into the culture? How do we teach our clients to operate in a new ‘skinny’ workplace world – where buildings are simple – places for people instead of equipment? How do we maximise interaction, when the right people are rarely in the same place at the same time?” Change is the worst. Big or small, it’s simply excruciating and if you’re anything like me, even the departure of your fave barista will fling you into…

Tertiary education has undergone considerable changes within the past five years, not to mention the last ten or twenty. Pedagogies that once had teacher-focused learning at their core now advocate a model that’s student-centred, placing emphasis on a more socially negotiated process of study. For interior designers and architects working within this sector, the challenge of meeting both teacher and student needs within an increasingly informal learning environment has been great on a creative level. The upside of this educational shift is that design outcomes are not only acutely relevant and more functional, they’re also dynamic and innovative in both concept and aesthetic. The recently completed Monash College International Business School (MCIBS) in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD is one such example of successfully responsive design. Local architecture practice Jackson…

5 for 4 Subscribe to Indesign and get 5 issues for the price of 4! (AUS$55). Join the global design gang at www.indesignlive.com/subscribe Indesign looks for the point and purpose of everything in design – exploring what we do, how we do it, and why. Indesign is the only place you’ll find conversations on the design industry that are clever, provocative, insightful, and just a bit cheeky. Indesign is for creative professionals – aspiring and established – hungry to continue the ideas that inform the best projects, products and people.…