Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2020 i Design Anthology, Australia Edition

In the fertile rainforests, craggy coastlines and dry savannahs of Arnhem Land, the Yolngu people have a sacred word, one that can be translated to mean kinship or connection: gurru u. But the word means much more than that. Gurru u is a concept unique to the Yolngu; it’s an intrinsic, deep connection to each other, to the earth, to music, to art and to stories. As the traditional owners of this unspoilt northeastern wedge of the Northern Territory, the Yolngu have occupied Arnhem Land for 60,000 years, and have an extraordinarily rich history of culture and art (this is where the didgeridoo hails from, after all). Perhaps it’s unsurprising that the region is now producing some of the country’s most exciting artists. From October 2019 through to January 2020,…

Now in its seventh year, MPavilion — an annual temporary installation in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens — has reached the status of summer highlight on the city’s packed events calendar. Visitation has grown steadily year on year, and Melburnians look forward to the announcement of the new architect, the unveiling of their new design, and the long and rich summer program that accompanies it. At the launch of the first pavilion in October 2014, the initiative’s founder Naomi Milgrom (chair of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation) took care to link Melbourne’s offering to a venerable tradition of public pavilions, inviting the then co-director of London’s Serpentine Gallery and initiator of its pavilion program Julia Peyton-Jones to give the opening address. Peyton-Jones spoke of the importance of pavilions in ‘exhibiting architecture through…

When Anne Holch Povlsen — wife of Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen — collaborated with Swiss-born stylist and designer Ruth Kramer on the interiors of design-led Killiehuntly Farmhouse and Cottage, they ideated a new, evocative style that became known as Scandi-Scot. Layering the rugged patinas and earthy materials of rural Scotland with clean, urbane Nordic aesthetics, the duo continue to craft deeply atmospheric, intimate spaces where old and new coexist, and light and shadow transform simple rooms into mesmerising time capsules. Killiehuntly, in the Cairngorms National Park, is just one of the handful of holiday estates owned by the Povlsens’ nature conservation and hospitality group Wildland Limited. In September 2019, Povlsen and Kramer completed the interiors of Lundies House, Wildland’s latest Highland guesthouse, in the remote coastal village of Tongue…

A pretty coastal hamlet, Sorrento sits on a slim strip of the Mornington Peninsula wedged between Port Phillip Bay to the north and the wild open waters of Bass Strait to the south. Over time, the township has become a favoured holiday spot, with many part-time residents drawn to its scenic foreshore, historic properties and sophisticated boulevard lined with limestone buildings courtesy of 19th-century lime burner James Hughes, who was integral to the development of the town and was the first owner of this home. Given the building’s history, it was important to architect Bo Chu of Pitch Architecture + Design and his clients that it be treated with the utmost respect. Chu recalls that the residence was in excellent condition, with its articulated 1880s quoins and cast-iron filigree perfectly…

After more than a century of turmoil, destruction, division and reunification, Berlin is once again a city on the make. The population is booming, capital is trickling back into city coffers and cranes dot the skyline. Not everyone is happy about this, to be sure. Berlin’s drawcard, for a sizeable portion of some 13 million annual visitors, is its reputation for unspoiled underground hip. Fashion is religiously understated (but don’t believe anyone who says there is ‘no fashion’ in Berlin — style is more strictly defined here than in most fashion capitals). The streets still hold an element of the grunge and surprise that has lured people from around the world to set up shop and home (often in the same space), with cheap and secure rents allowing creativity to…

According to Kate FitzGerald, the ‘staunchly feminist’ co-founder of Perth architecture firm Whispering Smith, her equal-opportunity upbringing on her family’s rural property in Victoria has been highly influential on her practice. She enjoyed learning to drive at age six alongside her brothers, and encourages a similar sense of independence and can-do attitude among her young team. ‘The architecture profession currently has a gender pay gap of approximately five percent amongst university graduates, a statistic that widens as architects mature and progress in their careers,’ FitzGerald says, ‘and we’re passionate about changing these long-term trends.’ Driven by idealism,FitzGerald sought a workspace that would enable Whispering Smith to grow alongside like-minded businesses. ‘We’d been looking for a suitable studio for a year,’she says,‘and in late 2017 we took over a run-down warehouse…

Describing Jessica Loughlin’s kiln-formed glass artworks in one word is no easy task. Her minimalist, sculptural forms are seductive, beguiling, refined, skilful and elegant. And they emanate a quiet beauty that’s difficult to resist. Each is as intriguing for its masterful command of a notoriously challenging medium as it is for its ability to evoke a sense of calm and stillness in the viewer. It’s little wonder the Adelaide-based artist’s body of work has such widespread appeal. Loughlin’s practice is grounded in a conceptual rigour that stems from a natural inclination to question and explore. As she explains, ‘My work investigates the way that wide open spaces, especially within the Australian landscape, affect us. I’m fascinated by unreachable space, the space between here and there, and views that can be…

Etched pencil-sharp against sea and sky, yet tonally in tune with the ruffled grasses and darkened bush around it, this second home is a collection of contrasts. Drive south-east from Christchurch along the winding road that follows a crater rim and you’ll eventually arrive at the fingers of land stretching into the harbour. Here, at Wainui on Banks Peninsula, where free-divers come to gather pāua and kayakers pause for a rare view of the Hector’s dolphin, is a smart-casual home for all seasons. ‘The clients have a passion for design,’ says Jeff Merrin, director of Lume Design, which was responsible for the home’s interiors. ‘They wanted nothing overtly coastal or typically Scandinavian, but with aspects of each genre — an aesthetic that engages as much with the water as it…

Melbourne’s vernacular traditions are a persistent source of enquiry for contemporary architects. In the city’s inner north, established streetscapes that traverse the narrow blocks present a seemingly impermeable boundary for new development, challenging designers to rethink the physical and metaphorical boundaries of a site. Designed by Rob Kennon Architects, this home in Fitzroy North successfully negotiates such conditions. The original double-fronted worker’s cottage was muddled with alterations and additions, resulting in a property of little significance. Granted approval to demolish and rebuild, Kennon sought to respect the rhythm and scale of the streetscape, approaching the frontage as an abstracted silhouette of the former home. Maintaining the original roof pitch, a verandah and hip are combined in a contemporary gesture, and wing walls and a quaint picket fence complete the aesthetic…