Design and architecture - News and events

Events | Featured projects | Call for entries | Announcements

Events

Sydney Architecture Walks - Sydney

Begins 1 November

The Sydney Architecture Walks (SAW) explore ideas through architecture, offering an interface between in-depth architectural knowledge and the wider design-conscious community. Each route is driven by certain themes and ideas and attempts to decode the city whilst stimulating new ways of thinking about and seeing Sydney. Various locations.

Momentum: 18th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial - Tamworth, New South Wales

15 November 2008 - 18 January 2009

Momentum: 18th Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial has been curated by Valerie Kirk, Head of Textiles, ANU Canberra, and will reflect the development of textiles and the ever increasing rate of change in this field. Momentum features 25 artists from across Australia. This exhibition will provide audiences with a focus on the finest and most exploratory aspects of contemporary fibre textile practice. Tamworth Regional Gallery.

Australian International Furniture Fair - Sydney

4-6 February 2009

The Australian International Furniture Fair will showcase the latest in furniture and furnishing designs with over 200 exhibitors from Australia and abroad. The fair will include a Hotel + Hospitality feature for furniture and furnishings for the hotel, hospitality and resort industries. The Fair will also present The Edge - design and innovation showcase, which has earned a reputation for attracting leading Australian designers and unearthing emerging talent. The central display includes products in the three categories of Commercial, Concept Student and in 2009 the new Green Award. Sydney Exhibition Centre.

Out of the square: Beach architecture on the Mornington Peninsula - Melbourne

13 November 2008 - 22 February 2009

Out of the square: Beach architecture on the Mornington Peninsula architectural exhibition brings together past, present and future designs for coastal living and features 35 exemplary projects by Victoria's leading architects, including visionary projects for the future. Out of the square is the first exhibition to survey the rich traditions of coastal architecture on the Peninsula. Arranged geographically so that modern and contemporary projects rub shoulders, the exhibition considers the way in which architecture has developed under the rubric of form, patronage and place.

L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival - Melbourne

15-22 March 2009

The L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival is a major event in Australia's fashion calendar. The 2009 festival will include a business seminar with speakers including international industry icon Margareta van den Bosch, Creative Advisor for H & M worldwide and Fashion Designer Zhandra Rhodes. Central Pier, Docklands.

Fashion Palette - Sydney

1-2 May 2009

Fashion Palette is aimed at providing an opportunity for the Australian fashion community to learn from some of the worlds most inspirational 'fashionpreneurs' in a two-day event. Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Featured projects

Pinnacle Design

December 2008

The Pinnacles Desert Interpretive Centre, a new remote Western Australian visitors centre, explores the secret life of the desert. The centre was designed by Freeman Ryan Design (FRD), Woodhead International and Sculptor David Jones.

Cloudland - Brisbane

December 2008

Cloudland, in Brisbane's Valley Precinct, already coming in at $10 million, is set to open early next year after 3 years in construction. The building's retractable glass roof allows it to literally open to the clouds above at the flick of a switch. The 1500 capacity venue, envisioned by designer Nic Brunner, will also house a 14-metre-high wall of plants, a water feature wall, a hand-carved marble bar and an 'unsupported' rusted steel staircase. The venue's name is a tribute to the iconic Brisbane venue, the Cloudland Ballroom, which was controversially demolished in 1982.

Central Pier Docklands - Melbourne

December 2008

Buro's Central Pier Docklands project aims to turn Central Pier into the focal point of the waterfront activity in the Docklands and to create an iconic cultural destination for Melbourne. Integral to the architectural, landscaping and urban design elements of this project is the understanding of the importance of events to Melbourne. The proposal incorporates a number of different environments and spaces to allow a broad range of events including a public amphitheatre.

National Gallery of Victoria Shop - Melbourne

December 2008

Tandem Design have eliminated the old shop façade of the National Gallery of Victoria Shop and opened it to the main entrance hall behind the iconic water wall. Visitors are invited into long corridors generating a feeling of fluidity and uncluttered practicality. The rear wall features original featherstone display cabinets. Overall there is a strong sense of affinity with Roy Grounds' original design for a humanised architecture.

Fish 349, Terroir architects - Hobart

December 2008

Hobart's Fish 349 has retained the external shell of the Georgian building it's housed in, the interior design setting diners away from the street behind large, fixed-window openings with deep, angled reveals. Terroir architects have created a slick and simple look featuring timber ceilings, polished concrete entry flooring, a stainless steel kitchen and a graffiti-style wall mural. Skylights, windows and a projection screen fit neatly, like angular puzzle pieces.

Upgrade to old County Courts - Melbourne

December 2009

Once completed in mid 2010, the old County Court upgrade project will complete the court precinct at the William and Lonsdale Street corner and make a positive reinforcement on the State Governments initiative on environmentally sustainable buildings. The vacant Old County Court at 223 William Street required upgrading to meet Government policy on minimal building environmental standards. V arc is the primary consultant for the project.

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.

Call for entries

State of Design - national

Entries close 16 February 2009

The State of Design festival invites submissions for self-initiated exhibitions, events, workshops, or alternative creative ideas that respond to the program's theme and have a broad and accessible public engagement.

2009 Interior Design awards - national

Entries close 20 February 2009

The purpose of the Interior Design Awards is to celebrate and recognise interior design excellence through a credible, industry-based program, backed by the Design Institute of Australia, the professional body representing Australian designers. Any Australian-based design professional can enter. Projects can be located anywhere in the world.

Announcements

Murcutt takes Gold

December 2008

Australian architect Glenn Murcutt has been awarded the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Gold Medal for 2009.

Joanne Cys appointed as DIA President

December 2008

Joanne Cys has been appointed National President of the Design Institute of Australia (DIA). Outgoing DIA President David Robertson worked to establish acknowledgement of the design sector throughout the amendment of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) occupational categories. He enabled consolidation of the Artichoke publication and website to assume its present form as the pre-eminent nation design journal.

Ushering in the golden age of cinema

22 November 2008

One of Sydney's few remaining art-deco cinemas, the Randwick Ritz has survived home entertainment, tough film distributors, legal challenges, council parking restrictions, even its owners. In 1997, the Randwick Ritz beat a legal challenge from Hoyts to add three cinemas into the adjoining building. In 2001, the Ritz built another two cinemas on the other side - the modern additions complementing the main art-deco building. The property developer Jack Ziade bought the property more than 20 years ago and planned to demolish the 1937 cinema, which was designed by Aaron Bolot, the architect responsible for many of Sydney's grand apartments, including the modernist curved classic where Macleay street runs into Wylde Street at Potts Point. When the heritage order was placed on the Ritz, plans for demolition had to be scrapped.

Australian Institute of Architects' National Architecture Awards winners

October 2008

The 2008 awards were presented to the nation's most inspiring recent architectural projects, and the architects who created them, at a special ceremony in Adelaide. A total of 31 awards and commendations across 12 categories were awarded to projects in Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, the ACT, NSW, Western Australia, South Australia, China and Singapore. Topping the list is the recipient of Australia's top annual national architecture award - the 2008 Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture, awarded this year to the 'robust' Cherrell Hirst Creative Learning Centre at Brisbane Girls Grammar School by Brisbane-based architects m3architecture.

Seidler finalists announced

October 2008

The finalists of the 2008 Designer Rugs Seidler Award have been announced. The award honours the late Harry Seidler, who had a reputation for using shag pile and textured rugs to soften the hard lines of his buildings. The competition was open to interior designers, architects and specifiers who used a Designer Rugs shag pile or textured rug in commercial or residential developments between January 2006 and July 2008.

Perth Airport's new business park is off to a flying start with a DIA Award

October 2008

Architect firm Woodhead have won a Design Institute of Australia WA Commendation Award for their fit-out of the Westralia Airports Corporation headquarters at Perth Airport. The $1.1 million fit-out, named 'hkew', takes inspiration from the blue sky, sun and grey tarmac and carries the 'airport theme' throughout the entire design scheme - the judges noting that a 'quirky use of graphics and aircraft palette have created a bright clean environment that visually engages visitors and staff alike.' The office mimics the cross-section of an airplane and the interior design uses motifs more akin to a departure lounge than an office block. Key areas in the building are denoted by symbol.

Habitus magazine out now

October 2008

Habitus is a quarterly magazine for and about design hunters - the homes they build, the landscapes that surround them, and the products and works of art they put inside. With homes, products and people drawn from the design landscape of Australasia, South-East Asia and South Asia, Habitus is a celebration of way of life and a resource for the design hunter. The Habitus launch issue is available at newsagencies and selected bookstores.

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