Furnishing International Autumn 2013

Autumn 2013

Idea + Industry Design and Manufacturing Brave New World Digital Fabrication Sustainable Innovation RecopolTM Scrapbook: Nick Rennie

AUD$11.95 NZ$14.50

INSPIRATION / IDEATION / DESIGN / INNOVATION / INDUSTRY

editors’ letter W

elcome to your new Furnishing International, the Australian journal of furniture fabrication and design.

Over recent months we’ve been working to re-engineer and re-design the magazine you are holding to offer an authoritative voice within the furniture sector.

We are here to advocate for smarter industry, more entrepreneurship, stronger links between industry and design, and to build a better understanding of the forces shaping the industry and design practice.

Over the coming issues we plan to look deeply at product design and production, linking with aligned sectors such as fabrication, sustainability, construction, retail, manufacturing, and R&D to explore best practice today for tomorrows needs.

Our new direction will deepen the traditional position of a design and product magazine by being ‘process-led’ focusing both on inputs (ideas, thinking, insight, skills, innovation) and outputs (products, services, objects).

We put forward the proposition that investing in design skills and knowledge is a central pillar to successful competitiveness for this industry. But design alone cannot solve all our problems. Industry embodies myriad skills and capabilities that must be integrated within this proposition so that together, Australia’s creative community, makers and manufacturers can collaborate and compete together.

We are an optimistic bunch and we interpret future challenges as opportunities for innovation and new business mindsets.

Furnishing International will offer a much needed voice in Australia’s furnishing industry. Hopefully you will see that there is a gap here to be filled and join with us on our journey.

...design alone cannot solve all our problems.

Industry embodies myriad skills and capabilities that must be integrated within this proposition Ewan McEoin and Linda Cheng

Exquisite Exquisite Exquisite inin every in every every facet. facet. facet.

Exquisite Exquisite Exquisite in in ogni ogni ogni sfaccettatura. sfaccettatura. sfaccettatura.

Exquisite Exquisite inin in every every facet. facet.

Exquisite Exquisite in ogni ogni sfaccettatura. sfaccettatura.

Exquisite Exquisite Exquisite ininin every in every every facet. facet. facet.

Exquisite Exquisite Exquisite in in ogni in ogni ogni sfaccettatura. sfaccettatura. sfaccettatura.

LuxorLuxor Oval Luxor Oval Oval Crystal Crystal 24%Crystal PbO 24% PbO 24% PbO Luxor Luxor Oval Oval CrystalCrystal 24% PbO 24% PbO LuxorLuxor Oval Luxor Oval Oval Crystal Crystal 24%Crystal PbO 24% PbO 24% PbO

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Contents 12

Review

We take a broad sweep of the endless possibilities in design. We showcase what we know design to be and challenge some perceptions of what design is‌

41 Idea + Industry = What kind of future will the Australian furniture industry have?

We speak to eight industry experts for their opinions on how the industry can innovate through embracing design.

66 Industry News Cover image: Wharington RecopolTM shells.

Photography & Art direction: Mark Rudge & Ty Layton at Change Creative

70 New Products

Autumn 2013

47

Capacity Against the Grain Groovemark is turning their previous speaker and boom box manufacturing capacity into furniture making.

A Brave New World New advancements in robot technology are paving the way for a future in digital fabrication.

52

Material Out of the Shell Wharington is taking plastic waste and recycling it into eco-friendly shells for upholstered furniture.

56

Talking Business With Charles Parsons Interiors and Interiors Online.

58

Shelf-life Designer Nick Rennie shares his inspirations, influences and most idolised possessions.

Celebrating 25 years of design excellence Three days, one location, 10,000 design professionals.

You know the designEX story. Welcome to the next chapter.

Original format. New thinking.

Rediscover designEX from 30 May to 1 June in Melbourne.

Visit www.designex.info for more.

THE DESIGN EXPERIENCE DESIGNE 25 Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre

30.05 – 01.06.2013

012

Autumn Issue 2013

REVIEW

Review

013

Design is…

Wherever you look, design is all around us. It’s an undercurrent that flows through every part of our lives, not just in furniture. It’s not just about the end product, but the ideas, the processes, the creative journeys and the narratives.

Clockwise from top left: Rocking Stool

by Mariana Aguila; ‘Near the Edge of the World’ by Jacob Hashimoto; DOMOTEX2013; 1 Million Times Clock by Humans Since 1982; Dome Stool by Studio Toer; A-joint mini by Henry Wilson; NORM Bath Collection from Menu; Resident Collection 2; Hotello by Das Konzept; Morse Code Love Blanket by Holly Berry; Geo Carved Rug by Ella Doran for Woven Ground; Hood by Form Us With Love; Analogia Project.

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REVIEW

…helping people

PAPER VASE CoVER Dutch designer Pepe Heykoop and the Tiny Miracles Foundation are helping people out of poverty and prostitution with his hand-folded Paper Vase Cover, as well as other designs. Pepe’s workshop teaches the women of Pardeshi (a red light district in Mumbai, India) the skills to make his designs as well as channelling the proceeds from sales towards the women’s health care, education and jobs. Paper Vase Cover is an intricately folded flatpack design, which turns the ubiquitous wine bottle into an elegant vase. pepeheykoop.nl | tinymiracles.nl

Autumn Issue 2013

Australia’s No.1 Mattress Choice

The most supportive mattress for all you do in bed.

With trusted support and amazing comfort, the new generation Sealy Posturepedic is designed for an even better night’s sleep. Plus innovative features are designed to be functional and attractive.

It’s no wonder that Sealy is Australia’s Number 1 mattress choice* – over 7 times more people would choose Sealy than any other mattress.

Choosing Sealy is easy!

SRx Titanium® Support

UniCased® XT Edge

ComfortCare® Latex

*Source: Quantum Research Bedding Tracking Report, October 2012

DuraFlex® Base

LiftRight® Handles

StayTight® Foundation Cover

www.ellikon.com.au

∑

∑ feature story: idea + industry =

041

Idea + Industry =

What kind of future will the Australian furniture industry have? price competition with low-cost imports has brought this industry to its knees. But, as the experts say, manufacturing is essential for our economy, and the way forward must be through embracing design and innovation.

T

he death knells are ringing for the Australian furniture manufacturing industry.

Little by little, the small- to mediumsized enterprises that make up the majority of the industry are shutting up shop, no longer able to fight against the tidal wave of imports. Those who are left are dredging up the last reserves of energy just to tread water.

Perhaps symbolically, a recent search of a government careers counselling website for ‘furniture maker’ turned up ‘coffin maker’ as the only entry.

Text Linda Cheng & Ewan McEoin

The issues stacked against this industry may seem insurmountable: a high dollar and competition with cheaper labour markets pricing Australian furniture out of the trade; the tyranny of distance limiting opportunities for global distribution channels; the lack of entrepreneurial talent; and a loss of brand identity for manufacturers. Most of all, the lack of cohesiveness, interaction and transfer of ideas and knowledge between manufacturing and design is causing an unhelpful schism unconsciously sinking each other down a plug hole towards extinction.

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Capacity: advanced technologies

Brave New World Advancements in technological capabilities are set to revolutionise design and manufacturing in the furniture industry.

Text Linda Cheng

Portrait Ty Layton at Change Creative

Capacity: advanced technologies

049

I

t wasn’t that long ago when 3D printing was purely the domain of comically irrelevant geeky television characters printing their own heads onto Pez dispensers. These days, the gathering momentum and advancements in technology are propelling digital additive manufacturing headlong into the mainstream at superfast broadband speeds.

Already this year, we’ve seen 3D printing’s pervasive influence in the worlds of fashion and sports wear, jewellery, furniture, construction and even more unimaginably, Foster and Partners are proposing to build a 3D printed lunar base. But, 3D printing is just one sensation capturing the public’s imagination. In this brave new world of advanced production, ‘robotics’ has replaced ‘green’ as the new buzz word of the decade.

RMIT University recently acquired a KUKA robot for the workshop at its School of Architecture and Design. Andrew Thompson, workshop co-ordinator, says, “The University, as part of its more recent strategic plan, saw their strengths in design and technology. So promoting technology within the school of design, was really the nexus of their strategies.” As a designer himself, Andrew saw the opportunity to exploit the digital fabrication side.

The robot works through a subtractive process, it carves out of a solid block of material. This is the opposite of 3D printing which is additive, building up layer by layer of material. Operated through software, the robot cuts with millimetre precision.

Students at the School of Architecture and Design are able to use the robot make their scale models but the applications for furniture making are enormous.

052

sustainable innovation: recopolTM

Sustainable Innovation Autumn Issue 2013

sustainable innovation: recopoltm

053

An Australian innovation turns old telephones into recycled plastic chair shells.

Text Linda Cheng

R

Left: A family of RecopolTM shells Top left to right: Rabbit, Mitt Sweptback and Bubble shells

Photography & Art Direction Mark Rudge & Ty Layton at Change Creative

ecopol TM is made from recycled ABS, a hard plastic commonly found in the casings of electronic appliances such as telephones, computers, printers and the insides of refrigerators and washing machines. It’s the first and only recycled ABS plastic furniture shell in the world.

This innovation, developed by Wharington more than 20 years ago has recently gained an EcoSpecifier Green Tag certification for sustainable furniture. As well, it’s the first Australian product to be listed in the MATREC EcoMaterials database.

ABS plastic is virtually indestructible.

Although, at first glance, it doesn’t seem like the obvious choice for sustainability – it never breaks down – but this is precisely

why it’s perfect for furniture. As a structural engineering TER polymer, the material is as safe as houses. Unlike elasticised plastics, ABS doesn’t spring back, which means furniture manufacturers can fire staples into the shells without worrying about them being pushed out. It was originally accepted by the American FDA as food grade material for butter containers, as it has no VOCs. Nothing grows on it and nothing will ever eat it. So recycled ABS is ideal for making sustainable shells for upholstered furniture, as an alternative to MDF or plywood.

Compared with FSC plywood, which can be difficult to source and even more difficult to verify, a major advantage for RecopolTM is that it can be recycled an infinite number

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Scrapbook by Nick Rennie

crapbook

the place for designers to share their thoughts

by Nick Rennie

Autumn Issue 2013

Scrapbook by Nick Rennie

059

N

ick Rennie is an awardwinning, internationally recognised designer based in Melbourne. After graduating with a degree in industrial design from RMIT University in 1998, Nick launched himself onto the world stage through the Melbourne Movement at Milan Furniture Fair in 2000.

Two years later, Nick established his design studio, Happy Finish Design, and also exhibited on his own in Milan. His designs have been selfdescribed as fun and playful, which can be seen in the Mushroom light (pictured right). Over the years, his designs have matured to have a clean, poetic simplicity and an arrestingly beautiful aesthetic. Nick shares his inspirations and talks about the most treasured objects in his possession and the fine details, patterns and textures that have caught his eye.

what I made...

Design is a very vulnerable thing to do.

We leave a piece of ourselves in each one.

Left: Idee stools for Cubus Concepts. Visually, it’s really simple, like it’s made from one piece of bent wire. But it’s actually incredibly complex. It’s the illusion of simplicity.

Top: Mushroom Light. Lamp with counter weighted base so it rocks backwards and forwards.

Above left: Chiku Shelves for Porro. It’s not in production anymore, but Porro showed it in Milan this year in a retrospective of their most important pieces.

Above right: Naname necklace made in brass. It was an experiment in materials and process.

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NEW PRODUCTS

Jade lamp table Solid American Oak. Zuster, zuster.com.au

Ipparco table lamp designed by Neil Poulton with 3000K LED. Artimede, artimede.com.au

Hollywood Stackable Chair, FSC American Oak and plywood Stylecraft, stylecraft.com.au

mo Cushion in Peach, made from FR canvas filled with duck feather Sixhands, sixhands.com.au

Autumn Issue 2013

French door extravaganza

• French

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• Professional

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• Automatic IceMaker Email www.premiumapp.com.au or call 1800 685 899 now for more information and your nearest stocklist.

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