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Contents Learn
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Legend City North
melbourne design guide
Objects
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Design Dispensary Wilkins & Kent Crumpler RG Madden Self Presevation Gallery Funaki Glitzern
Fashion
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Fashion Incubator Manvious Cactus Jam Order and Progress Someday – Perks and Mini Fat Gorman Akira Collette Dinnigan Lisa Ho Belinda La Chambre de Bonne/ S!X
Art/Communication
1 Blender Laneway 2 Westspace 3 RMIT Gallery 4 Little LaTrobe Street (Street Art) 5 Kikki.K 6 Horse Bazaar 7 Caledonian Lane (Street Art) 8 Bus Gallery 9 TCB Artist Run 10 Croft Alley (Street Art) 11 Sarah Scout 12 Neon Parc
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Built Environment
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Eat/Drink/Sleep
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Toff in Town Cookie Troika Seamstress Croft Institute Longrain New Gold Mountain and Double Happiness Pellegrini’s Von Haus Madame Brussels Grossi Florentino Siglo Bar The Melbourne Supper Club The European & European Wine Bar
Workshop The Order of Melbourne Mr Tulk Rue Bebelons Section 8 Container Bar Camy Shanghai Dumpling House Rooftop Cinema E 16
RMIT University Building 8 RMIT Storey Hall State Library Melbourne Central Republic Tower QV Urban Workshop ICI House (now Orica Headquarters)
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Walk the line.
You will find much of Melbourne’s most notable – and publicly accessible – architectural sites along its main thoroughfare. Take a gentle stroll – or better still a bicycle tour – to get to know these buildings. Not only will you discover the history of individual projects, but the architectural evolution of a city. E 30
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Map by HÊlène Frichot and Rochus Hinkel
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city workers and tourists alike loll on the grass and absorb the atmosphere. A visit to the famous domed reading room is a must, as there is no subdued space to be loved better than a library. It is a most silent internal rotunda of thought. Newly inscribed on the interior walls that support what was once one of the largest domes in the Southern Hemisphere are the words of writers reflecting on words, literature and libraries: ‘One reads in order to ask questions’, writes Kafka. ‘Books are the threads from which our culture and civilisation are woven’, suggests Richard W. Clement. A good coffee can be taken on the terrace at Mr Tulk, the café housed on the La Trobe Street E 36
Above The newly refurbished Domed Reading Room of the State Library of Victoria
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This endlessly busy, large Edwardian structure is riddled with urban myths around its design. The most outlandish theory proclaims that the station was originally intended for Bombay, but that a jumble in a London mailhouse resulted in the plans being sent to Melbourne instead. Commuters disappear into and spill out of Flinders Street train station, while others huddle on the stairs beneath a line of clocks (it’s a notorious meeting spot). Preserved in dusty neglect, a ballroom – which many Melbourne residents would love to see restored – is hidden somewhere above all the commuter traffic.
Below For many, the Atrium of Federation Square provides sheltered conditions from the harsh Melbourne climate Photo: Trevor Mein
fed square ATRIUM
Architects: Lab Architecture Studio in association with Bates Smart Completed: 2002/2003 | Location: Flinders St, Melbourne
Across from Flinders Street Station, Federation Square (see page 48) stands as a plateau distinct from the city proper. The clusters of shard-like buildings are the architectural debut of Lab Architecture, whose directors – Australian Peter Davidson and Texan Don Bates – won the project through a competition
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Architects: JW Fawcett and HPC Ashworth | Completed: 1910 Location: Corner of Swanston St and Flinders St, Melbourne
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centre for ideas, vca
Architects: Minifie Nixon | Completed: 2004 Location: VCAM Campus, 234 St Kilda Rd, Southbank
The Centre for Ideas is hidden away off the beaten track and emerges unexpectedly like a remarkable backyard folly. Architect Paul Minifie suggests that the practice’s work always begins with theoretical speculation and never with the built outcome in mind. The inspiration for the generation of the Centre for Ideas project was derived from a chance encounter with an article examining Jonathan Kellen’s dust diagrams. This became the point of formal departure, combined with an algorithmic process derived from a Voronoi tessellation. The dimpled reflectivity of the cladding covers shallow cone sections that culminate towards the interior of the building as window orifices or chrome hub-caps. E 45
Above The design of Minifie Nixon’s Centre for Ideas at the Victorian College of the Arts and Music is based on mathematical prinicples Photo: Peter Bennetts
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Above Inside the monolithic interior of ACCA, contemporary art is continually addressed and reassessed Photo: Derek Swalwell
Architects: Wood Marsh Architecture | Completed: 2002 Location: 111 Sturt St, Southbank
A further detour from the axis of St Kilda Road leads you to the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), designed by Wood Marsh. The ACCA complex stands like the great red rock of Uluru in the midst of its own desert, where the infamous sculpture Vault – better known as the ‘Yellow Peril’ – has also found its final resting place. The ACCA building is covered with massive panels dusted with a patina of rubicund rust and is – unbeknownst to many – suspended over a freeway bridge. At first it appears that the rusted hull is impervious, but discreet openings fold out of the rough skin allowing entry. The complex also incorporates a performing arts theatre complex. It goes by the name of Ngargee, a Boonerwrung (the original local Koori tribe and guardians) word describing a gathering for celebration. E 46
Map by Viviane Stappmanns
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Get streetsmart. The footprint greater Melbourne stamps into the dusty earth is much bigger than that of other, much more densely populated metropoles. To make the journey into the furthest-flung suburbs more pleasurable, new roads and freeways (which usually traverse rather bland suburbia-scapes of parched land and oversized abodes) compete for attention with large-scale artworks and architectural interventions. As such, a trip to the boundary of Melbourne’s urban sprawl has become a drivethrough safari for cultural buffs. And while the carpet of sprawling McMansions is widely renowned as the epitome of environmental destruction, ego-centricism and the antidote to community living, this new Australian housing stereotype is also inspiration for some unusual art and architecture.
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of the much-applauded footbridge designed by artist Robert Owen. The work, carried out in collaboration with landscape architects Taylor Cullity Lethlean, also comprises sound-walls. At night, an LED matrix in the sound-wall turns the freeway into a Blade Runner-esque backdrop for some part of the journey.
Design: Wood Marsh with Pels Innes Nielson Kosloff | Completed: 1997 Location: between Bulleen Road and Springvale Rd
A freeway extension along this stretch of road required sound barriers incorporating pedestrian and bicycle paths. The award-winning project by Wood Marsh plays on one design element, the arc, producing a sequence of walls in a variety of materials. Changes in colour texture, height, planting and curvature ensure that drivers experience a varied landscape, with rocktextured concrete barriers inspired by American sculptors of the 1960s and 70s.
Design: Lyons Architects | Completed: 2001 | Location: Princes Freeway, Laverton Section
The noise walls by architects Lyons appear at site-specific points on Geelong Road; at a railway bridge crossing, a pedestrian overpass and a creek. Here, a folded plywood wall structure integrates acrylic windows and factory-painted cement sheet. E 65
Above The Craigieburn Bypass footbridge – part infrastructure, part picture frame for Melbourne’s skyline
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Architects EAT
and sustainable public housing project for suburban Dandenong. In many ways, Bent demonstrates key trends in an up-and-coming design practice; they are hard-working and interested in community, collaboration and engagement.
This practice fuses eastern and western ideas and projects, and was created by Eid Goh, Albert Mo and Thomas Pai, all of whom were born in Asia and educated in Melbourne. The young team behind bentarchitecture.com.au Architects EAT have achieved Project: Bent Architecture offices Photo: Niel Prieto recognition with their consistently slick and detailed design BKK of residential work and interiors, which they refer to as ‘enrichment of lifestyle’. Their manipulation of space and light, creating unusual visual effects, has been particularly well received in the architecture community and the local media. Their Maedaya Bar, an izakaya in Richmond (400 Bridge Road) uses rope to great effect. eatas.com.au
Bent Architecture
Paul and Merran Porjazoski founded Bent Architecture in the heart of Brunswick in 2003, and now have a few staff. The practice recently won the State Government’s Living Places competition with a low-cost
Established in 2000 by Tim Black, Julian Kosloff and Simon Knott, BKK came together from two of Melbourne’s most prominent architecture firms – Tim arrived from Peter Elliot’s office, Simon and Julian from Wood Marsh. Having spent several years working on a number of well-considered houses, the office has in recent years expanded to tackle urbanscale projects in conjunction with l 34
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McBride Charles Ryan An architectural legend in this city, this well-established studio has produced many remarkable housing projects in the past five years, as well as having ventured into larger work. Their recent residential building in Blairgowrie is perhaps the pinnacle of an interest in using contemporary forms to construct buildings. Inspiration
was a mathematical body, the Klein Bottle, which has no distinguishable ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ surfaces. The aptly named cranked black Klein Bottle House winds down its site in a reminscent shape. In the inner city, McBride Charles Ryan’s – again black – QV2 apartments are perhaps the finest new apartments in the inner city. Their most recent project, Monaco House in Ridgway Place, is l 37
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in digital processes beyond their function as a tool – he concentrates on their usefulness and implementation in the everyday. Rory’s eagerness to collaborate across different design fields and his openness to the role of architecture make him a name to look out for. roryhyde.com Project: S!X fashion parade
Phooey Architects Peter Ho and Emma Young made their name by bringing a fresh and lively attitude to sustainability in design – this is perhaps best represented by their pavilion at the Skinner’s Adventure Playground in
South Melbourne. Built from used shipping containers and carpet tiles, this smart, super-low-budget project brings a new attitude both to what sustainability looks like and to what buildings for kids can be. The building has won numerous awards — from number one in The Architects Top Ten Buildings for 2008 to a nod at the World Architecture Festival. Peter has worked with community groups and small institutions for years, and new projects should see this office become an important voice in Australian design. phooey.com.au Project: Skinner’s Adventure Playground Photo: Peter Bennetts
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work, Hamer Hall, overlooking the city at the Arts Centre and next to the river.
A graduate of RMIT’s architecture program and SIAL’s embedded PhD program, Rory Hyde has achieved a lot for one of the youngest guys on the Melbourne scene. With two Paul Morgan small built projects and several Architects under way, Rory has worked on individual houses, fashion shows and Paul Morgan has been an archicollaborations in industrial design. tectural agitator for ages and his recent years of private practice have These include work on bike sysbeen very successful in introducing tems with Scott Mitchell – such as intelligent bike lights that display a generously unique voice to built speed on the bicycle’s spokes. His form. Foremost in this is super Cape Schanck House, his own fam- projects are linked by an interest ily beach house on the Mornington Peninsula. This remarkable little dwelling engages with equal passion the themes of spacecraft, sustainability and John Lautnerstyle modernism to produce one of the best little digs ever built on the Peninsula (and there’s some very stiff competition). The expanding firm has built on this success with several other houses and institutional work. nmbw.com.au Project: Interior of RMIT Building 45
paulmorganarchitects.com Project: S.E.T interior refurbishment at RMIT Photo: Peter Bennetts l 39
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(Artist-Run) space is the place. What doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger, says artist and curator Tai Snaith, who recognises that Melbourne’s famous artist-run initiatives are going through a tough spell. Nevertheless, the scene is as vibrant as ever. You might just have to look a little bit harder to locate all the action.
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Street Station. The cabinets are surrounded by pale-pink art deco tiles and always have something juicy inside. Platform is the tasty icing on the delicious sponge cake that is Melbourne’s ARI scene. More recently, Platform has also added the Majorca Cases, more display cabinets in the famous Majorca Building. Platform Exhibition Cases: Degraves St Subway (Campbell Arcade), Melbourne | Majorca Cases: Corner Centre Place and Flinders Lane, Melbourne | platform.org.au
This tucked-away gallery is run by a collective of practising Melbourne artists who are most definitely Taking Care of Business in a very impressive manner. TCB is renowned for its high-quality work and dynamic program that’s part curated and part application-based. Situated on the second storey of a ramshackle old building in Waratah Place, one of China Town’s stinkier little lanes (runs off Little Bourke Street), this artist-run gallery consists of two spaces, below four resident artist studios, and is famous for it’s ridiculously crowded opening nights.
Although it’s definitely the smallest gallery space in Melbourne, this 20×30 inch window (as the name suggests) is little by nature, but big by reputation. Situated next to Pushka café in a quiet dead-end lane off a ritzier shopping precinct,
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Upstairs,12 Waratah Place, Melbourne | tcbartinc.org.au
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main spaces and adjoining record store Sunshine and Grease. After the gallery’s recent restructuring in early 2009, the incoming Bus director is excitedly launching a range of new programs not only for artists, but for writers and curators too, focusing on spatial art practice: sound, installation, performance and video. 117 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne | busprojects.com.au
Founded in 2001, this gallery is a fine example of Melbourne’s top-notch ARIs. It’s a sophisticated and adaptable space, with a unique main room that features the original walls complete with fireplace, half-peeling paint and scratched surfaces. Below With a focus on exploring relational aesthetics and spatial Gavin Murphy’s Moving relations, Conical is well-known by artists and fanatics for its Deaths at Conical Photo: Courtesy Conical innovative programs and erudite curation and management. 3 Rochester St, Fitzroy | conical.org.au
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the mini gallery is curated by a team of emerging local artists, brimming with enthusiasm and good taste. Showing a different artist’s tiny installation from the beginning of each month, Twenty by Thirty is visible all hours and it’s quite possibly the best quality coffee and art you‘ll find within one square metre of one another in Melbourne. 20 Presgrave Place (off Little Collins St), Melbourne | twentybythirtygallery.com
With a new home on its agenda for the coming year, West Space is continually growing, expanding and improving. As one of Melbourne’s oldest ARIs (it was originally located in Footscray, where the signs are still a reminder of its first home), this gallery shows a very high standard of emerging and established artists in its three separate, multi-purpose gallery spaces. With a very experienced board and ever-fresh director, you will be hard-pressed to find a disappointing work here. West Space is a gallery that is always well worth a visit.
Last Tuesday Society Art meets Carbaret every last Tuesday of the month at Yah Yah’s, 99 Smith Street, Fitzroy. lasttuesdaysociety.com Northcote Storytellers First Wednesday of every month at Willow Bar, 222 High Street, Northcote
Below The Devolution Project Installation view West Space Photo: Ray Manley
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Upstairs, 15–19 Anthony St, Melbourne | westspace.org.au
Other stuff for ARI buffs
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Fashion
The tastemakers. These stores don’t so much stock as curate their labels. In countless ways they have influenced the course of Melbourne fashion – and continue to do so through encouraging newcomers, acting as muses for their regular labels, coolhunting the latest styles and trends and of course ensuring all this is available to Melbourne trendsetters. As well as featuring this city’s most forward-thinking retailers, this chapter provides an insight into the development of Melbourne fashion.
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simply for Perks and Mini, the brainchild of Misha Hollenbach and Shauna Toohey. Established in 2000, the duo rolled their backgrounds in art and fashion into one, not strictly designing clothes but also accessories and art pieces, as well as collaborating with international artists. Someday also stocks independent publications, clothes, toys and accessories.
Masterminded by Moth Design and coinciding with the L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival, but offering an alternative to the main stage, pop-up shop Penthouse Mouse stages two weeks of ‘happenings’ in a vast, abandoned warehouse. PHM allows the work of up-and-coming independent designers to be viewed outside a purely retail context. Instead, the designers collaborate with local artists to carve out their own, unique space and organise live photo shoots and parades. Past collaborations have included Kuwaii (see page L 103) with artists Renee Cosgrave and Merryn Lloyd, and Hua (see page L 107) with artist Kirsty Hulm. The 2009 incarnation was held Below in an abandoned games parlour in South Yarra. Check the The Penthouse Mouse website for the location this year. Space in Collingwood, penthousemouse.com
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Curtin House, 252 Swanston St, Melbourne | 9654 6458 someday-store.com | perksandmini.com
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Located at the top of a stairwell in the Royal Arcade, Don’t Come is hard to find but also hard to leave. Owners Misa Glisovic and Tim Everist, aka the Schwipe crew, attribute the happy vibe to the store’s site in what used to be a Turkish bathhouse. Don’t Come stocks the owners’ label Schwipe, which started in 1999 and has since garnered a huge following not only in Australia, but also in Japan and the US, where they supply many stockists and run a busy mail-order gig. As a treasured destination for local streetwear fans and street artists, the store also stocks Stussy Deluxe, Something Else and Rockers NYC. Past exhibitions in the lofty space have included international artists Mike Giant and Stefan Marx, plus local warriors Tim Chapman and Meggs.
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Upstairs, Royal Arcade, 314 Little Collins St, Melbourne | 9639 2227 dontcome.com.au | schwipe.com.au
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Below Don’t Come functions as both a retail space and a gallery
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Couture. If you’re the type who prefers to buy her clothes by-appointment-only, here are three couturiers whose phone numbers you’ll want on speed dial. For all others, these are the names you want to keep in mind if that special occasion ever arises. And we all know it will ...
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Fresh faces
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The bulk of young Melbourne designers can’t be squeezed into any pigeonhole. These folk work behind closed doors but sell their pieces through the many supportive retailers around the city. Among them are the hopes of the local fashion industry as well as some established designers who have found their niches and turn out consistently great work. Most of the designers featured in this chapter are new to the Melbourne Design Guide, which just goes to show how dynamic Melbourne’s fashion community is.
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into quirky, instantly recognisable pieces for her one-woman show, Maus Cat Berlin, since 2002. Maus Cat’s ‘churlish tomboy’ designs for fun lovin’, self-possessed, bold and adventurous gals consist of velvet bat-cape boleros, cheeky lederhosen, faux-fur dirndls and Cath’s trademark silhouette of puffy shoulders and nipped-in waist dresses. Maus Cat’s moment came at the 2005 ARIA Awards when Missy Higgins – dressed in the label’s blood-red Dracula frock – wrapped her pins around David Hasselhoff on national television, making it the must-have dress of the season. Maus Cat Berlin is stocked at Alice Euphemia and Fat.
Hua
mauscatberlin.com Previous page: Knight Time leather tunic, Light Years leopard legs | Photo: Brad Hick
A relatively established designer and RMIT graduate, Tam Hua designs for the ‘interested few After getting their hands on a Xacto who like secrets and don’t want to blade and some cardboard, designshare them’. Her coveted collections ers Jen Roberts and Sandra Mason fuse inky blacks with bursts of set out to create unique images flouro colour and space-age silver. and produce distinctive T-shirts, Experimental cutting techniques hoodies and scarves for funky and unusual shapes that mimic young things. Inspired by Japanese nature result in draped pockets, character designers, graffiti and voluminous capes and sleeves so stencil art, the duo finds inspirabig you could hitch a ride in them. tion in the laneways of Melbourne Imbued with a sense of fun and an and the streets of old New York. urban 1980s edge, Tam’s versatile All their wares are sweatshop-free, creations take the wearer from 100% cotton, and aspire to create studio to art opening to midnight a world that says, ‘I’m OK … if you rendezvous with chic ease. Milly are?’ Find them at Design a Space. Sleeping loves this label. imok.com.au
tamhua.com Above: Hua diamond dress and striped leggings | Photo: Vien Thee L 107
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Fashion as science
Fashion
No matter how you choose to describe them, these designers produce work that’s far from the everyday. They experiment with materials, techniques and the very status quo of fashion. While the more experimentally inclined designers challenge our understanding of fashion, others are true couturiers who cherish the craft of dressmaking, and their creations should be reserved for only the most special occasions.
Studio—Alexi Freeman Photo—Esther van Doornum L 108
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Toni Maticevski
and ‘genius’ were tossed around with utter abandon. Toni, who describes his otherworldly concoctions as ‘restrained opulence’, draws much inspiration from the Diana Vreeland/Irving Penn tome Inventive Paris Clothes 1909–1939. The label is renowned for fluid, classic silhouettes, meticulous details and textural fabrics that conjure up romance and magic. tonimaticevski.com Photo: Annabele silk drape dress
Toni Maticevski has been one of the most talked-about names in Australian fashion since he won the Designer Award at Melbourne’s 2002 L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival. Indeed, he is a wholly unique creature. By his own accounts, he rocked up on his first day of RMIT in a Just Jeans T-shirt, unspoiled by the canon of Euro design. After finishing his degree, he set out on a classic fashion-design trajectory. Starting in the design room at Donna Karan in New York and soon progressing to Cerutti’s atelier in Paris, Toni double-kissed the couturiers goodbye after ten months and headed home. His first collection sent fashion editors into a frenzy of adjectives – ‘dazzling’, ‘transcendental’, ‘elegant’
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MaterialbyProduct
There’s haute couture, there’s prêt-a-porter, and then there’s MaterialbyProduct. Susan Dimasi and Chantal McDonald, the design team behind the label, spend countless hours rethinking the
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Head to toe
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There’s only a handful of sartorialists in this city devoted to the fine arts of cobbling and millinery, but fortunately their existence means Melburnians can be dressed from head to toe – literally – in locally made attire.
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product. Preston Zly are a participating label in The Signet Bureau on Gertrude Street. prestonzlydesign.com Photo: Rhiannon Slatter
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Emma the Shoemaker
Zly woman is a bold, intelligent lady with a hearty laugh and a yen for quality. Established in 2000, Johanna Preston and Petr Zly’s shoes are a clever blend of classic and craft: cutting-edge leather shapes with hand-stitched details that explore traditional shoemaking techniques and put them into new contexts. Past collections have included humorous takes on ballet slippers and peasant clogs. Inspired by everything from a painted line on a ceramic piece to the shapes and surfaces of industrial objects, the duo’s individual skills – Joanna studied orthopaedic and bespoke footwear at RMIT and Petr is a trained sculptor – are evident in the detail of the finished
As a young, female shoemaker, Emma Shirgwin defies all the clichés of the traditional Melbourne cobbler (who’s generally a male, of Italian origin and about to retire), but through determination, persistence and a lot of travel, Adelaide-born Emma absorbed everything she could about the most comprehensive and ‘pure’ method of shoemaking, an Italian style named ‘Lunati’. Although her business is only two years old, her work has graced the heels of Claude Maus models on the runway at L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Week, and her range of Melbourne-made flats, boots and heels is stocked at Fat and available on her website. emmatheshoemaker.com
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It’s a Melbourne quirk that many of the city’s menswear designers opt to open their own outlets to sell their ranges. Not all though ... Here are some more exciting designers who don’t have their own street frontage.
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The light went on for designer Mic Eaton after a stimulation overload in Tokyo. Overwhelmed with inspiration, he was compelled to establish Material Boy in 2003. An ex-pro-surfer, Mic takes scale to its most natural and unnatural conclusions. Outsized T-shirts, tanks, jumpers and hoodies are often teamed with shrunken (or gaping) grandpa cardigans and super-lowcrutch drainpipes to surprisingly compelling effect. Films, games – even the famous wrap artist Christo – have influenced collections. Material Boy is now donned by the likes of Chloë Sevigny, Beck and Radiohead. Melbourne stockists include Fat. materialboy.com.au | Photo: Kane Skennar
Mjölk Maverick Lars Stoten’s mission to ‘create a new aesthetic’ started taking shape in 2003. The graduate of Copenhagen’s Danish Design School worked with renowned
Japanese costume designer Shimauchi Sasuke and studied garment construction and engineering at the Otaru Bunka Fashion School before relocating to Melbourne in 2004. His clothing’s theatrical, sculptured tailoring and sweet rebellion will stir up your emotions and tell you a story. ‘Mjölk,’ says Lars, ‘is a defiant two fingers up to the inherit safeness of most ‘labels’ of today … an exercise in patient subtle subversion.’ Lars fashions elegant Italian cotton twills, Savile Row wools and Egyptian cottons into bright, razor-sharp ensembles for dashing young men. David Bowie and members of The Knife have donned Mjölk, which are available online at acidpalace.com.au and purestcut.com.au, but if you’re in town try the Mjölk studio at 33 Guildford Lane. mjolk.com.au Above: Jumping Mac | Photo Justin Rider
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The new DIY. There was a time when crocheting and needlepoint were firmly in the hands of nannas, great-aunts and Jane Austen’s antagonists. These days, however, Melbourne is awash with young, pretty, interesting lasses (and lads, we hear!) who have discovered that it’s more fun to wear a self-made jumper or to feel the pride of reclining on handmade sofa cushions in favour of ones imported from Scandinavia or made from Italian calf leather. If you’re that way inclined, the following places are for you.
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The pioneer of Melbourne jewellery galleries, this intimate and elegant exhibition space specialises in intellectually stimulating pieces from contemporary designers – often those who transform everyday materials into objects that provoke questions about the nature of jewellery. There are five or six solo and group exhibitions every year, and the gallery also functions as a retail space, representing innovative locals – such as Mari Funaki (the owner), Julie Blyfield and David Neale – alongside the best and brightest overseas designers. Established in 1995, Gallery Funaki has been instrumental in promoting contemporary jewellery practice to the broader community, and has paved the way for other significant jewellery galleries and retailers in Melbourne. Gallery Funaki was the first to specialise in exhibiting contemporary local designers, and is therefore a treasured space to those who follow and collect contemporary jewellery from Australia and abroad. Funaki’s emphasis on looking at jewellery in a different light has been a great source of inspiration for local up-and-comers, and has ensured the Melbourne intelligentsia has some really interesting conversation pieces. 4 Crossley St, Melbourne | 9662 9446 | galleryfunaki.com.au
Below Studio Ingot represents over 60 Australian jewellers
Individual and contemporary handmade jewellery designs are the order of the day at this gallery, retail space and workshop. Founders Sarah Ross and Michael Fletcher hold permanent collections and rotating exhibitions. The pieces often feature traditional materials to create new forms, are exquisitely detailed and understated and show off the skill of each artisan. The studio also specialises in custom-made designs where
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Stewart Russell’s radical art-school years, his print studios in Sri Lanka, London and Edinburgh and his interest in contemporary art have all culminated in the unique, free-spirited, colourful genius that is Spacecraft. The homewares, accessories and clothing sold in Spacecraft’s zen Gertrude Street boutique are designed by Stewart with the help of partner Donna O’Brien and the occasional local craftsperson. The latest addition to the Spacecraft range is bedlinen featuring black and white screen-printed images of an Amsterdam cityscape. Stewart has also collaborated with designer Matthew Butler, giving his Zaishu stools the Spacecraft stamp. Every true Melbourne design lover will have at least one piece from the Spacecraft range at home – be it a cushion, some clothing, a cloth painting or a patchwork quilt for the newest addition to the family. 225 Gertrude St, Fitzroy | 9486 0010 | spacecraftaustralia.com
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Below All Spacecraft products are handmade in the dedicated North Melbourne studio Photo: Manouri Peiris
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Part of the furniture page 50 All the trimmings page 61 L 48
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Carry me home page 66 Industrious design page 68 Let there be light page 72 objects
Master casters page 76 Precious gems page 80 Shifting scales page 90 Behind the wheel page 94
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Part of the furniture From connecting with manufacturers to developing costly prototypes, from sourcing retailers to making the public aware of the benefits of local design – Melbourne’s furniture designers have to be crafty to stay afloat in the face of international design imports. We say it’s ever the more reason to add local work to your furniture collection. The talent is vast and wonderful, and you’re guaranteed to find some lifetime favourites. Here are the names to look out for, in alphabetical order …
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Paper Tiger Products
Tongue and Groove among others, includes a stool, table and bookshelf in PET fibre felt board. The range has a bright future: it’s low-cost and flat-packedw, but best of all, it’s locally-made, eco-friendly and doesn’t require an Allen key. papertigerproducts.com Project: Felt stool | Photo: Nicole Reed
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Nick Rennie
Anthony Dann, the brains behind Paper Tiger Products, is inspired by the structural properties of paper and cardboard – not to mention their recycling capabilities. The budding architect began selling his flat-packed triangular stools two years ago at a weekend artists’ market to subsidise his studies. Fast-forward to 2009 and he’s patented the design, exhibited it in Milan, New York and Japan and his architecture career is firmly on the backburner. The blank cardboard surface provides a unique and ethical branding medium for companies and events, attracting commissions from Visy for the 2008 Design Made Trade event, Coca-Cola for the 2008 AFL Grand Final, and as permanent fixtures at Richmond’s Volley Café. Paper Tiger’s 2008 range, available at
Forging an emotional connection with the user through humour or a latent childhood memory is a constant theme in Nick Rennie’s portfolio of furniture, lighting and products. Take his slick Squash bowl, for instance. It bears all the hallmarks of a contemporary design object – but also has special resonance for anyone who made a paltry childhood income at CashA-Can. Nick established Happy Finish Design in 2001 after his first trip to Milan’s Salone Satellite fair, exhibiting with the Melbourne Movement – a group of RMIT design students working under the tutelage of industry advocate Kjell Grant. Making the annual
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Industrious design
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Among all the pretty, artistic work, spare a thought for the more ‘hardcore’ industrial designers. These are the innovators who make necessary objects so functional and so easy to assimilate into our lives we sometimes fail to recognise the calculated engineering and subtle design features that make our days so much more comfortable and convenient.
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the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium in Arlington, Texas. Closer to home, they’ve worked on Her Majesty’s Theatre and the Melbourne Convention Centre, and have designed a new, sturdier seat for the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium (soccer fans are more rambunctious than tennis crowds, after all) due for completion in October 2009. camatic.com.au
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Cobalt Niche Company co-founders Jack Magree and Steve Martinuzzo established Cobalt Niche in 1996. Combining expertise in product design and development with mechanical engineering, the company has amassed a portfolio of high-value niche products in the fields of science and biotechnology. Recent accolades include a 2008 Premier’s Design Award for the design of a high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) instrument. You can inspect Cobalt Niche’s fusion of technology, engineering and design during the Australian Open: the company gave the Grand Slam event its biggest makeover in 20 years before the 2008 tournament and designed a new on-court environment, including player and umpire seating, signage, ball guards and players’ entry arches. cobaltniche.com
Catalyst Design Group Catalyst Design Group is a multidisciplinary product and industrial design company founded in Lon-
don in 1989 by expat industrial designer Hugo Davidson. Catalyst is also the name behind Knog, the bike accessories brand that’s been shaking up the commuter cyclist market since 2002. Catalyst won the 2007 Australian Design Award for its Gator bike light, a compact combination of moulded-silicone and aluminium-cast chassis that, in Catalyst’s words, shines ‘bright enough to make the University of Michigan’s cheerleading team seem like a bunch of depressed arts students’. The success and expansion of Knog has given Catalyst the resources, expertise and freedom to pursue new design avenues in the past two years. The company has stepped outside the product-design realm into electronics, for instance its bike computer with animated touch screen, which Catalyst launched at the Eurobike trade show in late 2008. catalyst.net.au Project: Frog bike light
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Precious gems If you owned a piece of jewellery from every interesting artist in this town, you wouldn’t be seen wearing the same thing for at least a year. But because it’s beyond the scope of this little book to introduce over 365 talented jewellers, we’ve elected to present to you the ladies and gentlemen whose work, if it’s not already in your treasure chest, should be on your Christmas wishlist.
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ary Melburnians for two reasons. First, the graphic design grads ride that tricky line between fashion design and art that’s all too common in this town. Second, their jewellery line, Deadly Precious – which boasts blossoms hand-carved from bone and delicate skulls finished with leather bow ties – hints at bygone eras and a sense of the macabre, and favours silver, gold, black and more black. The city’s Indie fashionistas have embraced the label and form its biggest market. Although less than three years old, Deadly Ponies already exports to the US, Canada, Japan and Korea. In Melbourne you’ll find the range at Alphaville and the Milk Shoppe Gang, among others. yellows, blues, whites and blacks – if you’re one of life’s bold travellers you’ll love it. iam.linda.hughes@gmail.com Project: Box brooch in laminate, acrylic and .925 silver | Photo: Argonaut design
Deadly Ponies
DP founders Katie Smith and Liam Bowden technically live and work in New Zealand, but they’re honor-
deadlyponies.com Project: ‘Precious’ Range
insync-design Iris Saar Isaacs and Jane Barwick started insync-design on a whim, thinking ‘let’s make something new together for the Melbourne Design Market’ for Christmas 2006. Little did they know …While both partners run concurrent businesses in graphic design (Iris) and contemporary jewellery (Jane), the idea of the synchronisation was to create a range of contemporary jewellery that combined industrial and handmade processes. Their range is distinct and colourful, from laser-cut and powder-coated stainless steel. The first range of seven brooches (each available in six colours) has been added to every six months with bangles and earrings L 84
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Shifting scales In recent years, the work of a handful of jewellery makers who all share a common denominator has popped up in galleries, newspaper articles, on the hands of brides-tobe and forward-thinking jewellery aficionados. What unites these artists is that they are all alumni of RMIT’s interior design program. Intrigued by small-scale objects and their relationship to the human body, these designers ended up at the goldsmith’s workbench instead of the drawing board – with astonishing results.
Studio—Djurdjica Kesic L 90
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Leah Heiss
With a practice that is located at the nexus of art, design and emerging technologies, Leah Heiss has been exploring the role of digitally Fascinated with the idea that enhanced apparel and artefacts in appearances are deceptive, Tessa Blazey has explored ideas of camou- mediating human relationships through many different projects. flage and illusion through three Over the past few years, this endeadegrees and countless design vour has spawned some oustanding projects. She did a bachelor in sculpture and one in interior design jewellery work, mainly through a collaboration with NanoTechnolfrom RMIT, then followed her ogy Victoria. Leah, who is a lecturer calling and completed a jewellery in interior design at RMIT, has diploma at NMIT. Represented by developed a range of jewellery with Glitzern, Fat and Pieces of Eight, therapheutic properties, as well as Tessa’s creations, produced under wearable objects that allow users the name Fiction, encompass all to manipulate their environment her experience – sculptural rings, (purifying water, for instance). She pendants and earrings play with is currently working on developing light and shadow and define inteher diabetes jewellery (which adrior spaces within, revealing new ministers insulin through a patch) aspects of themselves as you get from the current prototypes into a closer. Her work is bound to adorn both fictional heroines and science line of medical jewellery. fiction goddesses. elasticfield.com tessablazey.com.au Project: Science Fiction necklace Photo: Terence Bogue
Project: Diabetes rings Photo: Narelle Sheean
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Tessa Blazey - Fiction
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Behind the wheel
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Melbourne’s prolific community of ceramicists ranges from those practitioners who create entire homeware ranges to those whose one-off artworks are collected by museums and galleries around the country. We introduce a cross-section of practitioners.
Studio—Gregory Bonasera L 94
homewares now available throughout Australia, in Japan, Scotland, the US and the UK, and artworks in private collections all over the world. Porcelain forms the basis of the jewellery collection, with each object lovingly handcrafted and kiln-fired up to four times, helping the pieces look like old-world craftworks. Maritime and woodland themes feature heavily, with anchors, bears and hearts forming pendants and brooches apparently straight from the ocean depths or colonial touch. The Queen Charlotte the forest floor. A memento mori inand Queen Victoria ceramics are fluence also imbues each piece with inspired by the architectural castthe aura of a much-loved heirloom. iron lace-work of the Victorian era, Available at Alice Euphemia, or while the Seraphina range draws on shop online. the legacy of botanical illustrator iggyandloulou.com William Morris’s work. Project: Piece from the collectibles series gretchenhillhousedesign.com.au
Iggy and Lou Lou
You’re dressed to kill and guess who’s dying Photo: Pia Richardson
Fiona Hiscock
Fiona Hisckock is one of this city’s most accomplished ceramicists, so keep an eye out for her work in public and private collections around the country. Her vessels are loosely based on early colonial objects such as water pitchers, basins, cups and mixing bowls. Featuring - often botanically inspired - imagery sourced from early settlers’ gardens, her work is often exaggerated Irene Grishin-Selzer is the designer in its scale. behind Iggy and Lou Lou, a label that’s developed a cult following since its inception in 2003. After completing a masters in ceramics, the artist launched a series of limited-edition jewellery and L 97
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out of town
Out of Town
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explore
North-east page 259 North page 261 North-west page 262
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North-west
hepburn bath house
Architecture, design and the arts are booming in Victoria’s inner north-west and the Central Highlands. When on a day or weekend trip, don’t miss the following design-conscious destinations.
out of town
Above Opened in late 2008, the new Hepburn Bathhouse makes that weekend country escape a lot more tempting
Although the area has long been famous for its reinvigorating mineral springs, 2008 marked a very special occasion: the newly-designed Hepburn Bathhouse and Spa opened its doors. In their design, Melbourne practice Cox Architects have been inspired by world-famous tranquil oases such as the Peter Zumthor’s Wals Therme in Switzerland, and have situated their building harmoniously within the landscape. The calm, natural interior consists mainly of timber and stone, and guests can indulge in mineral baths, saunas and spa treatments. It’s an ideal getaway. hepburnbathhouse.com | 5321 6000 E 262
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silverski at falls creek
North
fallscreek.com.au | e-f.com.au E 261
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Not only one of the best ski locations in the Victorian Alps, Falls Creek also stands alone for its focus on architecture, art and design, much of it designed at the hands of architects Elenberg Fraser. The first of their developments, Huski, was inspired by the shape of a snowflake, and with sweeping views in all directions it has redefined the term ‘ski-lodge’. The smart, stacked apartment building with its jutting spa balconies, a restaurant and a day spa has graced many international design magazine covers. Next door, Silverski Lodge (also designed by Elenberg Fraser Architects) is a vintage-inspired boutique hotel reminiscent of the bulky log-cabin constructions of the Swiss Alps. Finished in time for the ski season of 2009 is the centrally located, much larger St Falls, a residential, retail and hospitality development with a ground-level shopping plaza and luxurious apartments, again featuring those much-loved hot tub balconies. The transformation of Falls Creek has been so successful that other ski resorts are emulating the trend. Elenberg Fraser are currently working on a St Falls-style resort in Mount Buller (aptly named St Buller) and an apartment complex in Mount Hotham.
Above Silverski Lodge at Falls Creek Photo: Peter Bennetts
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South-west
While you test the handling of your hire car and re-enact luxury vehicle adverts along the striking landscapes of the Great Ocean Road, don’t forget the fine architecture along the stunning coastline. Aside from the gorgeous private residences you’ll see, here are some publicly accessible structures.
If you’re up for a great amalgamation of landscape, art and architecture, this is the place. The restored landscape around the historic Werribee Mansion – an elegant, contemporary design by Melbourne landscape architects Tract Consultants – dwells on the past of the site and, at the same time, lifts the focus from a private house to a public place. In March 2004, the Werribee Park Sculpture Walk was launched as a permanent home for sculptures that made it on the shortlist of the Helen Lempriere sculpture award, which is the richest annual prize for sculptors in this country. It’s a fantastic way to spend an afternoon or – thanks to the nearby luxury hotel – a weekend. mansionhotel.com.au | lempriereaward.com.au | parkweb.vic.gov.au
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Below Bob Jenyns’ Lempriere Award-winning sculpture Pont de L’Archêveché pays hommage to Australian artist Albert Tucker, who constructed a makeshift caravan on the banks of the Seine, where he camped to save money on accommodation
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A league of their own
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A new generation of designers eschews the ‘we can do anything’ work ethic that used to characterise a good design studio in favour of confidently stating what they like and what they’re good at. Naturally, this crowd is anything but homogenous. Most of the studios choose to stay small, even in the face of growing reputations and workloads. Thankfully, they all share a collaborative attitude, and tap into each other’s talents when needed.
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From different creative roots (Jonathon Wallace is a designer who guest lectures at the Monash University Faculty of Art & Design, while partner Dan Whitford is the front man for music act Cut Copy) grew this 2008-established independent studio now comprising four designers and various other staff. Alter works in diverse mediums from music and fashion through to television, designing corporate identities as well as overseeing creative direction (for the 2007 MTV Australian Music Video Awards, for instance). Focusing on ‘explore’ as a studio philosophy,
Alter recognises that things change (hence the name), and new insights must be found. Alter’s work is therefore intuitive, creative and fresh, and this studio is fast becoming a Melbourne favourite. alter.com.au Project: The Design Papers
Chase & Galley With a moniker that’s referencing the letterpress printing process, it’s hardly surprising that this is one of Melbourne’s more processdriven and experimental design studios. Started as a collaboration between Stuart Geddes and Jeremy
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mutual love of design, Star Wars paraphernalia and ping pong (hence the name). In 2006, back home now, they started their own practice focusing on conceiving, designing and directing projects across most visual media, and aiming to establish powerful communications and brand identities. Theirs is smart, decorative communication that brings out the personality of the client. Now comprising a team of five, 21-19 are big on using dialogue to inform all their work; refreshingly, they love to ask questions. 21-19 also love to make things, especially friends, and play things, especially – and obviously – ping pong.
With clients including Maus Cat Berlin, Mondo Trasho and Hell’s Kitchen, The White Studio is a professional practice that can deliver quirky results. Cleverly stating their aim to be designing for clients’ customers, White’s forté is getting to the heart of their client’s message and understanding audience needs – a huge ask in the age of information overload. The resulting body of White work has little in common but that it works – exceptionally well. thewhitestudio.com.au Project: Hi God People on the Astral Plane book, celebrating one-colour music flyers
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The White Studio
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Love your work
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The 10 following studios should be household names, their phone numbers on speed dial of any business that takes design seriously. While some have been around for decades, others are the next big thing, but each brings their unique style to Melbourne’s graphic design landscape. Read on if you want to work with the best.
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of the studio’s capacity to combine engineering, three-dimensional form and graphic application. The studio’s bold use of colour and very evident interest in (threedimensional) typography ensures their work continues to be instantly recognised. buronorth.com Project: Balencea identity and signage
Emery Studio
images, branding, exhibiting, marketing and multimedia, to place-making or visual landscaping (such as the Australian Embassy in Beijing or Melbourne Docklands). Although Emery began as an assistant in a commercial arts studio, he now holds an honorary doctorate from RMIT, where he is also Adjunct Professor of Design. The very influential practice is a household name in the community, and it’s not hard to come across some of their huge body of work. Just take a look at that $20 note in your wallet. emerystudio.com Project: Eureka Tower carpark
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David Lancashire Design Once you’ve visited a handful of destinations in this book, rest assured you will have come in touch with David Lancashire’s work. The British-born graphic designer is one of Australia’s most influential creatives and started mostly with identity and branding in the 1980s. While committed to most aspects of communication design, David Lancashire Design has in recent years become known for its interThis 30-strong practice feeds off the pretative design and directional signage. There’s the signage for 30-year experience of its founder, Healesville Sanctuary’s celebrated Australian design legend Garry Emery, who has been known for his platypus enclosure, that at the innovative signage and wayfinding Twelve Apostles and the Werribee Open Range Zoo. If you don’t want work for decades. Garry’s team is to travel outside the city, head to the made up of graphic, multimedia Melbourne Museum, where the stuand architecture professionals who are passionate about commu- dio is responsible for the exhibition design of the Bunjilaka Aboriginal nicating – from static and moving L 144
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Barking Sparrows
A one-man interface and brainchild of John McLennan, the Golden Grouse produces edgy, dynamic websites for some top-notch Melbourne associations such as the Meredith Music Festival, the Jacky Winter Group and Mattt Bags. Established in 2006 and a very busy little practice, Golden Grouse is also the host of the Friday Prude, an occasional drinking session where you can meet your website maker in his comfort zone, as well as some of his creative mates.
Funambule, shown at the Cannes short film Corner, and a featurelength on AFL greats is due out in 2009. Besides that, the studio’s Compulsive documentary-based vodcast, After a career in music writing and inframetv, which explores original sound design, Compulsive founder talent on art and design, is proving Matt Hopper founded this studio to an internet hit. Focusing on good explore his visual side in 2004. This storytelling as the Compulsive is over 500 projects ago, including approach to communication, Matt feature documentaries, short films, relies on his team to brainstorm commercials and websites for an idea, strip it back to its vital elecorporates such as Disney Channel ments and Keep It Simple Stupid. and Telstra, as well as Heinz and compulsive.com.au HSV Holden. Compulsive has had inframe.tv its short feature documentary, Le L 147
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goldengrouse.com Project: Site for Next Wave Festival
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The Foundry
They’re essential items for control freaks (or even just to evoke the impression of order). thefoundry.com.au Project: The Measure series
Hammer & Daisy An ill-equipped foray into a gardening business left bookbinders Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison with only a name, Hammer & Daisy. Choosing sore thumbs over green thumbs, the women abandoned the garden to produce a line of handmade, limited-edition artists’ books, prints and zines, with a delicate collaboration of collage, drawing and painting complete with fantastical animals and childlike landscapes present in all their work. Having studied under
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When it comes to building up cred on a graphic design CV, experience at places like Italy’s Fabrica and Studio Dumbar in Holland is a must-have. And that’s just where Jessica Fairweather was before returning to Melbourne in 2003 to set up The Foundry. Thanks to her little studio, scales and measurements never looked so sleek. Awarded the Premier’s Design Mark at the 2008 Premier’s Design Awards, the ‘Measure’ range of paper-based products is designed to help us make sense of the world around us. Inspired by the simplicity of measuring tools, everyday conundrums can be tackled with the help of an in-season produce guide, a wine notebook, a stylishly refined calendar and a lunar guide.