American designer Karl Zinmaster's tentatively titled S.O.K. Chair (as in 'It's okay') is cheeky, intelligent and completely outside of the square (three things that are highly rated in my world!).
While still a prototype, S.O.K. is not merely intended as a decorative piece: when vacated counterweights in the chair make it lean onto its back leg, yet when in use it is a fully functional chair.
Last night's Art of Architecture presentation at the Art Gallery of NSW gave Peter McGregor of McGregor Westlake Architecture and Tony Chenchow of Chenchow Little the perfect platform to discuss their current practicein an 'artistic' context. I was hoping for more talk about artists collaborating with architects
Chenchow Little's extraordinary work of art, Freshwater House. Photograph: John Gollings
Last night was the launch of Art & About and Laneways By George! Hidden Networks in Sydney's CBD, both luring Sydney-siders into viewing their city in an entirely new light - bringing attention to the hidden quarters and factions that we tend to bypass in our daily lives.
Highlights of Laneways By George include 'I Dwell in the City and the City Dwells in Me' where prosthetic skin oozes through the cracks of Bridge Lane as the sound of deep breathing fills the laneway.
Tactile yet grotesque, I could only bring myself to gingerly pat the 'flesh' while the less squeamish prodded and poked, and some just stood and watched in fascination as the city came alive around them. Herbert + Mason and ASPECT Studios' 'The Meeting Place' had our Editor discover her inner child and bounce between the taut yellow woven polyethylene cloth, while a suited Sydney-sider made a straight trek through the installation, missing the fun. Little Hunter Street should be a fun journey for drunken suits!
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Those on sale dates come around so quickly. Our Australian Residential Special 2009 hit newsstands today, and we've also extended our cover story of James Stockwell's Snowy Mountains House by including more photos by Patrick Bingham-Hall in our new edition of M+, which is due out tomorrow. I'm looking forward to chatting to people about the projects in this issue because I know that everyone will have an opinion.
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The Creative Directors for the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale were announced at functions in both Sydney and Melbourne yesterday...
Floodslicer's rendering of the pavilion's interior
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I was in
What I can't stop thinking about in regards to last week's media preview of the MCA's Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson exhibition is the fact that the artist is only going to be in town for 48 hours. He'd make a wonderful interview, and I imagine that in conversation with an Australian architect there'd be some fine ideas and strong opinions worth printing. If I can secure some time with him, is there an architect amongst us who would be up for the task?
Olafur Eliasson, One-way colour tunnel (2007). Photo: Ian Reeves, courtesy San Francisco MoMA
Those clever, clever kids at DesignByThem have released a new product. The Butter Stool is designed from a single piece of material which becomes rigid when folded together, and reflects designers Nick Karlovasitis and Sarah Gibson's polished, clean aesthetic. So many new products can be recycled, but the majority use virgin plastic, which is basically just adding more material to an already saturated recycling system, but not the Butter Stool! It's made almost entirely of recycled milk containers. I'm a huge fan of what Nick and Sarah do, and admire their fearless commitment to sustainable design.
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