Melbourne Design Week is focusing on Care, Community and Climate. Let’s review some Community projects
A Storefront Exhibition
COVID-19 has crystallised a social and economic movement bubbling beneath the surface of this past decade. We have seen mass introspection and a re-examination of how we live and want to live. Formerly bustling high streets are now lined with unwanted & empty tenancies.
We must speculate further on how these spaces can be brought into use. To re-imagine and reinvigorate our high streets & idea of community. Physically distanced yet closer together.
altmaterial.com has chosen 28 vacant shopfronts within the suburbs of Collingwood & Fitzroy, spanning the length of Smith, Gertrude & Brunswick Streets as locations for an exhibition. Each one exhibiting a piece of furniture or object. An opportunity to contemplate on how these spaces can be brought into use temporarily. An unoccupied site to engage with from the street without the need to enter a physical space. Battery-powered for minimal disruption. Each exhibit available to purchase via a digital auction.
alt.material asked designers to fabricate a piece of furniture or object that articulates & responds to the theme of COMMUNITY. Be it a functional response—such as an item of furniture—or an exploration of how do we might give form to COMMUNITY as metaphor.
How does the designer respond to issues of proximity now that we are forced apart yet desperate for global connection?
Works are produced by leading & emerging designers from Australia, UK, Europe and the UAE (with Talin and Tulip Hazbar, see below). Each designer has been selected based on their body of work, level of energy and alignment with the exhibition theme. COMMUNITY is an opportunity to see creations by several eponymous international designers exhibiting in Australia.
Experienced on foot or as part of a curated walking tour (daily at 2pm, booking here).
Works will be available to purchase via the alt.material digital auction
52 by Tulip & Talin Hazbar (UAE)
Working to repurpose marble and stone scraps, the sisters, Talin Hazbar (also showing her NGV Commission at the Melbourne Triennale) and Tulip Hazbar, are remodelling the abacus using waste material from factories around Sharjah, UAE. The work looks at acts of collecting, counting, and keeping record as actions that occur in our daily life. More so, recently, where days pass by as mundane repetitions of previous days, yet as new opportunities with every sunrise.
The 7 days abacus looks at deconstructing time in unequal intervals. Creating a counting tool using diverse units in terms of form, material, sizes and weights, sheds a light on finding unexpected harmony within the monotonous.
Panel Discussion - Commuter & Community
How does access to transport impact our lives? When designing on a macro scale, what is the process in which the micro experiences of the individual are considered? How are the needs of the commuter balanced with those of the community?
This panel discussion with Kevin Begg, Marc Debney, Robyn Pollock, Dan Brady and Deiter Lim explores the social and environmental benefits of macro transport infrastructure through a selection of notable Victorian rail and urban design projects, including Reservoir and Frankston Stations.
Launch & Panel Discussion for the book ‘Kerstin Thompson Architects: Encompassing People & Place’
Moderated by Virginia Trioli, this event includes a presentation by Kerstin on her public and community focused projects exploring the theme of ‘cultural memory’ and including the award winning Broadmeadows Town Hall (picture), and the upcoming Jewish Holocaust Centre.
Panellists include RMIT Emeritus Professor Leon van Schaik AO, Artist, Robbie Rowlands, Jayne Josem CEO of the Jewish Holocaust Centre and Matt Wilson, Senior Urban Designer, Hume City Council
Kerstin Thompson Architects: Encompassing People & Place is published by Thames & Hudson, authored by Leon van Schaik AO, edited by Fleur Watson and designed by Stuart Geddes.
This event is presented by RMIT University and supported by Centre for Architecture | Open House Melbourne and The Capitol – RMIT University - Tuesday, March 30th at 6pm
