By Design
4 Episodes of this Podcast:
By Design 2010-02-03
Published: 2010-02-02 09:00:00What can a blind architect see? Chris Downey is blind and he is an architect. He addresses some fascinating questions next on By Design. What makes a building beautiful if you can't see it, and how can you create beautiful structures if you're blind? The Glass House Witty, wealthy and extremely talented, Philip Johnson was one of the greatest architects America has produced. He helped establish modernism in the United States, was the founding curator of architecture at the Museum of Modern Art, and also an extraordinarily generous patron of the arts. But none of his buildings match the fame and influence of the home he designed for himself, a place he called the Glass House, which sits on a rural estate outside the town of New Canaan, Connecticut. An elegant, rectangular, open-plan box made of four uncurtained glass walls built in 1949, it remains as modern as tomorrow. Over half a century until his death aged 98 five years ago, Johnson built a number of other extraordinary structures on his estate to test his architectural theories. But it's the Glass House itself that is attracting thousands of architecture lovers from around the world. Mark Wakely makes the pilgrimage to the Glass House for By Design. Make sure you click on the link under 'Further Information' to view the slide show. Trends and Products: Future Home Future Laboratory is a UK firm that travels the world looking at design and resulting social trends. Next on By Design we talk about Future Homes. Did you know that spending on bedrooms is down? Why? Future Laboratory's Sydney event is on Thursday 18 February, Melbourne is on Tuesday 16 February. For details: 03-9662 1657. Transforming Uncommon Ground: The Gardens of Vladimir Sitta A conversation with the landscape architect Vladimir Sitta and with Tempe MacGowan, the author of a new book on his work.
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By Design 2010-01-27
Published: 2010-01-26 09:00:00Emergency Architects Haiti Fund If you want to give money towards Emergency Architects Australia's project in Haiti, you can do so by going to their website and following directions. All donations are tax deductible. Anna Bligh, Premier, on Queensland's design future Queensland Premier Anna Bligh is on a mission, a design-led future for Queensland. This is, she says, about the way we think, about positioning the value of design across everything we do. Find out what she means and why this is her approach. Asylums: a look at their history through design Christopher Payne is an architect and photographer. His photographs capture life in the closed world of asylums. These hospitals no longer operate, but their memory is well and truly alive in these moving photographs. Oliver Sacks has written a powerful essay in this confronting, yet beautiful book. Trends and Products: dressing up or down? Whereas once women were expected to dress up, now this rule is for men. Find out why young men are dressing up and are careful about their grooming, while young women are increasingly dressing down, as are older men. Cooking with Tony Bilson and Michel Roux Alan Saunders talks to two of the world's top chefs - Australian Tony Bilson and Frenchman Michel Roux - about life in the kitchen, the development of French food and its future in an age of globalisation.
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By Design 2010-01-20
Published: 2010-01-19 09:00:00Fire-proof your house - living sustainably with fire By Design looks at some of the key points to consider when you are designing a house in a fire-prone area, through the eyes of two architects specialising in these design concerns. Collecting chairs This week in our regular Trends and Products segment, the product we´re discussing is the chair and the trend, well we suggest has been around for some time: people´s passion for collecting chairs. More than any other item of household furniture, the chair seems loaded with meaning. The language of things We´re always talking about things on this show—objects, unusual objects, everyday objects—but this week we´re looking at the language of things, what they say to us and how and why they say it. From the opulent excesses of the catwalk, or the technical brilliance of a laptop computer, to the subtle refinement of a desk lamp, our guide, Deyan Sudjic, shows how we can be manipulated and seduced by our possessions. The Garbage Warrior: Living in Earthships For 40 years, New Mexico-based architect Michael Reynolds has been teaching the world how to live sustainably, promoting a holistic way of living that involves natural and recycled materials, renewable energy and self-generated food and water supplies. Michael designs and builds earthships: homes built from natural and recycled materials, houses that heat and cool themselves; produce their own electricity; collect their water; treat their own sewage; and grow their own food.
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By Design 2010-01-13
Published: 2010-01-12 09:00:00Utzon Tribute Following his death last year Joern Utzon, the architect of the Sydney Opera House, was honoured in a state memorial within the wonderful building that is his legacy to the world. One of the many highlights of the service was this reading of a tribute to Joern Utzon written by David Malouf and read by the actor John Bell. Remembering Utzon A reflection on the life and work of Jørn Utzon, who died last year aged 90. His enduring tribute will, of course, be the Sydney Opera House. World Heritage listed in 2008, the jury referred to it as 'one of the indisputable masterpieces of human creativity'. The man who finished the Sydney Opera House The beauty and solemnity of the memorial service earlier this year for Sydney Opera House architect Jorn Utzon showed how much the Australian public respect him. But if Jorn Utzon has been deified, then Peter Hall, the architect who actually completed the Opera House, was demonized in his lifetime, having been vilified by sectors of the architectural profession. When Utzon left the project in 1966, Peter Hall was just 34 years old and about to take on the daunting task of finishing the building considered by many to be the greatest of the 20th century. So how should we remember Peter Hall? Designing an organ We´ve talked quite a lot on this program about the Sydney Opera House and the troubles involved in its creation. This week, another chapter in the story: the organ, and the contribution its designer made to the concert hall. Murcutt and Malouf on Utzon These closing comments today about the Sydney Opera House and Utzon's legacy were made by made by Glenn Murcutt and David Malouf during a Sydney Opera House Talk as part of the 2009 Sydney Architecture Festival last year.
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Copyright info: Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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