By Design
4 Episodes of this Podcast:
By Design 2009-11-18
Published: 2009-11-17 09:00:00Maarten Baas interview (Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Awards) Maarten Baas, although still in his early 30s, has made an international reputation for his radical and highly original approach to furniture design. Conserving the past We all have a stake in the past and in its tangible preservation, and we trust professionals to preserve our cultural heritage for the future. However, the concept and practice of restoration in all its forms are entangled in many contemporary theoretical debates and problems. Now a new book represents the first concerted effort to examine together the linked philosophies of the different arts of preserving and uncovering the past: the restoration of buildings, conservation of works of art, and editing of literary works to retrieve their original intended texts. Website accessibility This week in our regular trends segment we´re looking at a change for the better that´s sweeping the world-wide web. Over the past two years, some exciting things have happened in website design and computer technologies for hearing and visually impaired people. There´s a variety of applications on the internet now which allow users to hear text, increase font size and read what´s going on in a video through subtitles. But there´s still some way to go before the internet is a level playing field for people with hearing or visual impairment. Conversation: New Architecture Building Melbourne University Today By Design talks to Tom Kvan, Dean of Architecture, Melbourne University, and architect John Wardle, about their new partnership to design and build the new architecture building at Melbourne University. Also in this partnership is Boston-based practice Office dA. This Conversation will discuss the recent Workshops the group has had. The project was awarded to John Wardle and Office dA after a worldwide competition that attracted 132 entrants.
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By Design 2009-11-11
Published: 2009-11-10 09:00:00Why Architecture Matters What do you feel when you stand in front of a building? How does it affect you emotionally and intellectually? Those are just couple of the questions tackled in Why Architecture Matters, a new book by Paul Goldberger, renowned as the architecture critic for the New Yorker magazine and also holder of the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at the New School in Manhattan. He´s fascinating on the subject of the physical qualities of architecture -- architecture as object, architecture as built form -- but perhaps his most telling sentence is: 'Architecture ... is the making of space and the making of memory.' This week, we find out what this means for our relations with the built world around us. Trends: ecotourist resorts The trend we´re discussing today is the rapid growth in ecotourism and how to design for it. Ecotourism, or ecological tourism, reportedly now represents five per cent of the overall tourism market across the world. It´s generally defined as travelling to fragile, pristine and often protected areas where the accommodation strives to have a low impact on the environment. So designing eco resorts requires considerable care. Designing Home and Away As television watchers and filmgoers, we usually pay attention to set design only when it is startlingly different and grabs our attention with its grandness or scale. But most set design is for ordinary interiors where characters can play out the drama and comedy so it seems realistic to us, the viewer. So what goes into creating normality? For By Design Colin Bisset took a look behind the scenes of one of Australia´s best-known television shows, Channel Seven´s long-running soap opera, Home and Away. Shanghai In the world of architecture, Shanghai is one of the most intriguing cities ever created. Not only is it a time capsule where buildings from the 20s and 30s survive intact, but it´s a startlingly modern city as well, boasting some of the most beautiful skyscrapers in the world and more of them than New York.
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By Design 2009-11-04
Published: 2009-11-03 09:00:00New York, New York. Michael Sorkin is an architect whose career has been inextricably connected with the city he calls home, New York. Over a decade as architectural critic for the Village Voice he forged a reputation for tough and witty commentary about his city and today, as well as practising architecture and urban design he teaches it as a professor at the City College of New York. His latest book is a delightfully personal account of the way he connects with the physical space and social dimensions of this extraordinary city. The High Line This week´s show is all about cities and a highlight is a visit to New York´s High Line, a former elevated freight railroad running two kilometres along the lower west side of Manhattan which has been redesigned and planted as an extraordinary public park. The first stage of the High Line opened recently and radio docoumentary maker John Connell took a walk on the High Line for By Design. Branding cities Today in Trends and Products, the product is the city and the trend is the growing awareness of the importance of branding cities. We know what it means to develop a brand for a consumable or a service like a new line of clothing or an airline. But how do you go about developing a brand for a city, or indeed a nation? Building Masdar In a desert, south west of Abu Dhabi´s international airport in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, something quite extraordinary is being imagined: The yet-to-be-built city of Masdar is being heralded as the world´s first sustainable city; a futuristic, solar-powered, car-less oasis. By 2016 it´s hoped it will be a reality. And among the architects taking a major role in the development of Masdar is German-born Australian architect Chris Bosse.
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By Design 2009-10-28
Published: 2009-10-27 10:00:00Freshwater House Sydney wins AIA Robin Boyd 2009 This house on Sydney's northern beaches has won the 2009 AIA Robin Boyd Award for the best domestic house nationally. Walk-up flats These days an apartment block without an elevator is an oddity in the city. Just as we´ve grown accustomed to more than one bathroom in our homes, so we no longer expect to climb stairs. But once, when Australians were more likely to use the term 'flat' than 'apartment', brick walk-up flat buildings -- of two or three floors each with at least two dwellings per floor -- were the norm for developers. And today they remain the most common apartment format in Australia. New National Portrait Gallery in Canberra wins AIA top Award And now to Canberra and a trip around the National Portrait Gallery, which this week won the Australian Institute of Architects national award for pubic architecture. By Design first spoke to Andrews Sayers, the Director of the National Portrait Gallery, and Richard Johnson, the building´s architect, when they were at the very early stages of the building in early 2006. They spoke to us about developing the brief and how the Australian landscape and the human body were at the core of the brief. This contemporary concrete, glass and wooden building opened in 2008. The National Portrait Gallery was originally housed in Old Parliament House. Trends - world's tallest building in timber In Australia we tend not to build tall with timber, but a visiting UK architect is here to encourage us to do just that. Could it become a trend? Is it an idea just ahead of the `curve´? Conversation with Matt Preston Food critic and MasterChef celebrity Matt Preston in conversation with Alan Saunders about the decor of the world's best restaurants and how design and food intersect.
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