James Stockwell: 2008 NSW Wilkinson Award James Stockwell has just won the 2008 Wilkinson Award, the Australian Institute of Architects' top award for a domestic house in NSW. The prize winning house is in the Blue Mountains in NSW, just outside Sydney. James Stockwell is one of Australia´s top young architects—now in his own practice in Sydney. He has previously won two top national awards—the Robin Boyd Award—as part of NSW architect Peter Stutchbury´s firm. Photographs on web slide-show courtesy Patrick Bingham-Hall. Place Makers: Queensland architecture 'California Dreaming' is the title of a paper written by Andrew Wilson. It is a wonderful insight into the development of the modern Australian house, and the inspiration many architects, particularly those in post-war Queensland, took from American and British architectural magazines and museum shows, particularly one called Brazil Builds, which opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1943. Andrew Wilson has written an essay as part of the catalogue for a show opening today at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane. The show is Place Makers: Contemporary Queensland Architects. It runs till 23 November 2008. Trends: urban forests This week Trends and Products is about urban forests, with physicist Dr Peter Fisher, who emailed us in response to our Conversation in June with the Melbourne City Council´s Rob Adams. Dr Fisher has a passion for old-fashioned shade from trees and plants, and is lobbying hard for urban forests. He is a climate change consultant and research fellow at the Central Queensland University. Modernism in Australia An extraordinarily ambitious exhibition is about to open at Sydney´s Powerhouse Museum.

Water and design with Rob Adams Rob Adams, from Melbourne City Council, returns to By Design for the second, and final, of two conversations raising issues close to his heart. This week it is water and how those living in the city need to work harder at making this valuable commodity go further. Small moments in design - Oki Sato Oki Sato found his way in to design through architecture. It was a trip to Milan´s Salone Mobile in 2002 that turned his thoughts to how much was possible in the world of design. He acted on his positive emotional response and founded Nendo, based in Tokyo. His success was immediate. He has been picked up by a number of manufacturers, and was a keynote speaker this month at Melbourne's Design Capital event, part of the State of Design Festival. Buckminster Fuller Last week on the program we were talking about prefab housing. And our first interview this week in part continues the subject because we´re discussing the extraordinary life and vision of the American inventor Buckminster Fuller, a man perhaps best remembered for having invented the geodesic dome. Trends - Fermented fashion Trends and Products is the part of the show where each we look at a development in a particular part of the designed world.

Skin Deep: Facades In the architecture business a new specialisation has emerged - one that just deals with facades. Making a significant mark worldwide in this area is Front Inc, based in New York. Since Front began in 2002 the firm has worked with all the world´s pre-eminent architects - Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, Jean Nouvel, Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers and Tadao Ando. In the design world they are the façade consultant of choice. They have worked with OMA (Rem Koolhaas's firm) on the CCTV building, opening soon in Beijing. Prefab housing For many people, the term 'prefab housing' conjures up images of demountable aluminum boxes in caravan parks, a substandard home that they associate with impoverished circumstances. Trends: vertical gardens Trends and Products is the part of the show where each week we discuss developments in a particular part of the designed world. In Conversation: Chefs from the warzone This week a conversation with Tania Cammerano, editor of the on-line food site taste.com.au, about what it takes to be a TV chef and why the world of TV chefdom is a little bit weird these days.

Guerrilla gardeners Horticulturalist and activist Richard Reynolds is on a mission to bring to our awareness the potential of the unused, abandoned and unloved garden spaces of our cities. His city is London. At night he and his team drive, walk, or cycle to 'their' abandoned lot—which could be simply an unruly sidewalk of weeds struggling through concrete or a traffic roundabout—and the action starts. Out come the daisies or lavender or Californian poppies—whatever is in season—and their night of guerrilla gardening has begun. Looking is in: purchasing is out-dated Allan Chochinov is touting the idea that there is too much `stuff´ in the world. He suggests that just looking - rather than purchasing - is the way to gain knowledge and save the world from its excesses. Products with meaning? What identifies the look of 2008? All decades have their iconic objects and metaphors that describe the times. Adrian Franklin suggests that today's objects include LCD flat-screeen TVs, BlackBerries, the Toyota Prius, exuberant/loud large women's handbags, patio gas heaters and the iPod. We had the swinging 60s, the decadent 20s and the austere 30s. How will we describe the noughties? Trends - Contemporary Jewellery Trends and Products is the part of the show where each week we focus on developments in a particular part of the designed world. Today our focus is on Australian contemporary jewellery.