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Australian houses, from architectural masterpieces to suburban family homes, Victorian terraces, mid-century marvels, coastal shacks, city apartments, and everything in between.
Award-winning Australian architecture, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top architects.
Award-winning Australian interior design, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top designers.
In depth features on Australia’s most beautiful gardens and landscape design.
Studio visits with Australia’s most talented creatives, from artists to architects, ceramicists to stylists, furniture makers to lighting designers.
Studio visits with Australia’s top artists, and unmissable art exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and beyond.
Weekly recipes and meal ideas from our favourite cooks, authors and foodies.
Unique travel destinations, design-led accomodation and day trip ideas in Australia and New Zealand.
After spending some time recently with Julia Atkinson, creator of the super popular New Zealand based blog Studio Home, we've had NZ on our radar. It was Julia who brought this fabulous project to our attention and we just HAD to share. Material Matter is an amazing collaboration between Auckland based father and daughter design duo Made by Douglas and Bec, and a bunch of second year product design students from AUT University. The resulting collection of prototypes are designed and handcrafted by the students on campus, with the professional guidance of Douglas and Bec. Most are not yet in production but BY GOLLY I'll be surprised if we don't see many of these pieces gracing Australian and Kiwi interiors very soon – what a beautiful line up!
The brief set to the students for this collaboration was about creating 'artisanal products' – design that has a story, a carefully considered making process, and a sensitivity to materials. The students were asked to design either an object, a light or a piece of furniture using at least two honest / natural materials. AUT then approached Douglas and Bec to assist the students in working up their ideas, and protoyping the final design.
'We leapt at the chance to collaborate with AUT students, as I really really enjoy teaching and having interaction with students – I find it super rewarding' says Bec Snelling of this very special collaboration. 'Seeing so much original thought was inspiring. I spend a lot of time concerned about plagiarism, and that deflating feeling that everything has been done – it's really great to see these guys pushing boundaries and not being scared to do minimalist design. Cannot wait to see what they come up with in the future'.
Bec attended weekly sessions with the student group, nurturing their ideas with lots of one on one time, and making lots of suggestions for refinement. 'They have fantastic facilities and technicians at the institution which facilitated the creation of the pieces – we are quite jealous!' says Bec.
At this stage most of these pieces are just prototypes (very very good prototypes!), however Douglas and Bec are working with a handful that have a commercial viability and working with the designers to potentially put them into production. We'll keep you posted!
There are a total of twenty works in this collaboration, and all of them are currently on display at Auckland's BLOC design store until 3rd August.
Material Matter : Exhibiting Artisan Design Values
BLOC design store
20 Normanby Rd, Mt Eden.
Auckland, NZ
Mon - Sat 9.00am - 5.00pm, Sunday 10.00am - 4.00pm.
Show runs until 3rd August.
The Design Files acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we work, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.
First Nations artists, designers, makers, and creative business owners are encouraged to submit their projects for coverage on The Design Files. Please email bea@thedesignfiles.net
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