March 2–11, 2018
A raft of international speakers and a new design exhibition will headline the Sydney Design Festival, running from March 2–11, 2018 at Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences and venues throughout Greater Sydney, Australia. Curated and produced by MAAS, this year’s Festival will examine the expansion of design disciplines across materials technology and sustainable production, design-led community engagement, digital communication and speculative practice.
The Festival will open with Common Good, a new design exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum. Common Good explores design trends in Australia and neighbouring regions and the positive design-lead responses to social, ethical and environmental challenges. Designers from a range of disciplines and countries are profiled, including leading international designers and architects Nendo, Studio Swine, Bijoy Jain, Jo Nagasaka, Kwangho Lee and WOHA, as well as globally recognised local designers Ken Wong, Lucy McRae and Henry Wilson. The exhibition is framed by five themes that address increasingly complex challenges including housing affordability, waste management, population pressures and technological obsessions.
Tim Ross, comedian, writer, TV personality and design enthusiast, will also curate his first collection as part of the Festival. Design Nation will celebrate the ingenuity of Australian design, showcasing Ross’ picks of Australia’s most iconic, everyday inventions from the Museum’s collection. From the Ford Capri to the famous Stackhat helmet of the 1980s, take a trip down memory lane at Design Nation at the Powerhouse Museum. Ross will present curator talks on 9 and 10 March.
Australian architecture studio TRIAS has created the inaugural Turbine Hall Commission at the Powerhouse Museum to be unveiled as part of the Festival. The installation titled Four Periscopes consists of four suspended towers filled with periscopic mirrors, inviting visitors to look inside them, the reflections connecting people from the balconies to the ground floor, and from one tower to another. Visible from all levels of the Museum, TRIAS’s work is a playful installation intended to evoke curiosity, encourage interaction and inspire engagement.
David Gianotten, managing partner architect of OMA, will deliver a keynote address at the Powerhouse Museum on March 4. OMA is best known in Australia for MPavilion in Melbourne. Other major OMA works include Taipei Performing Arts Centre, the masterplan of Feyenoord City and the New Museum for Western Australia. Join David Gianotten as he shares insights into OMA’s architectural philosophy and practice.
Eisuke Tachikawa, the founder of Japanese design collective NOSIGNER, will share his passion for design solutions to social issues in a talk at the Powerhouse Museum on March 5.
Zhang Ke, award-winning architect and founder of ZAO/standardarchitecture 标准营造, will give a keynote address delving into his design process at Powerhouse Museum on March 6. Heralding a new era in Chinese architecture, the ZAO/standardarchitecture studio has designed large-scale works in Shanghai, Beijing and Tibet.
Architect and design researcher Joshua Bolchover will deliver a talk at the Powerhouse Museum on March 2. Following international accolades for Rural Urban Framework and with 15 projects currently running in villages across China, Bolchover will discuss the power of design in not-for-profit projects.
Designer Pamm Hong will present her design process on March 2, including her commission for the Common Good exhibition; the Watermelon Sugar Wellness Lab. Recently listed as one of the Top 20 Disruptors by the Global Futures Forum 2016, Hong’s design approach combines art, science and technology to produce interactive digital works.
Good Natured brings together Waverley Council’s best and brightest creatives for an afternoon of short talks on March 3. Hosted by Superlocalstudio in Bondi and curated by Liane Rossler, hear from The Organic Tea Project, Jennifer Kwok, The Republic of Everyone, Julia Champtaloup and Valentina Zarew as they discuss how nature informs their design processes.
Media contact
Eli Wallis, Senior Publicist
T 0402 359 016
eli.wallis [at] maas.museum
About the Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences
Powerhouse Museum, alongside Sydney Observatory and Discovery Centre, is part of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS), Australia’s contemporary museum for excellence and innovation in applied arts and sciences. The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences was founded in 1879 has a vast and diverse collection of over 500,000 objects.
