Yellowtrace Spotlight // August 2013.

Ciao ragazzi and welcome to the August 2013 edition of Yellowtrace Spotlight. In this month’s design news you can find out more about a beautiful residential project in Melbourne by Techne Architects; sausage & beer parlour Bestie Currywurst in Vancouver by Scott & Scott Architects; hot new gear from Poliform Australia, OWN WORLD and Design Agent; amazing exhibition at Musée des Tissus in Lyon by Moroso and Rubelli; upcoming art show by Bianca Chang at A-M Gallery; plus new art by Laelie Berzon. Enjoy!

Flemington Residence by Techne Architects. Photos by Tom Blachford.

Recent Projects.

Flemington Residence by Techne Architects.

This existing double fronted, single story, weatherboard Edwardian Cottage on a corner block in Flemington makes the most of it’s northern rear aspect.

Justin Northrop, director of Techne, and his young family lived in the house for a couple of years before starting the renovation – partly to get a feel for the place but mostly because Justin, being his own client, made him indecisive and almost paralysed with choice!

The plan retains the front 4 rooms of the house, converting one of them into a bathroom and walk in robe. The connection between the front of the house and the rear open plan area is made with a ante room that arrests the path of travel and avoids the abrupt transition between old and new.

The central space is covered with a skillion roof that rakes up toward the North giving the space a generous volume and allows deep winter sun penetration and abundant natural light. A roof overhang and fixed louvers limit summer sun.

The design uses a limited palate of materials, some of which the architects tested for the first time. The timber used internally and externally is cypress, a honey hued dense timber that is laden with feature. The skillion roof is a sandwich panel that is prefinished on both sides. It has excellent insulative properties and requires no support structure to span the room.

Design // Techne Architects
Photography // Tom Blachford

Bestie Currywurst, Vancouver by Scott & Scott.

Restauranteurs Clinton McDougall and Dane Brown open their highly anticipated currywurst restaurant Bestie in the heart of Vancouver’s Chinatown. The sausage and beer parlour is the first for the pair whose background is in art and design.

Architects David and Susan Scott designed the space around the owners’ desire to build the 25 seat restaurant themselves. The design uses common materials which can be worked with a few simple tools and a limited number of everyday details which are repeated to allow for the work to be completed on site with minimal shop support. 

The project draws from the architects’ and owners’ shared love for both the matter-offact functional detailing of ad-hoc construction and for highly considered rational design. The work of fellow Vancouver designers is throughout the space including Zoe Garred’s Mariner lights and Joji Fukushima’s bar stools.

The loose tables and benches in the dining space allow for varied arrangement (film screening, communal dinners and removal) to facilitate changing events. The kitchen is fitted with a tool, stein and glassware hanging system that can be adjusted and added to over time.

Scott & Scott Architects
Bestie Currywurst

CC-Tapis rugs available at Poliform Australia.

Hensen Chair by New Duivendrecht at Design Agent.

New Products.

CC-Tapis rugs at Poliform.

Poliform Australia is thrilled to announce the launch of CC-Tapis’ unique collection of hand-knotted rugs, available for the first time in Australia. Renowned throughout Europe for the unique handmade quality of its rugs, CC-Tapis utilises pattern and colour to push the limits of contemporary rug design.

Founded in 2011, Milanese brand CC-Tapis is widely known for its traditional making techniques, use of high quality materials, and experimental innovations in design and colour. All CC-Tapis rugs are hand-knotted by expert Tibetan artisans in Nepal. CC-Tapis prides itself on the use of environmentally friendly raw materials such as wool, hemp, Aloe and silk. CC-Tapis often uses these materials in their original, undyed form, or coloured with vegetable dyes.

Poliform Australia
CC-Tapis

Hensen Chair by New Duivendrecht at Design Agent.

Design Agent is the sole Australian importer for a collection of carefully selected design products, and are very proud to be the first Australian agent for young Dutch company – New Duivendrecht.

The towering wharf cranes situated in front of Kranen/Gille’s first studio at the banks of the river Maas sparked the shape and construction of the Hensen chair series. In spite of the appealing industrial feel the chair is light on the eye and very comfortable. It is available as a dining chair, bar stool and lounge version, in steel finish or upholstered in fabric or leather.

Available from Design Agent directly or via selected retailers.

Design Agent
New Duivendrecht

Element by Desalto at Own World.

Element is a strong, poetic collection of dining tables, low tables and consoles designed by visionary Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka. The heart of the Element project lies in the single central support for the table, a metal parallelepiped that is reminiscent in its form of the minerals and quartzes found in nature, positioned at a slant, teetering between the base and the top as though challenging the laws of gravity. Magically suspended between earth and sky, the mineral gives character to a table that goes beyond the mere function of a support surface to take a prominent place as a sculpture in an environment.

The Element collection is extensive, including dining tables that are rectangular – up to three metres long. Round and square shaped tables, low side tables, bistro tables, and a totemic chair well suited to standing alone as a signature piece or as a sculptural element.

All items are enhanced by interesting finishes: tops in matt lacquer or with open-pore oak veneer to selected colour, opaque colour backed glass, or rustic iron with a wax-finish to bring out the imperfect texture of the surface.

OWN WORLD
Desalto

Piateda Armchair by Giorgio Bonaguro.

Piateda armchair is characterized by a simple walnut frame. The seat is made of leather using the “pezzotto” technique – a traditional handmade carpet from the Valtellina region in the Alps, north of Milan. Using traditional wooden looms, some of which are more than one hundred years old, the craftmen produce old carpets from the waste material from the production of dresses.

Instead of cotton, the craftmen used leather stripes for this chair, which comes from the waste of the leather upholstery production.

Giorgio Bonaguro is an industrial and interior designer in Milan. He studied mechanical engeneering in Modena and concluded his master studies in Industrial an Interior Design at Scuola Politecnica di Design.

Design // Giorgio Bonaguro
Photpography // Andrea Basile 

Photo by Alessandro Paderni.

Events & Exhibitions.

‘Lo Sguardo Laterale’ at the Musée des Tissus in Lyon.

The current exhibition at the Musée des Tissus (fabric) in France tells the story of Italian design brand Moroso. Curated by Moroso’s art director Patrizia Moroso and designer Marco Viola, a rich brocade from the 18th century re-edited by Venetian company Rubelli has been used to dress some of the most iconic pieces from the contemporary Moroso collection.

“The exhibition is an off-centre exploration of the relationships between ideas, forms, fabrics and colours, to tell the story of a company which has always freely and skilfully combined creativity with craftsmanship” says the Musée des Tissus.

The exhibition is on until 1 September 2o13.

Musée des Tissus, Lyon
Moroso | Rubelli

From Light Maps solo show by Bianca Chang.

New works by Laelie Berzon.

Light Maps solo show by Bianca Chang.

Our eyes have become accustomed to the daily inundation of complex moving images. The Light Maps are Bianca Chang’s effort to conjure a visual quietness in which the fundamental distinctions of perception can find a territory to be examined. The works have been formulated as a response to various mathematical ideas that govern the world around us – Euclidian geometry, the golden proportion, probability and chance. Chang hand-cuts each sheet of paper layer-by-layer to reveal a form, or rather an absence of form, within the sheets.

Opens August 14th, 6–8pm
Runs until September 7th.
A-M Gallery, Sydney

Bianca Chang
A-M Gallery 

New Works by Laelie Berzon.

Laelie Berzon’s latest collection of work is the culmination of vivid colour, potent brushstrokes and exaggerated texture imbued with passion and evoking movement. It is an expression of her inner thoughts and emotions, allowing her to reflect on her life at that moment in time.

Blending the dramatic influences of her Eastern European heritage with her modern perspectives to create a visual and emotional unfolding through the textural interchange of painting, collage and mixed media. Berzon draws inspiration from a mosaic of rich and diverse influences and paints with a unique voice.

Laelie Berzon