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THE ADELAIDE REVIEW SEPTEMBER 2013

PARK(ING) DAYThe popular CBD event returns this month

IDEA 2013This year’s Interior Design Excellence Awards

rewards two South Australian projects

MOTIVATING CHANGEMotivating Change is a collection of essays on sustainable

design, edited by Steffen Lehmann and Robert Crocker

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54 The AdelAide Review September 2013

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The need for more public open space in

Adelaide’s CBD is an issue the state’s

best architects and urban designers

are working hard to resolve. In a city

that doesn’t have a strong walking culture and

whose only real major public space is Rundle

Mall, the solution may not come quickly. But

there are plans underway to activate the CBD by creating more permanent people-focused

spaces. As these plans come to fruition the

outcome at an urban level will be a positive one.

In the meantime Adelaide PARK(ing) Day

should be celebrated for what it brings to the

discussion of public space. Who knew that

plastic pink flamingos, melting ice sculptures

and a makeshift trapeze had a place in urban

design? The point exactly is that they do and this is why the interactive and accessible

nature of a temporary one-day event like

Adelaide PARK(ing) Day is so important to

the discussion.

This will be the fourth year Adelaide

participates in International PARK(ing) Day,

which had its origins in San Francisco in 2009.

The Adelaide City Council has allocated 50

parking spaces on a specific route in the CBD

for registered participants to take over and

transform. The idea is for these participants to

The hugely popular Adelaide PARK(ing) day returns to the CBd this September bringing with it a healthy discussion on the need for more public spaces.

By Leanne amodeo

Urban Change

educate as much as it is to entertain and each

transformation is a hub of activity, creativity and

ideas. If past years are anything to go by this year’s

event will be bigger, brighter and better –with the

chance for engagement and interaction between

participants and passers-by multiplied.

For Alex Hall, one of the Adelaide event’s

co-ordinators, the opportunity to take part

in this activation is exciting. He is a senior

architect at Hassell and works predominantly

on large-scale urban design projects so Adelaide

PARK(ing) Day is demonstrative of the broader

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW SEPTEMBER 2013 55ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

FORM

» Adelaide PARK(ing) Day 2013

Friday, September 20

adelaideparkingday.com

parkingday.org

issues at hand, while also being a valuable

source of data and practical information. “The

event generated 60 percent more foot traffi c

last year, so that means more people in front

of shops, more ability to create revenue, more

vibrancy and more atmosphere,” he says. “All positive outcomes that take place when spaces

become public.”

Adelaide faces a situation typical of many

global cities with an urban sprawl that

continues to creep out into the suburbs; only

a small percentage of residents live in the CBD.

“Look at cities like London or New York where

there’s greater living density; these cities are

vibrant,” says Hall. “If we want to create a city

that has a strong culture then it comes down to how many people actually live in the CBD

and if we don’t have public spaces then people

aren’t going to want to live there.”

In 2011 International PARK(ing) Day involved

162 cities in 35 countries across six continents.

Of those cities the top ranking in terms of

participation were San Francisco, Paris and

Adelaide. Making this top three list is not only

promising - it is downright impressive. At its most

fundamental level Adelaide PARK(ing) Day is

about experiencing the city in a different way. We

can learn from this event, and understanding the

CBD’s potential for activation as well as people’s

desire for new experiences is our fi rst lesson.

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56 The AdelAide Review September 2013

FORM

Alexander Lotersztain has long

been aware of the important role

the JamFactory plays within the

country’s craft and design industry.

it was just a matter of time before designer Alexander lotersztain collaborated with the JamFactory. The result is an elegantly stylish tableware collection for depo, his new Brisbane restaurant.

By Leanne amodeo

Fine Dining

Phot

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Flor

ian

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ehn

The Brisbane-based designer has been invited

to give workshops and presentations at its

studios and galleries on a number of occasions

and he is quick to sing its praises. In the back

of his mind has been the idea to collaborate

with the Adelaide institution; all he needed

was the right excuse.

This excuse recently presented itself in the form of Depo, Lotersztain’s newest business

venture. The restaurant in the heart of

Brisbane’s West End features the designer’s

characteristically dynamic aesthetic and

impeccable attention to detail. “The game

has changed in the hospitality industry,” he

says. “As a designer you now have to create

environments where customers feel great,

they feel loved and they can enjoy an entire

experience.” Making good on his promise,

Lotersztain has delivered – and then some.

“Honestly, it could have been a very easy

exercise for me to go to Ikea and buy some

crockery,” he continues. “But it was about

seeing Depo as an opportunity to inspire people

with everyday objects.” When Lotersztain

approached JamFactory CEO Brian Parkes with

the idea to collaborate on a range of tableware

to be used in the restaurant the proposition was

too good to refuse. Within a matter of weeks

the designer was meeting with the program

manager of the ceramics studio David Pedler

and working on prototypes during an intense

two-day workshop.

The entire project was a genuinely

collaborative process and the outcome

resulted in the design of five different plates

with a total product manufacture of 500. For

Lotersztain the most rewarding aspect of

the whole process was learning about a new

material and understanding its capabilities. He

soon realised that the large number of rejects

produced is inevitable; such is the nature of

ceramics. Instead of fighting the material’s

inherent qualities Lotersztain decided to use

them to his advantage.

“Rather than create a plate that needed to

be perfectly round and perfectly proportioned

every single time I welcomed those small

distortions or warps,” he says. “It actually

enhances the product because it made each

plate something unique.” By sprinkling sand

onto the clay while it was still wet Lotersztain

further heightened the tableware’s handmade

qualities. The resulting speckled effect means

that each plate has its own individual textured

pattern.

Alexander lotersztain

design + craftsmanship

www.jamfactory.com.au

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On Friday 20 September, turn a car park into a ‘people park’ for the day!

REGISTRATIONS CLOSE 6 SEPTEMBER

www.adelaideparkingday.com

THE ADELAIDE REVIEW SEPTEMBER 2013 57ADELAIDEREVIEW.COM.AU

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derlot.com

jamfactory.com.au

the-depot.com

Smart Thinking IDEA 2013 features two shortlisted Adelaide projects that are notable for their intelligent spatial awareness and elegant material palette.

BY LEANNE AMODEO

A number of South Australian projects

have stood out at national interior design

awards in recent years. Ryan Genesin’s

dynamic LAX retail fi t out was shortlisted across

several prominent awards in 2012 as was Woods

Bagot’s relaxed Oxigen offi ce fi t out, while Claire

Kneebone’s rustic Press Food and Wine also

received due recognition. The eastern states may

dominate at these awards but the high calibre of

Adelaide-based projects does not go unnoticed.

This year’s Interior Design Excellence

Awards (IDEA 2013) recognises two Adelaide

projects. Architects Ink’s Smartsoft offi ce fi t out

is shortlisted in the Workplace Under 1000sqm

category and Aesop Burnside by Kerstin

Thompson Architects is shortlisted in the Retail

category. Both projects are small-scale yet hold

tremendous appeal for their intelligent spatial

awareness and elegant material palette.

Smartsoft’s most innovative design expression

is the glass ‘pods’ that occupy the narrow ground

fl oor CBD offi ce. They effectively zone the open

plan and provide adequate privacy while still

connecting the front of the fi t out to the rear.

“Ultimately the client wanted a space that would

architectsink.com.au

kerstinthompson.com

idea-awards.com.au

Aesop Burnside

Smartsoft

Phot

os:

Sam

Noo

nan

allow the staff to collaborate”, says Architects

Ink’s interior designer Laura Tisato. “And using

an open plan layout meant they could embrace

this new way of working.”

The interior’s industrial aesthetic

complements the software company’s new

cosmopolitan image. Exposed services and brickwork lends a gritty edginess and allows

a sense of the building’s history to be on show.

While the raw material palette is softened by

an abundance of natural light, warm timber

accents and charcoal grey carpet and walls. For

Tisato the result is what they set out to achieve:

“A space you would really want to be in”.

This consideration for the end user’s comfort

is also evident in the design of Aesop Burnside.

Kerstin Thompson Architects has created an

intimate retail experience that celebrates the

global skincare brand’s artisanal approach.

“The use of timber as the dominant design

element intends to represent the craft and

care that goes into the making of all Aesop

products,” says principal Kerstin Thompson.

The result is an immersive interior that is

as inviting as it is intriguing. As with all Aesop

stores the products are an integral part of the

design and they draw the customer in. Once

inside the store the timber’s cocoon-like effect

is pleasantly enticing and the desire to never

leave is a welcome one. The perforated timber

screens that form the shop front’s operable

doors are a clever way of still maintaining

a connection to the shopping mall’s sun-

drenched atrium.

We will have to wait until November 15 to see if

Smartsoft and Aesop Burnside are awarded prizes

in their respective categories. The designers have

already presented their projects to the jury and

their live presentations were compelling. However,

they have some tough competition. Predictions are

never easy, as so much rests upon the individual

jurors’ own interpretations and tastes. What stands

for certain is that this year’s IDEA 2013 shortlisted

entries are all strong, whether from Adelaide, the

eastern states or elsewhere.

He also gave each plate a twist by designing

a base detail that is echoed throughout the

whole collection. This handmade sensibility

is reiterated within Depo’s relaxed, bespoke

interior design, which is an eclectic mix

of inviting furnishings and fi nishes. The

tableware’s earthy colour palette also

complements the abundant use of timber

throughout the fi t out.

Lotersztain may have driven the project from a design perspective but what of

the culinary considerations? Head chef

and Lotersztain’s business partner Erik van Gederen made everyone aware of the

practicalities involved in the design of a

plate. “There were such naïve questions

that had to be considered,” says Lotersztain.

“But questions that are extremely important

for the practicality of the collection: Is it

dishwasher safe? What’s the weight of each

plate? How will the plate sit on the table?

Will wait staff be able to carry it?” Clean,

elegant lines ultimately characterise the

collection making each plate’s shape the

perfect form upon which van Gederen can

present his sophisticated dishes.

Depo has been open since early July

and the dining experience is by all means

memorable. Lotersztain’s newest venture

showcases the country’s best craft and

design practitioners in an environment

that is easily accessible. It also stands as

testament to the exciting potential for

national collaboration. With plans to make

the tableware available for purchase through

the restaurant’s retail outlet the promise

of future collaborations is an even grander

proposition.

58 THE ADELAIDE REVIEW SEPTEMBER 2013

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The global scale and complexity of the environmental problems we now face has produced circumstances few governments on their own, or even on

their own terms, can respond to effectively. This has been made more diffi cult by a widespread culture of economistic prescription that has tricked out extremely serious environmental threats as calculable risks, as though we can predict what living in a world two to four degrees warmer might look like.

This collective, on-going failure to deal directly with the environmental problems we now face, has been attributed to many factors, but five seem particularly pertinent here: fi rstly, governments and industries have wasted scarce resources in communication programs trying to ‘individualise’ the causes of our environmental crisis, in an attempt to change behaviours that, in many areas, are shaped not

by individual actions, but by ambient systems and an absence of viable alternatives. Secondly, most governments and corporations have not invested sufficiently, wisely or consistently in a future ‘green’ or greener economy, often preferring to fund highly visible ‘one off’ green projects to gain reputational rewards, backed up by a confusing, stop-start approach to sustainability policies, that collectively have undermined the confi dence and determination of most businesses to embrace the sustainability agenda. Thirdly, governments are still subsidising heavy ‘brown’ industries, in the mistaken belief that as once ‘keystone’ components of national economies their continuing support is essential, a belief assiduously cultivated by apologists for the status quo. These regressive policies are classic examples of a ‘sunk cost effect’, where collectively we become hostage to once rational but now redundant past decisions and their irrecoverable costs. Fourthly, most

Motivating Change Motivating Change is a newly published collection of essays on sustainable design and behaviour in the built environment.

BY ROBERT CROCKER AND STEFFEN LEHMANN

governments and corporations seem happy to overlook the environmentally destructive impacts of the ‘behaviour-editing’ practices of marketing, media, advertising and retail, whose goal is typically to increase the volume and frequency of consumption, regardless of its environmental or social costs. So while manufacturers might be subject to increasing imposts on their carbon emissions, retailers are allowed to sell objects made in heavily polluting factories that are short-lived, ‘made to break,’ or sold in such a way as to encourage the user to replace them soon after purchase. Finally, a growing number of conservative governments, energy corporations, ‘think tanks’ and lobby groups have sought to question, stifl e or politicise our growing scientifi c knowledge about the impact of emissions as ‘disputable’, ‘contradictory’, ‘extremist’ or ‘self-interested.’ A classic PR strategy, used in the past by ‘big tobacco’ and ‘big oil’, this exploits our preferences for avoiding potential risks induced by change, and for believing in an optimistic future.

To tame and reshape the overconsumption at the heart of the global economy will require us to confront these deeper and more persistent barriers to change more directly, and to seriously re-examine the systemic, apparently ‘compulsory’ behaviours they entail. Motivating Change, a newly published collection of essays on sustainable design and behaviour in the built environment, starts with an acknowledgment of the noticeable failure of the ‘individualisation’ of ‘behaviour change’ initiatives promoted by many governments and corporations over the last twenty years. Instead the book focuses attention on the various systems shaping behaviour chiefl y in and through the urban environment. The interactions between behaviour and consumption in their many contexts are of particular interest, and the capabilities of design, broadly conceived, to reshape the interdependent relationships involved. This necessarily involves all material scales, which are well represented in these essays: the individual, the household, the neighbourhood, the city, and even the nation, as well as all scales of infl uence, including values, beliefs, attitudes, media, habitual routines, and the larger socio-technological systems that shape our behaviours individually and collectively.

The book starts with a number of more

general discussions exploring different ways of understanding the broader contexts of motivating change, and then explores three of its most signifi cant perspectives, each of which is suggestive of potential remedial avenues for designers and other ‘change agents’. The fi rst is that of values and beliefs through media and design, and their potential to communicate, reconfigure and shape pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. The second is that of shifting consumption from the costly individual practices of the present and past to more sustainable collective ones, through design-led community-based social innovation programs, and shared use ‘product service systems’. The last section of the book uses the wider lens of the material urban and built environment, where systemic design-led interventions to reduce overconsumption and minimise waste are seen to have the potential to have much larger, longer-term positive impacts.

In these essays the potential role of sustainable design as a behaviour-shaping process is explored, and its potential to ‘motivate change’ at different scales, and in different social, technological and psychological contexts, is demonstrated. From the book’s multidisciplinary perspective, ‘sustainable design’ in this way becomes a process that aims to reconfi gure the complex and interdependent relationships that at present contribute, directly or indirectly, to our unsustainable ways of living, and our related environmental crisis.

» Professor Steffen Lehmann is Director of the

Zero Waste Centre for Sustainable Design

& Behaviour; and Director of the China-

Australia Centre on Sustainable Design, at

the University of South Australia. Dr Robert

Crocker is a Senior Lecturer in the School of

Art, Architecture and Design at the University

of South Australia.

» This is a synopsis taken from the introduction

of Motivating Change: Sustainable Design

and Behaviour in the Built Environment, edited

by Robert Crocker and Steffen Lehmann

(Routledge, London, 2013). It will be launched

at the University of South Australia on

Thursday, September 5 (6pm), at the Kerry

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“A SYNTHESIS OF THEATRE, PERCUSSION, MARTIAL ARTS AND MEDITATION…”

THE TIMES, LONDON

Meeting with Bodhisattva U-THEATRE

13 – 14 SEPTEMbER Her Majesty’s Theatre

HIgHLIgHTS FROM THIS YEAR’S PROgRAM

Enjoy delicious hawker style food before the show

28 – 29 SEPTEMbER Festival Theatre

AdelAide FestivAl Centre presents, in CooperAtion with show & Arts inC.

Extreme Jump!Jump, the hit of the 2010 ozAsia Festival is back and is bigger than ever, in fact it’s eXtreMe!

YEgAM THEATRE COMPANY

• H

AwkER STYLE FOO

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THE TERRA

CE • OUTSIDE FESTIvAL

THEA

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NIgHT MARkET

28 Sept

PasarMalam

AdelAide FestivAl Centre And leigh wArren dAnCe present

World Premiere and Exclusive

Not According To Plan

Choreographer: leigh warren

Set concept and construction:

Khai liew

Garment concept and construction:

Alistair trung

Musician and Poet: Jerome Kugan

20 – 21 SEPTEMbER Space Theatre

An extraordinary

meeting of dance, music,

design and writing

Jump

Y

4 PM – 8

PM