UNSW Built Environment: Electrolux Design Lab 2011 Semi-Finalists Announced

Modern day living means that time constraints and changing lifestyles are altering consumers needs for household products. Innovative designs are required to cater to these changing needs. This year the Electrolux Design Lab has asked industrial design students and recent graduates worldwide to create home appliances that consider intelligent mobility; their designs need to show a combination of lateral thinking and ingenuity.

There were 1300 entrants and from that 25 semi-finalists have been chosen from all over the world. Three of the semi finalists are from Australia and of those three, two are Industrial Design students from UNSW!

We would like to congratulate Alfred Ching and Saba Zara on their creative and innovative designs. Alfred Ching’s design ‘Honeycomb Modular Induction Tiles’ (pictured above) looks at creating different sized and shaped movable heating surfaces which can be stacked for easy storage. Saba Zara’s design ‘Mywash’ is a communal washing machine with individual barrels which can be controlled via a smart phone.

The 25 semi-finalists will be whittled down to a final eight. The finalists will present their designs to a jury who will consider the entries based on intuitive design, innovation and consumer insight. The winning designer will receive €5,000 ($6,786AUD) and a 6 month paid internship at an Electrolux global design centre.

Click here to visit the website and checkout all the semi-finalists designs.

UNSW Built Environment: The Good Design Q & A Session

The 2011 Australian International Design Awards are currently underway. For a rare opportunity to meet this year’s judges and view more than 200 innovative products vying for an Australian International Design Award, register to attend The Good Design Q & A session.

The session will be held at the UNSW Roundhouse on Thursday 19 May from 6 to 9pm. Tickets are $50 for corporate and $25 for students.

The evening will be hosted by Michele Elliot, Co Founder of What If! and Director of Inspirate. It will feature a thought provoking and stimulating Q & A session with select members of this year’s Judging Panel including design experts from Mercedes-Benz, Samsung, Designworks USA and more.

Click here to register for this event.

UNSW Built Environment: Utzon Lecture “Sydney 2030 Vision” now on UNSWTV

The second installment of the 2011 Utzon Lecture Series “Sydney 2030 Vision” by Clover Moore MP, Lord Mayor City of Sydney is now available for viewing on UNSWTV.

The lecture can be viewed by clicking the icon below.

UNSW Built Environment: Resilience in Urban Design

4th International Urban Design Conference 2011

Would you like to contribute to the debate on resilient cities? The 4th International Urban Design Conference is calling for abstract submissions from those who are interested in presenting at the 2011 conference. This year’s theme is Resilience in Urban Design through measures such as supported interconnectivity, appropriate densification within urban footprints, multiple transit modes and walkability, socially inclusive design, economic resilience, and adaptive built environments.

Resilience in Urban Design is a chance to reinforce and highlight these resilient solutions for our citywide planning, design & infrastructure – to be able to successfully address emerging challenges brought about by climate change, peak oil crisis, population growth, social disengagement, technological disparity, rising pollution and waste, demands on food production, rising carbon emissions, and diminishing habitat and biodiversity.

Authors or organisations interested in submitting a paper or presenting a workshop are invited to submit an abstract of no more than 250 words outlining the aims, contents and conclusions of their paper or presentation; or about their intended role in a workshop.

Abstracts close at the end of April, however due to the long Easter break you may want to submit yours soon.

For more information on submission details, please visit the International Urban Design Conference website.

 

UNSW Built Environment: Utzon Lecture Series returns in 2011

On the 23^rd March 2011, UNSW Built Environment will be launching the 2011 Utzon Lecture Series at 7.00pm. This year the Faculty will be host to a series of national and international speakers that include Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, Clover Moore MP, Lord Mayor of Sydney, Carol Willis, Professor of Urban Studies at Columbia University and Director of The Skyscraper Museum; and many other experts who will address local and global built environment concerns, issues and perspectives.

The series will commence with a lecture by Peter Mould, NSW Government Architect and Visiting Professor  at UNSW Built Environment, titled “Islamic Architecture”.

Date: Wednesday 23 March, 2011

Refreshments: 6.15pm-6.45pm Red Centre West Wing Gallery, UNSW Kensington campus

Lecture: 7.00pm – 8.00pm

Venue: Keith Burrows Lecture Theatre, UNSW Kensington Campus

Cost: Free

 

Peter Mould, NSW Government Architect and Visiting Professor at UNSW BE

Peter Mould is a graduate of the University of New South Wales. He is a practising architect and worked in the private sector in Australia and overseas before joining the NSW Government Architect’s Office. His work in the public sector has included the design of schools, court houses, colleges and urban projects at Circular Quay, Taronga Zoo and St Mary’s Cathedral.

He has received numerous awards for architecture, urban design and adaptive reuse. Peter is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects and past Vice President of the NSW Chapter. He sits on the Central Sydney Planning Committee, the Heritage Council and the NSW Architects Registration Board and many Design Review Panels. He has recently established and now chairs the Eminent Architects Panel to advise the Sydney Opera House.

His lecture will look at regional styles in Islamic Architecture by examining the traditional mosque and tomb. It will examine the way the plan form reflects regional influences and the relationship between functions, form, structure and decoration. It further investigates the way functional elements became symbols and structural responses evolved to become decoration.

 

Please click here to see the 2011 Utzon Lecture Series program in detail. Or for  more information please visit our events page on the Built Environment website.

UNSW Built Environment: 2010 Excellence in Research Initiative

The University of New South Wales has been ranked the 4^th highest university in Australia for Research excellence by the 2010 Excellence in Research (ERA) Initiative. Overall, the UNSW Built Environment was ranked highly against its competitors, receiving a high average score of 3 out of 5 for its combined Built Environment disciplines.   Among the separate discipline areas, Property and Construction Management research and Urban and Regional Planning research were both ranked in the highest scoring group of Universities in these two discipline areas, each scoring a 4.

The Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative assesses research quality within Australia’s higher education institutions. It provides a comprehensive overview of the quality of research undertaken in higher education institutions across the country in an international context.

The outcomes of the ERA 2010 process are available on the Australian Research Council (ARC) website .

Please see the below article, published in The Australian Newspaper for the thoughts of Les Field, UNSW Deputy Vice-Chancellor and others involved in the higher education industry regarding the 2010 ERA outcomes.

The Australian – Excellence in Research for Australia lays bare research myths

UNSW Built Environment:Talia Keyes Graduation Studio 2010 – A Courthouse Old and New

ST JAMES COURT SECTIONAL MODEL 

Talia Keyes, 2010 Master of Architecture Graduand shares her thoughts on her graduating project titled “Representations of Truth and the Veil of Ignorance”:

St James Court model

The courthouse is a institution in which appointed representatives of the people attempt to improve the consistent exercise of power over the collective society, making it more effective, efficient and imposing. In general terms more disciplined, resulting in a power relation that is both visible and unverifiable. 

As part of the studio brief students engaged in researching architectural conservation principles as a means of understanding the social and cultural significance of the Sydney CBD Heritage Precinct (inclusive of Hyde Park Barracks, St James Church, King Street Court Complex- NSW Supreme Court and Hyde Park). 

This model featured as part of my investigation into the conservation and upgrading of the 1895 St James Road Court in the King Street Courts Complex – the first purpose built banco court and the last remaining courtroom awaiting refurbishment. Here 16 sections of the courtroom have been laser cut from stock standard MDF to represent the current state of the courtroom, an arrangement that internally reflects little change from its original character. Intermittently 4 sheets of perspex  have been added and etched with plans for a proposed upgrade to satisfy current standards for disable access into the well of the court and maintain and draw attention to the symbolic positioning of the various players without significance impact to the existing internal fabric. 

The viewer is positioned as a member of the jury as an illustration of the active role of the public in the dispensing of justice. The proposal includes minor changes to the existing joinery – reducing the size of the existing dock by half, enlarging the size of the jury box to facilitate 15 members, opening up the court well to aliviate clutter and confinement and a reconstructed witness box such that the original player arrangement, dynamic and symbolic intent remains consistent.

What remained of primary importance throughout this process was ensuring that the St James court was allowed to celebrate the significance of its continued use through preservation. 

Written by Talia Keyes

UNSW Built Environment: In Memoriam – Kevin Rice, 1932-2011

We are sad to to report that highly acclaimed architect Kevin Rice has recently passed away.

Rice was one of UNSW’s first Alumnus members, graduating with honours in architecture in 1955. He went on to become a great architect, working on notable Sydney high-rise buildings, including the Queen Victoria Building, the HSBC Tower in George Street, the Zenith Centre in Chatswood and the Sacred Heart Hospice in Darlinghurst.

Rice served as President of the NSW Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects from 1986 to 1988, and was An associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and a Life Fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. He also received anAlumni Award from the University of NSW in 1988.

In 2004, Rice was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his service to architecture.

Our thoughts are with Kevin Rice’s family at this time. If you are interested in reading more about Rice and his achievements, please refer to the below article featured in today’s Sydney Morning Herald.

Sydney Morning Herald – Architect helped to develop and preserve Sydney

UNSW Built Environment: 2010 – A Year of Achievements

2010 has been a year full of achievement for the Built Environment Department. As we reach the last weeks of the year, lets take a look at some of the highlights of the year:

• Student Awards and Prizes
  • (BID) Sam Adeloju: Australian International Design Awards – Silver
  • (BID) Sam Adeloju: James Dyson International Design Award – Winner
  • (BID) Alfred Boyadgis: Southern Cross Package Design Award – Commendation
  • (BID) Michael Brock: Cormack Innovation Awards – 3^rd prize
  • (BID) Eric Chau: Cormack Innovation Awards – 2^nd prize
  • (BID) Stanley Darmawan: Southern Cross Package Design Award – Commendation
  • (BID) Tristan Dimitroff: Cormack Innovation Awards – Highly commended
  • (BID) Xiao Ling Li: Southern Cross Package Design Award – Commendation
  • (BIA) Griffin Manan: Design Institute of Australia, Interior Design – First prize
  • (BID) Luane Rowe: The Coles Classic Race – Women’s title, winner
  • (BIA) Trent Schatzmann: Design Institute of Australia, Interior Design – Second prize
  • (BID) Joseph Luis Tan: Cormack Innovation Awards – First Prize
  • (BID) Danielle Taouk: Southern Cross Package Design Award – Silver
  • (BID) Shanshan Wang: Southern Cross Package Design Award – Commendation

• Staff Awards, Prizes and Recognition
  • Ken Maher: Australian Institute of Architects Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture
  • Ken Maher: NSW Architecture Award – Sulman Award for Public Architecture
  • Alec Tzannes: NSW Architecture Award — Wilkinson Award for Residential Architecture

And also in 2010:

A number of individuals affiliated with the Faculty as sessional staff have received awards and significant recognition for their work:

• Neil Durbach: Australian Institute of Architects Harry Seidler Award
• Neil Durbach: NSW Architecture Award – Sir Arthur Stephenson Award for Commercial Architecture
• Richard Francis-Jones: Australian Institute of Architects Award for Public Architecture
• Richard Francis-Jones: Australian Institute of Architects John Verge Award for Interior Architecture
• Richard Francis-Jones: Australian Institute of Architects Milo Dunphy Award for Sustainable Architecture
• Felicity Stewart: NSW Board of Architects Gold Medallion
• Philip Thalis and Sacha Coles: Australian Institute of Architecture – Walter Burley Griffin Award
• Peter Tonkin: International Architecture Award 2010

Congratulations to everyone on a fantastic year, and we wish you all a very happy and safe Christmas break.

UNSW Built Environment: Path to a responsible approach

UNSW Construction Management Professor Martin Loosemore has recently been interviewed in The Weekend Australian. The article, titled “Path to a responsible approach” comments on the idea that corporate social responsibility is ultimately a matter of cultural shift. Professor Loosemore speaks about his research in this area, and his book Responsible Corporate Strategy in Construction and Engineering: Doing the Right Thing?

To read the full article, please click here.