UNSW Built Environment: UNSW Industrial Design Student Joseph Louis Tan Named one of 50 Finalists for VIVID Awards

The VIVID – Vibrant Visions In Design Awards is a furniture design competition held in Australia, as part of the Furnitex exhibition event, running in tandem with the State of Design Festival in Melbourne. It features the 50 most inspiring and talented designers in Australia for the year with their unique product designs. There are four different categories to participate in: Commercial, Concept, Student and Green.

This year UNSW Industrial Design student Joseph Louis Tan has been named as one of the finalists in the student category with his design MEW Modular Coffee Table. When asked about his reasons for entering the competition Joseph said “ VIVID presented to designers and design students like me an opportunity to showcase and share our designs in Australia’s largest furniture and furnishing trade fair to over 17,000 trade visitors. I hope that by entering VIVID, not only will I be gauging myself against Australia’s talented designers, but also be given a chance to meet and network with them, exhibitors and trade visitors. I was always curious about the underlying process of participating in a huge exhibition like Furnitex and hope to use it as a platform to learn and experience valuable lessons that cannot be taught in university lectures and tutorials. I am also interested in the potential of possibly commercializing my design and VIVID will be an ideal stepping stone in that direction.”

Joseph’s design of the MEW Modular Coffee Table was inspired by traditional Japanese wood joinery and modern cutting technology capabilities. The design is a simple, versatile and interactive modular coffee table that can be rearranged to suit different individuals needs with its three smaller separate tables. Made from water-jet cut locally sourced Hoop Pine plywood, it uses various types of unique slotted connections that allow it to be easily assembled without fixtures or fittings and comes flat-packed for easier transport and storage.

We would like to congratulate Joseph on his achievement.

Click here to find out more about the VIVID Awards.

UNSW Built Environment: Saturday In Design

Saturday in Design is an annual trade event for the design community, which began in Sydney in 2003, and now alternates each year between Sydney and Melbourne. This year will see Sydney showcased on 19 – 20 August 2011.

This event is an opportunity to see what Sydney has to offer in the field of furniture and design. It involves Australia’s premier designer furniture, finishes, fixtures and lighting showrooms opening their doors on a Saturday to allow architects, designers, students and design-savvy members of the public to enjoy these companies’ products in an ‘open house’ environment.

Saturday in Design has traditionally been an opportunity for local and international products from hundreds of reputable brands to be launched to thousands of members of the design community in one day.

To enable hassle-free travel in between showroom venues around the city, a number of complimentary shuttle buses run on pre-arranged routes for the entire day.

Click here to find out more about Saturday in Design.

UNSW Built Environment: DesignTECH 2010

UNSW Faculty of Built Environment is conducting a series of workshops this week as part of DesignTECH 2010 at the Powerhouse Museum.

DesignTECH is an exhibition of major design projects from HSC design and technology students.

Year 11 and 12 students studying design and technology at high schools across NSW have been invited to attend the workshops

UNSW Built Environment Faculty will present to the students concepts in design sustainability, and how they can incorporate sustainability in their thought and design process.   Design professionals,  HSC teachers and markers will also be available to inspire students about careers in design; and to help students understand how they will be marked for design and technology in the HSC.

There will be 10 presentations given by UNSW Built Environment over 5 days to approximately 500 students.

For a snapshot of the works currently being exhibited at DesignTECH 2010, please follow the below link.

DesignTECH 2010: pre-visit exhibition slide show

The DesignTECH exhibition is available for public viewing at the Powerhouse Museum until 1 May 2011.

UNSW Built Environment Exhibition: The shape of things to come – Sydney in the year 2030

The year is 2030, and the city’s population has just exceeded 6 million. The metro carriages are due for replacement, Central Park’s tri-generation plant is operational and the new broadband network is reaching peak speeds of 9 gigabytes per second.

Using recent projects by architecture students from UNSW, UTS and the University of Sydney, along with key visions included in City of Sydney’s Sustainable Sydney 2030 plan, we follow in the footsteps of imaginary city dwellers as they explore Sydney in 2030 through a variety of graphic and video media.

Commissioned by the City of Sydney and curated by Mark Szczerbicki, this exhibition is held in conjunction with the 2010 Sydney Architecture Festival.

When: 20 October – 28 November
Time: 10am – 7pm Mon – Fri ; Sat & Sun 11am – 4pm

Venue: Customs House
Where: 31 Alfred St, Circular Quay NSW 2000
Cost: Free

UNSW Built Environment Interior Architecture: Emily Cheung

Hello again!

The only thing I could complain about my Winter Holiday is not exactly having a break. I worked full time at Cyberlab Design in the Interiors team with other UNSW Interior Architecture graduates. However, I could never complain about the experience I’ve gained and how amazing it is to earn a living by using your creativity and imagination. Having been able to actually understand how projects are developed and lodged, from the very first sketches to construction is not something that can be studied at uni. This semester has been jam packed more than ever. I’m being a little lazy and am only studying 3 core subjects this semester as I want continue my ‘student interior designer’ position with the firm. I am completing my last Technology subject and am excited to learn how to document Lighting and Acoustic systems. Lighting and Acoustics may seem like a standard process that is inserted into a design scheme during its last stages. Having studied 6 weeks of Technology 4, I have learnt how lighting and acoustics can complement and drive design or even be the basis of a concept. Implementing these skills into Studio has improved my design scheme. This semester we’re working on a project where we were given a empty concrete silo to design accommodation for as many students as possible. I am looking forward to see what I will come up with and hopefully love my design as this is my most challenging project yet.

UNSW Built Environment Architectural Studies: Patrick Griffen

Over the summer break I participated in an elective design studio called ‘Project X3‘, which was basically a multidisciplinary design workshop. It was an intensive 2 week course where I was working in a team of students from various degrees, from UNSW Built Environment, COFA, and Engineering. We worked together to design an accommodation facility for a rock climbing company in China; ‘China Climb’ in groups of 5 or 6. I found the experience of working with interior architects, engineers and industrial designers interesting, challenging and a great way to get some experience in collaborative design. Out of the 7 designs presented to the client, ours was chosen to be carried to the next stage of design fabrication and construction. Hopefully the project will be built sometime in the next year or two.

Project X3

With a little break between my summer courses and Semester 1, I began the 3rd year of my degree. This session my subjects include a design studio, an environment course and modelling visualisation course. The design studio this session involves designing an apartment/restaurant complex on a site in North Bondi beach. I’ve spent the first few weeks analysing the site and considering the factors that will influence the outcome of the design process such as views, solar access etc. The work load is quite demanding and there is also a much higher expectation of quality in our work.  At this stage I’ve made a series of design models outlining my current progress.

Another subject I’ve been working hard at is ‘Design Modelling and Visualisation‘  which focuses on of communicating designs through mediums such as computer rendered images. I’ve been learning how to use the software ‘3Ds Max’ to render photo-realistic scenes, which includes modelling objects or buildings then calibrating colour, texture, materials and lighting. The result is a visually impressive looking image which can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from a photograph (if it is a good render). I plan to use the skills I’ve gained in this course in my design courses to present my ideas.

Between huge assignments, I’ve been going surfing and continuing to enjoy the lifestyle of living on campus. There’s a lot more work to come, 3rd year is really interesting so far, but also really intense.

UNSW Built Environment Architectural Computing: David Butterworth

So my final year is off to a hectic start, it’s week three already and the work is piling up as expected. I’m currently 3rd Year Architectural Computing so the excitement of graduating is gradually growing, I’m definitely keen to start looking for employment especially with our final grad project next semester.

The summer went very quick as I completed 3 summer courses to get ahead and free up some time this year.  I also moved out of college and into a 5 bedroom place in Randwick.

Third Year really only has one core subject which is Digital Collaboration Studio, so I don’t get to see as many familiar faces as we are all doing electives. I chose a 3d object and space elective at COFA where we are using formZ to model and print in 3d. I’m also doing Multimedia in Design Presentation with Dean Utian from BE (Built Environment) and we are currently learning Director which should be interesting.

Probably the most interesting part of this year will be that I’m starting to tutor Experimental Modelling for Jeremy Harkins.  It’s a bit daunting at first but I definitely feel comfortable standing up in the labs and running the tutes. It’s a weird change going from student to teacher but I could see myself tutoring in years to come, hopefully I can tutor more subjects next year.

Here is an image i created at the end of last year in Design Information Modelling, we were using Autodesk Revit to create a BIM (building information model) and upload to a model server! exciting stuff 🙂

UNSW Built Environment Industrial Design: Elective project by Man Chun Wong

Student: Man Chun Wong
Contact: ysoytsit@hotmail.com
Website: http://www.coroflot.com/man_wong
Skill: Illustration/3D-modelling/Technical drawing

During the four years of my Industrial Design degree I have gained and developed a range of skills and knowledge. Through the past projects, I have developed my own design process, theory and visual language.

Dinner Culture - Pleaso Teapot

By working on each studio projects, I have the opportunities to develop my skill of researching, marketing, product planning and presentation. Every steps of the process required a lot of practice and improvement of skills and knowledge which I have learnt. Organisational skills such as time management have developed the strength in my discipline and have improved my work efficiency.
The following works show that different goals such as marketing skill, brand cooperation, culture identity and problem solving have been developed. Each of them allows me to strengthen my logical/technical thinking skills, creativity, 2D/3D presentation and modelling skills.
Design is a combination of every aspect in our lives such as culture, technology, economy, society and even religion. By exploring each of them, we discover what people need and what is good for them. As it is said that technology is based on improving people’s lives, design would be the form that connect it and people together and we all should be passionate to improve our future.

Ryobi vacuum cleaner exploded view

Ryobi vacuum cleaner packaging

Product elevations

Exploded view

UNSW Built Environment Event: Pure Digital – Architectural Computing Graduation Exhibition

After what seemed like a long and enduring period, graduating students of Architectural Computing 2009 had finally accomplished their goals and dreams.

We held our Graduation Project exhibition on 12th of November. Overall the night was very successful with a huge turn out of people and delicious catering which ran through the whole evening.

The evening was organised by the graduating students, displaying our final graduation projects. Each student had chosen their subject of interest within the specialised field of Architectural Visualisation. Projects were based on real world clients and real world building and architectural projects this allowed students to present their compatibility with working in the current industry.

Displays ranged from interactive real-time projects to 3D still visualisation and 3D animation.

A huge applause goes to all the students involved in preparation to the event and the hours they had put in to make the exhibition evening a success. Also many thanks to the program head Stephen Peter.

UNSW Built Environment Industrial Design: Sascha Dal Santo

Hi again everyone!

Second semester was really great – I really enjoyed all of the projects we undertook in our main studio class.

As I stated in my last blog post, we all took part in the Cormack Packaging Innovation Awards, which was a really good opportunity for us all as students to not only enter a competition, but to get our work out and shown to industry members and professionals.

I looked at redesigning the packaging for birdseed, which focused primarily on an single injection-moulded closure that allows for double quantity dispensing of the birdseed product.

A few other students in my class were also nominated for the awards, which was very exciting!

Submission for the Cormack Packaging Innovation Awards

The second project that we undertook was a collaboration project based on the proposed Sydney Metro project, in which we focused on the seating for both the train stations and also the platforms.

Final Design Proposal for Sydney Metro Project

I primarily focused on seating for the concourse/mezzanine levels of the stations, as well as the outdoor ‘station square’ areas.  My final design was based on the concept of social interaction seating, aiming to enhance the notion of the metro stations as being a meeting place for people/commuters/visitors.

Final Design Proposal for Sydney Metro Project

I’ve also been undertaking a research project with lecturer Russell Rodrigo, which has been based on the topic area of ‘Design Through Research’. I’ve found this to be a really interesting topic area, as it relates very much to the Industrial Design degree, where research is a very important issue and stage to be undertaken within the development of any product.

I was also awarded the 2009 Australian Institute of Packaging Scholarship for the Certificate of Packaging, which is really exciting!

So overall, this session has been really full on, but at the same time I’ve really enjoyed all of my subjects!

Can only hope that despite the assumed work load and pressure that 4th year brings, that it will be just as good!