Simon Pole and Annabel Dundas design their own home in Melbourne

Design director Simon Pole and graphic designer Annabel Dundas have built their own home, named River House, in Melbourne around their collection of art, sculpture and furniture.

Set on the bank of the Yarra River, the house was also designed around outdoor activities for the couple's children, with a swimming pool, basketball court and boat deck providing access to the water.

"The setting of the house is very special," Pole told Dezeen. "Tucked down on the river within a natural setting only three miles from the city with very few references that it is in the inner suburbs."

River House stands on the site of a 1990s house that Pole and Dundas knocked down to make way for their home. To keep within planning regulations they shadowed the footprint of the former structure but added a small rear extension and more ceiling height to create extra space.

Built on a slope of 30 degrees, the site is divided into terraced levels with the three-storey house at the top and a series of lawns and decks leading down to the river.

Pole and Dundas decided to clad the lower half of the facade in blackened cypress to compliment the deep grey interiors, where the use of the slim dark timber slats continues.

"The 5.8-metre-high glazed openable facade allows abundant light deep into the living areas counteracting the fact that the rear of the house is cut into the steeply sloping site," said Pole.

"This allowed us to use materials such as the black cypress, concrete, bluestone and black steel. This would typically create darker moodier spaces but with specialist lighting, it emphasises the artworks."

The couple started their art collection 20 years ago in LA when they purchased an original 1950s Eames RAR Rocking chair at an auction. Now they have a custom-designed house in which to display it all.

River House is set over three levels, connected by staircases to a central double-height space where the main part of the art collection is displayed.

The house's main entrance is located on the upper level, where the main bedroom with its own ensuite bathroom and dressing room is also located.

The top floor overlooks the double-height middle floor of the house, which is an open plan area for entertaining including a lounge, dining space and an open kitchen with a pantry and wine cellar attached.

A balcony on this floor extends the lounge area and offers views over the city. This floor also has a book-lined library space and a guest bathroom.

The lowest floor is dedicated to the couple's children, with a trio of bedrooms, a media room and a billiards table, with access to the garden and the river beyond.

"Initially we planned for safety and security for a young family but accepting that the children will grow into young adults requiring different types of spaces the design evolved to ensure that we could enjoy this home for as long as possible," said Pole.

River House is attached by a covered bridge to a second building, also clad in cypress and affectionately nicknamed the Treehouse. This converted garage was where the family lived during the work on the main house.

"It was a way to sell it to the children as we happen to be reading the treehouse series of books by Andy Griffiths when we started the renovation and wanted to soften the blow of living in a one-bedroom space for 14 months while we built the house," said Dundas.

Now the Treehouse functions as a separate guest house, with a kitchenette and a sunken lounge with a fireplace.

Upstairs, where the bridge connects, there's a bedroom with a study nook and a bathroom.

Along with the pool and the basketball half-court, the family can use the jetty to launch kayaks and paddle into the city. The gardens include a sunbathing deck, a vegetable garden, and a circular sunken conversation pit around and outdoor fireplace.

Winter Architecture also used a striking black facade for a townhouse renovation in Melbourne, while Studio Four built a house for its director around a planted courtyard.

Photography is by Damien Kook.

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Five exhibits from Electronic at the Design Museum that recall the joy of live music

London's Design Museum has reopened its doors with an exhibition that charts the evolution of electronic music and its symbiotic relationship with design. Curator Gemma Curtin shares five must-see exhibits from the show.

After a slightly delayed launch due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Electronic: from Kraftwerk to the Chemical Brothers exhibition is on view from now until 14 February 2021.

It has been adapted from a show originally debuted at the Philharmonie de Paris's Museum of Music last year and tweaked to feature a greater focus on UK rave culture, as well as highlighting how design and electronic music can come together to create more impactful experiences than either could separately.

"Because it is so abstract, electronic music needs to collaborate with design in order to present itself to the world," said Curtain.

"And designers enjoy working with DJs because they give them the freedom to respond to their music in different ways. Whether it's through vinyl sleeves, the interface of a Roland synth or incredibly technical and complex live AVs [audiovisuals], the exhibition is very much about telling that untold story of the connection between design and music."

This is achieved with the help of a soundtrack curated and mixed by French DJ Laurent Garnier, as well as 400 exhibits spread across four sections – Man and Woman Machine, Dancefloor, Mix and Remix, and Utopian Dreams and Ideals.

These explore the genre via the technology through which it is made, the club culture that surrounds it, the practice of DJing itself and finally its social and political implications.

"It's a broad brush through the genre to show its cultural impact and all these satellite creative elements that work with the music and make it into something more," said Curtain.

"It's also about showcasing all of these creative talents that work in this field. Of course, this massive industry which supports so many livelihoods is on hold at the moment. But I hope the exhibition gives people a chance to feel and to remember and hopefully ultimately to make sure that this isn't lost."

Below, Curtain shares five designs from the exhibition that showcase the synergy between the two fields at its finest.

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The Visitor by Yuri Suzuki and Jeff Mills

Jeff Mills is a DJ who was there, in Detroit, at the birth of techno music. He's a genius, some people say. And he used to play on this Roland TR-909 drum machine from the '80s.

It was really battered, he'd used it so many times. But actually its buttons are quite slender, the slides are quite close together. And his speed when mixing is such, that he wanted a new interface for using it.

He worked with Yuri Suzuki, the Pentagram partner, sound artist and product designer, to actually take the electronics from his Roland and put them into this shiny, spaceship-like desk. Suzuki used gaming buttons, which he arranged in a circle because Mills felt this would be a much more effective set-up for him.

The legs are a reference to a Los Angeles Times photograph from the 1940s, of these searchlights roaming the sky above the city. They were looking for bombers but there was this urban legend that they actually found a UFO. Suzuki used the imagery of these searchlights as a reference for the dynamic legs on this machine, to create a product fit for presentation and performance.

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Aphex Twin's Collapse album by Weirdcore

We contacted Weirdcore because we wanted to show how he created the visual identity for the Collapse album by his longtime collaborator [English musician] Aphex Twin. Weirdcore's design process essentially involves using digital software, to create this very intense, almost disturbing imagery that he describes as seeing through the eyes of a hallucinating android.

To try and show the process behind that, we created an installation of various different screens. One shows some initial, raw footage he took of Cornwall, which is where Aphex Twin is from, and then another shows how he manipulated these images to crumble and deconstruct. You can see how he uses the sound data, the beats per minute to guide the visuals.

We also see the final video, which went on to inform the live performance and the promotional materials around that. It's a good example of how design is not just the album. It's also the video, it's the live audiovisual (AV) it's all sorts of things, that are now part of the presentation of music.

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Haçienda club designs by Ben Kelly and Peter Saville

Tony Wilson, one of the founders of Factory Records, opened the Haçienda club in an old yacht showroom in the middle of Manchester in 1982.

This was really the start of super clubs in the UK and it was people like Wilson who really started investing in design. He got Peter Saville to do the graphic design and Ben Kelly did the interior.

It's no longer any old church hall or basement in a sports centre with a few lights – these are designed interiors. Kelly used bollards and other elements that you normally see in the public realm and this visual language became a really identifying element for the club. The exhibition features a neon sign that hung above the bar and a replica of one of the columns.

Haçienda had a very slick, professional approach to its graphics and identity where before it was all photocopied or hand-drawn flyers. And this went on to influence other big clubs that helped to regenerate inner cities. The Hacienda did a huge amount for Manchester, much like Gatecrasher in Sheffield or Cream in Liverpool.

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Core by 1024 Architecture

One of the key elements of the exhibition is its soundtrack, which features mixes that span the history of electronic music. So there is a Detroit mix, a Chicago one, a German one. And in the middle of the exhibition is an installation by 1024 architects called Core that is responsive to the sound.

It consists of 24,000 LED lights and 81 of these incredibly tall, three-metre LED rods. The installation offers another interpretation of music through visual means and gives visitors a moment of pause in the exhibition where they can really enjoy the soundtrack.

One of the unique characteristics of electronic music is that it is generally 120 beats per minute. That is really what separates it from other music because you're not reliant on the speed of the drummer. And seeing the music visually makes you think about this pace in a very immersive way.

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Got To Keep On installation by Smith & Lyall

A lot of the time, digital design is used to present electronic music. But with Adam Smith and Marcus Lyle, the creative directors for the Chemical Brothers, their work is actually based on film. So their practice involves this huge team of creatives including live performers, choreographers, costume and lighting designers.

We asked them to create an experience for visitors as they leave the exhibition and the result is an installation based on the song Got To Keep On.

There's a huge floor-to-ceiling screen showing a video of dancers dressed in these incredible outfits, huge and bright pink almost like Teletubbies. There are light effects and haze – you feel like you're immersed in a live performance.

For everybody who's experienced it, the contrast between being stuck at home during Covid and entering this room is quite extreme. It's this visceral reminder of our senses.

It's not just visuals, it's the beat that's vibrating through your body. We unpack all of the detail throughout the exhibition but the reality is when you're in there, you just feel it.

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This week the UK government announced "automatic" permissions as part of planning reforms

This week on Dezeen, the UK government came under fire as it announced its plans to deregulate and automatically grant planning permission for housing in England.

Alongside housing, the new planning system will also see schools, hospitals, shops and offices "automatically secured" planning on land that is designated for growth.

The regulations have been described by prime minister Boris Johnson as "radical reform unlike anything we have seen since the second world war" and are intended to facilitate quicker development, but UK architects claim the idea is "shameful" and that it fails to address the root causes of England's housing crisis.

RIBA calls for "urgent reconsideration" of proposals to deregulate planning

Among the architects voicing their concerns was Charles Holland, who told Dezeen that "while the government has identified a lack of affordable housing as a major problem, this isn't an effective plan to deal with it", adding that "this is unlikely to be either beautiful or affordable."

The Royal Institute of British Architects warned that the system will lead to poor quality housing, with its president Alan Jones calling for "urgent reconsideration".

Jones claimed that "these shameful proposals do almost nothing to guarantee the delivery of affordable, well-designed and sustainable homes."

Nestbox is a modular trunk extension that turns cars into campers

In design, Czech firm Studio 519 took centre stage with its plywood module called Nestbox that it has developed to transform cars into campers.

The product is available in four different sizes and designed to slot neatly into the boot of a car to be expanded into a double bed or a fully fitted kitchen.

Renzo Piano unveils replacement for collapsed motorway bridge in Genoa

Other transport design included Aerospace brand Virgin Galactic's concept for a high-speed passenger aircraft called Mach 3 that could travel at three times the speed of sound.

In Italy, the 1,100-metre-long Genoa San Giorgio Bridge was unveiled by Renzo Piano, replacing the Morandi Bridge that was destroyed in a storm almost two years ago.

Saskia Diez adds chains to face masks to make them feel "more like wearing an accessory"

As the Coronavirus pandemic continues, German jewellery designer Saskia Diez became the latest designer to put her own spin on face masks, revealing a collection adorned with detachable silver and gold chains.

Diez' intention is for the masks to feel like an accessory rather than some medical that "you're being forced to wear".

Zaha Hadid Architects shares proposal for Shanghai's "greenest building"

In the architecture world, John Pawson and David Chipperfield were among the eighteen designers to reveal visuals of private villas that will be built in Ibiza as part of a development called Sabina.

Dezeen reported on Zaha Hadid Architects proposal for the CECEP Shanghai Campus in China that will utilise renewable energy technologies and recycled materials in an attempt to become the "greenest building" in Shanghai.

CTA Creative Architects uses perforated bricks to form Wall House in Vietnam

Popular projects on Dezeen this week include a house built with perforated bricks in Vietnam, a gabled house in Wyoming, and a wooden garage built in Vancouver.

This week on Dezeen is our regular roundup of the week's top news stories. Subscribe to our newsletters to be sure you don't miss anything.

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Lyrical Illustrations by Käthe Butcher Explore Femininity, Emotion, and Human Intimacy

“A Hug In The Garden.” All images © Käthe Butcher, shared with permission

As widespread lockdowns swept the globe earlier this year in response to the threat of COVID-19, intimacy became fraught. For artist Käthe Butcher, the loss of an embrace or casual peck on the cheek was incredibly difficult. “The pandemic affected everyone differently. I always thought I am not that kind of person getting scared or/and paranoid easily, but in March I did. I panicked and felt very alone, which was one reason why I left London at the end of March to go back to my family. It was definitely the right decision,” she tells Colossal.

This desire for connection culminated in “A Hug In The Garden,” an emotional rendering of two women holding each other. Their botanical garments swaddle their individual bodies, and singular stems poke out from their sleeves, adding a bit of whimsy. Similar to her other drawings—explore a larger collection of Butcher’s work (NSFW) on Instagram—this illustration visualizes emotional depth and intimacy.

Replete with floral motifs and delicate lines, Butcher’s pieces generally focus on one or two figures, who are simultaneously confident, carefree, and elusive. Rendered in thin, inky lines, the women portray a range of experiences, moods, and personalities. “Femininity can be everything and nothing. It’s individual. For me personally, it is something elegant yet strong,” she shares with Colossal.

Currently, Butcher is in the process of leaving London permanently for her hometown of Leipzig, Germany, and has been reflecting on the role of artistic practices in the current moment. “As for a lot of artists, this situation was and is still blocking a lot of creativity. It’s draining. Like wading through mud. But at the same time, it feels like the beginning of something new, bigger,” she says.

To purchase a print of the artist’s tender renderings, peruse what’s available in her shop.

 

“Hey Girl”

“Dreaming About Another World”

“T.S. Girl (Sleep Well)”

“Grass As Soft As Cotton Candy”

“Setsuna”

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Sprawling Floral Installations Spill Over Garbage Cans and Phone Booths on New York City Streets

All images © Lewis Miller Design, shared with permisison

Thanks to Lewis Miller Design, those passing through New York City have gotten some respite from the rank smells and soggy refuse of streetside garbage cans. For years, the florist (previously) has been planting guerilla installations of sunflowers, hydrangeas, and peonies in public areas, transforming trash receptacles, construction zones, and lampposts with sprawling assemblages. Check out some of the recent “Flower Flashes” below, and follow the designer on Instagram to see where the temporary bouquets pop up next.

 

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