Past Programs
Environment - 2008
The look of the decade
30/12/2008
All decades have their iconic objects and metaphors that describe the times. Adrian Franklin suggests that today's objects include LCD flat-screeen TVs, BlackBerries, the Toyota Prius, exuberant, loud large women's handbags, patio gas heaters and the iPod. We had the swinging 60s, the decadent 20s and the austere 30s. How will we describe the noughties?
Part of the By Design Summer Season this was first aired on July 12, 2008.
Trends: urban forests
24/12/2008
This week Trends and Products is about urban forests, with physicist Dr Peter Fisher, who emailed us in response to our Conversation in June with the Melbourne City Council's Rob Adams. Dr Fisher has a passion for old-fashioned shade from trees and plants, and is lobbying hard for urban forests. He is a climate change consultant and research fellow at the Central Queensland University.
Part of the By Design Summer Seaon this was first aired August 2, 2008
2nd Avenue subway New York
26/11/2008
The 2nd Avenue subway is the first subway to be built in New York in nearly 100 years. Segments of line have been built over the years, but a new line - as this is - has taken a lot of work, a lot of lobbying, and a lot of money. Janne Ryan talks on site to the chief engineer on the project, David Caidon.
Swatch watches with Adrian Franklin
29/10/2008
Adrian Franklin joins By Design -- as he does every now and then -- to spin us a yarn and give us some insight into the world of design and collecting.
Today Adrian talks about the Swatch watch...and how it transformed the world of watches. Along the way, according to Adrian Franklin, Swatches have become one of the most viable collectables from the late 20th century.
John Denton on UK Stirling nomination
24/09/2008
John Denton is part of the Melbourne-based, now global, architecture firm Denton Corker Marshall. You may be familiar with their work. They designed the entry to Melbourne, those 'sticks' that welcome you on the highway in from the airport. They also designed the Governor Phillip Tower in central Sydney, a place many Sydneysiders will have visited or walked past en route to Circular Quay. Now they have made the short list for the UK's top architecture award -- the RBIA Stirling award -- the first Australian firm to have done so. The building is the Manchester Court Complex, the first law court complex to be built in the UK since the Royal Court 100 years ago.
Design against crime
17/09/2008
The prevention of crime through good design has been around for a long time. Iron Age forts in Southern England are surrounded by complicated tracks and ridges. These are not an accident of landscape, but design—pure design. Their purpose was to deter cattle thieves. And it worked. Find out what kind of thinking and work is being done in design today to help eradicate crime.
Trends and Products: future of the internet
17/09/2008
The internet is dynamic. What happens when English is not the world's most used language on the internet? What happens when most of the readers do so from right to left, instead of the current left to right? Research is underway between USA's Intel Corporation and Melbourne's Swinburne University to identify the main shifts in the way we use the internet.
The humble brick
10/09/2008
The humble brick is the subject of author Ron Ringer's The Brickmaster 1788 - 2008. The first alluvial clay was actually found in the first two weeks of European settlement at Sydney's Cockle Bay. Now it's known as Haymarket and Chinatown, where ABC Ultimo is based and from where By Design is broadcast each week. While the brick industry started in Sydney, the brick revolution spread quickly across the country. Perth is often referred to by old brickmakers as the brick capital of the world. And in every small town there was a brickworks. If not, a 'travelling' brickmaker would often set up at the edge of town.
The shrinking office
10/09/2008
You may have noticed the subtle and not so subtle design shifts taking place in your workplace. The office is shrinking in size, and sometimes there is no office at all anymore, simply a bit of space at the ubiquitous workstation. As there has been a call for higher density housing options now the pressure is on for higher density offices. By Design looks at when all this started and what the outcome is for us all.
Trends and Products: retirement housing?
30/08/2008
Here on By Design we have run a couple of discussions over the last few months about the changing demands and market for retirement and aged-care living. Today we look at intentional communities in the USA and UK, and in Holland at the Humanitas organisation's concept of Apartments for Life.
Parliamentary architecture
16/08/2008
Winston Churchill famously said that 'we shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us', and the question of how buildings help shape parliamentary business, in particular Australian parliamentary business, will be the subject of a roundtable discussion to be held next Friday at Parliament House, Canberra.
Friday is the 20th anniversary of the beginning of parliamentary operations in the new building, and 9 May was the twentieth anniversary of the official opening. To mark the opening, Dr Clem Macintyre of the University of Adelaide delivered a lecture on parliamentary architecture and political culture and he talks to By Design about his ideas.
Big idea for Australian architecture? Diversity
09/08/2008
In June By Design spoke to Aaron Betsky, the director of this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, which opens next month. Betsky's Biennale is about ideas, not buildings, and he controversially put forward the idea that architecture is not about building, it is about ideas. Architects Kerstin Thompson and Neil Durbach—two of the five-member Australian curatorial team—talk with By Design about Australia's event. Team Australia's big idea is diversity. You can view By Design's video interview with Vince Frost, also a member of the Venice curatorial team, by clicking on the links.
Water and design with Rob Adams
26/07/2008
Rob Adams, from Melbourne City Council, returns to By Design for the second, and final, of two conversations raising issues close to his heart. This week it is water and how those living in the city need to work harder at making this valuable commodity go further.
What identifies the look of 2008?
12/07/2008
All decades have their iconic objects and metaphors that describe the times. Adrian Franklin suggests that today's objects include LCD flat-screeen TVs, BlackBerries, the Toyota Prius, exuberant/loud large women's handbags, patio gas heaters and the iPod. We had the swinging 60s, the decadent 20s and the austere 30s. How will we describe the noughties?
Guerrilla gardeners
12/07/2008
Horticulturalist and activist Richard Reynolds is on a mission to bring to our awareness the potential of the unused, abandoned and unloved garden spaces of our cities. His city is London. At night he and his team drive, walk, or cycle to 'their' abandoned lot—which could be simply an unruly sidewalk of weeds struggling through concrete or a traffic roundabout—and the action starts. Out come the daisies or lavender or Californian poppies—whatever is in season—and their night of guerrilla gardening has begun.
Perfecting PowerPoint and presentation
05/07/2008
Garr Reynolds is one of the leading lights in the world of PowerPoint presentations, and the world of communications. He has a number of clients in the Fortune 500. Find out how Steve Jobs (CEO Apple) perfected his communication skills, and why Bill Gates (founder Microsoft) still has a lot of lessons to learn. And what's design got to do with all of this?
Agoradynamics: restoring public space
28/06/2008
What determines the fate of our cities? Is it policy and infrastructure or is it our attitudes and desires? Bob Perry, an architect and a director of SCAPE, a consultancy focused on urban design, planning, landscape architecture and transport, thinks it's our attitudes and desires. He believes that we have reached a point where an imbalance between our public and our private lives needs to be fixed if we're to enjoy a sustainable life. In this country, that means embracing the idea of urban density and shared public space. It also means getting on your bike.
Trends and Products: urban sensors
21/06/2008
By Design spoke a couple of weeks ago to Nokia's principal researcher, Jan Chipchase, about the future for mobile phones. You may recall that he mentioned the idea of mobile phones as 'urban sensors'. This week we speak to Eric Paulos, from Intel, about the work he is doing with urban sensors. He says we carry mobile phones with us nearly everywhere we go; yet they sense and tell us little of the world we live in. Look around you now. How hot is it? Which direction are you facing? How healthy is the air you are breathing? What is the pollen count? How strong is the sun? Were pesticides used on the fruit you just bought?
Vince Frost: what look is now?
14/06/2008
By Design talks to Vince Frost about his approach to design -- in his favourite room, a converted textile factory in Surry Hills, Sydney. He also talks about today's look, the aesthetic of our time. VIDEO: To view video click into this story, then follow links.
Vince Frost is a UK-born, Australian-based graphic designer. For him graphic design is not just drawing, it is a larger way of thinking about space and about the way we construct our lives. Vince Frost is a member of the Australian architecture curatorial team chosen to represent Australia at the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale, which opens in Venice in September. The Australian team comprises three of Australia's top architects, Kerstin Thompson, Neil Durbach and Wendy Lewin; and two of Australia's top designers, Vince Frost and Gary Warne.
Weak-force architecture: Denton Corker Marshall
31/05/2008
Leon van Schaik has written a rather interesting text that accompanies a new book on the Melbourne-based architecture firm Denton Corker Marshall. Professor van Schaik puts forward a hypothesis on what he calls weak-force architecture and strong-force architecture. Strong force architecture is international and driven by highflying brandname architecture firms. Weak-force architecture is local, organic, slow even -- and it is in this category that he positions Denton Corker Marshall. What does all this mean -- find out on By Design.
Design - and feeling powerful - in older age
17/05/2008
As Oscar Wilde lay dying in a Paris hotel, he is reputed to have looked at the wallpaper and said: 'One of us has to go'. By Design looks at what happens when you find yourself subtlety getting older and less able to take control of the world around you: less able to make decisions about how a room should be furnished, what colour carpet you might want, or what plants you might like at your door. We look at the world of design and aesthetics with an eye on what's available when you get old.
2020 Design Summit: By Design panel
19/04/2008
As the Rudd 2020 Summit gets underway today (Saturday 19 April) in Canberra, By Design brings you a panel of design commentators to look specifically at what the world of architecture and design can bring to enrich life in Australia -- what we could be doing better, and how to make sure that Australian cities and design infrastructure are positioned to cope with the incredible shifts Australia in undergoing.
Trends: Milan International Furniture Fair
19/04/2008
Now trends and products, and this morning we go to Milan where the most important event on the global design calendar, the Milan Salone Internazionale del Mobile (as well as the SaloneSatellite), is underway.
Edible Estates: re-inventing the front lawn
12/04/2008
Fitz Haeg is an architect and artist, and a keen environmental activist in the process. His approach is to tackle the front lawn and his project Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn started in 2005 - in Salina, Texas - with the object to replace the domestic front lawn with a highly productive, edible, organic garden landscape. Fritz's initiative aims to affect change in urban and suburban commities alike, one front lawn at a time.
Trends: legislation to enforce green housing
12/04/2008
Tim Redway, chief marketing officer for AV Jennings, one of Australia's largest home builders, is seeking national government legislation to enforce green standards when all new houses are built. And he goes one step further: for all older houses sold to be legally forced at this point to improve their sustainability. This, he says, is the only way to really change the energy efficiency of houses...and the larger environment.
The Endless City
05/04/2008
According to UK writer and critic Deyan Sudjic, the future of the city is the only subject in town. The number of people living in cities is about to overtake those still in the country, so we need to think hard and fast about sustainability, economic policy, transport, law enforcement and much else. The London School of Economics set up a think tank, the Urban Age project, to ponder on these issues and the result is a very weighty volume called Endless City, edited by Deyan Sudjic and Ricky Burdett.
Trends: Tactiles
23/02/2008
Australia leads the world in the development and quality of tactile ground surface indicators for the visually impaired -- just one of many areas in the built environment where Australian research and innovations are offering global leadership.
Trends: Sustainable packaging
09/02/2008
The days of the plastic bag seem numbered with Federal Labor Party suggesting a levy be imposed on every bag or that they be banned outright.
But a group of academics at Victoria's RMIT has been quietly working to reduce the environmental impact of all types of packaging through ecodesign.
This morning we look at the state of progress being made with degradable plastic bags and other eco-friendly packaging.
Robert Moses: Shaping the City of New York
12/01/2008
The image of Robert Moses -- the legendary visionary who changed the shape of New York city in the middle of the 20th century with his vision for highways and urban renewal -- is undergoing a revision.
Two academics from New York's Columbia University -- co-authors of a major new book on Robert Moses' legacy -- argue that there has to date been too much attention on what Moses destroyed, and not enough attention on what he achieved and on the economic hurdles he surmounted to get things done.
This interview was orginally broadcast 17 Feburary 2007.
