designex

Over 300 top design companies will congregate at designEX, Australia’s most comprehensive interior architecture and design event, to celebrate the very best in design innovation.

Calling all true believers to Melbourne for the pinnacle of the design calendar: a three day celebration of trends, products and people.

This year, designEX has attracted more than 35 speakers on over 20 different subjects for its international seminar series, which features celebrated Danish Architect Bjarke Ingels, founder of multi-award winning practice BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group.

“Ingels spearheads a new generation of architects that combine shrewd analysis, playful experimentation, social responsibility and humour,” said Edward Owens from dmg world media.

“It is precisely these elements that have seen him scoop the 2008 World Architecture Award for Best Housing and the recently announced 2009 Forum Aid Award for Architecture for “Mountain Dwellings”, a daring 80-unit project that sits atop a concrete hillside of carparking. We are very excited to have Ingels share his ideas at designEX,”

Ingel’s current major project is the Danish Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, which BIG won in September 2009. Called “Welfairytales” it is a highly interactive and very Danish response to the Expo’s “Better City, Better Life” theme.

In his keynote address, Yes is More – A theory of Architectural Evolution, Ingels will give his impression of how global design evolves through excess and selection, and how his practice, BIG, operates like an eco system of ideas. Critical of the cliché of the avant-garde architect as an angry young man rebelling against society, BIG is interested in the idea of adaptation rather than resistance. By saying yes to all the influences of a living society BIG seeks to turn pleasing into a radical agenda, and to change the world through evolution rather than revolution.

Danish turns Dutch on the last day of designEX, when designers Floris Schoonderbeek and Freek Verhoeven from the Netherlands join Australia’s Martyn Hook (Iredale Pedersen Hook Architects) for an engaging Discussion Panel on Global Design. Facilitated by Andrew Mackenzie, Editor-in-Chief of Architecture Review Australia and (Inside) magazine, the panel examines the evolution of design and architecture in this changing world and what to expect in the future of design.

Floris Schoonderbeek is best known for his “Dutchtub” mobile bathtub, which exports the culture of ‘boundless bathing’ to inspire people to rediscover their outdoor environment. Similarly focused on the alfresco lifestyle, Freek Verhoeven is the designer behind the colourful Freek Outdoor Carpets that have taken Europe by storm. Both products will be on show at designEX in the Electrolux Outdoor Room feature with Jamie Durie™.

designEX’s international design experts will be joined by high profile Australian speakers including Michael McCann (Dreamtime Australia Design), and futurist Richard Watson.

Keynote Session (Bjarke Ingels): Thursday 30 April, 10.30am-12noon and Friday 1 May, 10.00am-11.30am. Global Design Discussion Panel: Saturday 2 May, 10.30-12noon.
Each session costs $90.

Online registration for designEX 2009 is now open. Visit www.designex.info for more information and to register.

When: 30 April, 2009 - 2 May, 2009
Where: Melbourne Exhibition Centre, Melbourne, Victoria