Powerhouse museum sketches

this was the lightway window and lighting system, designed by damian savio. during the day, it looks like any regular window. however, it uses OLEDs to absorb solar energy, so at night it serves a second function as a light source. i thought it was a practical design for sustainable living.

michael hirst chair, designed by clement meadmore.

this chair was in production from 1959 to 1965, with plastic coated steel as its primary material.

i found it difficult to choose just one item to sketch in the second exhibition, it ended up being a tie between this chair, another meadmore chair, and breuers wassily chair (ka

ndinsky is a personal hero).

i went with this one because meadmore is a designer i haven't encountered before, and i loved the curved lines of his designs. this

 chair reminded me of a teardrop suspended in mid air, its contours traced by lines of wire. it looked so inviting, the juxtaposition of the rigid wire w a rounded shape. 

for m

e, there was also a bit of nostalgia attached to it - at my parents house in tamworth, my mother has a hanging cane chair very similar in structure.

i have always liked marc newsons designs.

the embryo chair was designed in 1988 - the same year i was born. this design is twenty years old, yet it still looks fresh and futuristic. i suppose thats what earnt it its place in the inspired exhibition, its still an incredibly successful and relevant design. again, it was hard to choose just one thing, considering droog and gehry's wiggle chair were also on display.

this is the Vermitech worm farm. with both parents avid gardeners, and my dad enjoying the odd spot of fishing, there was always a worm farm around when i was growing up, so i guess this is a choice influenced in part by that.

however, what i really like about the vermitech system is that they build much larger models which use worms to treat human sewerage and waste from piggeries. vermitech have developed an ecologically friendly solution to the problem of waste disposal. imagine if this idea was embraced on a large scale, each city having its own worm sewerage treatment system? perhaps it may not be enough to treat all sewerage in major cities, but surely it would reduce the number of unpleasant surprises in the ocean, and deal with the problem of waste disposal, and there'd also be organic matter as a result that could be used on crops or as compost in parks and gardens.