How we learn has changed significantly over the past decade and this has only sharpened the need for excellent design. In fact, Live & Learn is pretty well how we now shape education, with spaces designed for the experience of learned outcome. It’s a bit like the old adage: I can tell you everything about gardening, but until you get your hands in the dirt you will not understand. It’s the doing that makes the difference.

As such, the projects our divine Guest Editor, William Smart, is interested in are those that give students – and more generally people – an experiential learning environment. The Science Gallery in Melbourne University by Smart Design Studio, for example, allows students to showcase the outcomes of their work. Blending live and learn in one seamless project is the Bangalore Airport by Patrick Keane; this fabulous installation in woven raffia is key to Kean’s ongoing mission to show the world that sustainable design is as functional and beautiful as any other building medium. 

Teaching by example, Bates Smart have gone above and beyond expectations with The Australian Embassy in Washington DC, fitted entirely with Australian timber, plus furniture, lighting and art by the incredible talent of the Australian design elite! John Wardle has just the perfect touch for creating education projects that inspire and delight and his Rivers Edge in Launceston is most decidedly a school that students can take great pride in.

Yu Ting, founder and Chief Architect of Shanghai-based Wutopia Lab, is one of the most interesting architects shaping Shanghai and his work on the Shanghai Book City takes this institute in a whole new direction. Still in China, AIM Architecture’s rejuvenation of four disused oil tanks is startling in its clarity of design where light is key to these brilliant community spaces. Toyo Ito’s breaths fresh life in to the NTU Business School in Singapore and Spacemen Studio get primal with Bar Kar in Kuala Lumpur.

The INDE.Awards 2024 are revealed with exceptional projects and design leaders given the acclaim they deserve. It’s incredibly exciting to reveal the best of the best in the Indo-Pacific as recognised by our fabulous awards program.

Profiles are as always exceptional, with Lisa Havilah, CEO pf the Powerhouse, interviewed by Dr Prudence Gibson, author of Dark Botany: The Herbarium Tales. Hiroshi Sugimoto shares his thoughts on contemporary architecture and Bangawarra discuss the changing attitude to First Nations collaboration.

There is also a huge amount more and naturally the IN SHORT section has a whole host of design moments to inspire. To find out more about the magazine tap here.

Gillian Serisier