Project descriptions provided by designers.

KEEP, an exhibition by AHEC and hosted by Cult, explores longevity, craftsmanship and material integrity as an antidote to disposable culture. The exhibition runs from 18th September to 4th October 2025 at the Cult Sydney Showroom, 21-23 Levey Street, Chippendale.

Curated by David Clark, former Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Living Australia, the exhibition aims to counter notions of careless consumption, material disposability, overly complicated supply chains, and the prevalence of waste in contemporary culture. Clark continues: “I thought it would be interesting to see what prominent and successful architects might design outside their usual focus, and perhaps, in the process and conversation, what they might bring to the texture and layers of the Australian design ecosystem.”

Kennedy Nolan created the ‘David’ Console in American cherry with a distinctly animal quality, with the head, tail, and flank rendered in different finishes. Rachel and Patrick noted that they sometimes like to anthropomorphise or zoomorphise their work to create a connection to and a human interaction with architecture. Strikingly, the interior is stained in reds and pinks, suggestive of bodily insides.

Virginia Kerridge’s ‘Pax’ Table in American cherry uses butterfly joints, a technique dating back to ancient times and featured in the contemporary work of Japanese American master, George Nakashima. Brass joints span a recessed groove following the natural grain, while the removable top and flat-pack base allow easy transport. Pax symbolises peace, for a place where people come together.

Related: Lina Ghotmeh on architecture and meaning

Lineburg Wang (pictured top of article, design below) designed the ‘Pedal’ Lamp in American cherry, where pressing the pedal opens a ‘block’ of timber at the top and turns on a hidden light source. They were interested in making something that looked, at first, like a block of timber, but that upon closer inspection revealed itself in more detail.

Richards Stanisich collaborated with costume designer Meg Ashforth on the ‘Lamella’ Chair in American maple. Inspired by Japanese medieval armour, hundreds of timber tiles were painstakingly hand-sewn together over a found 1980s metal-framed chair, creating a piece that encompasses design, craft, and art.

Edition Office designed the ‘Twin’ Bench in American red oak, inspired by timber water tank structures. Aaron and Kim moved away from creating form out of plastic materials, and investigated the process of assembly, in particular the aesthetic expression that comes from holding a curve against a straight piece of structure, and how joints might ‘slip past each other.’

Neil Durbach designed two pieces: the ‘Small Slide’ Table reveals a metallic finish in the separation, and cast ‘shadows that seem to be like smiles’. The ‘Einstein’s Hat’ Vase uses an ‘aperiodic tiling’, a shape that can be put together without ever repeating the overall pattern, representing a prototypical experiment in timber, a material that is not conducive to holding water.

The designs use three American hardwoods sustainably grown in the vast hardwood forests of the United States, where growth outpaces harvest. Independent assessment confirms that American hardwoods store more carbon than is released during their processing and transport from the hardwood forests in the USA to the shores of Australia.

As Rod Wiles, Regional Director of AHEC, notes: “KEEP is a reminder that the things we choose to live with can carry meaning and memory. These works are made to endure, not just in use, but in the stories they can hold.”

AHEC
americanhardwood.org

Cult
cultdesign.com.au

Photography
Tim Robinson