A collaboration between Hecker Guthrie and Lexus will produce a three story marquee for the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
October 30th, 2013
With a brief to “come up with a marquee that had a strong design identity”, the team from Hecker Guthrie was presented with “a series of material behind Lexus and their becoming much more driven by design”.
With this the designers were eager to create a Pavilion that reflects growing importance of the Japanese car industry, as well as the culture’s rich and unique aesthetics; as Paul Hecker comments, “traditionally the Japanese car industry may have been seen as secondary to the European industry but the Japanese aesthetic is so strong that we felt we needed to tap into Japanese fashion, materiality, origami, architecture, theatre, opera”.
Thus the starting point was an idea behind pattern and graphics. The designers explored an iconic pattern from a Japanese print from the 19th Century – the infamous ‘Wave off Kanagawa’ – and pixelated it to create an echo of the original in a contemporary form. This also gave cues for colour palette and informed the materiality for the space, which centred on humble materials such as plywood, pine, ceramic and paper.
These are manifested in the lightweight timber frame which is illuminated by 200 paper lanterns and and decorated by custom made Andrei Davidoff ceramics.
The temporary nature of the structure was an important factor in the design, one that provided a refreshing and liberating change of perspective for designers accustomed to needing their projects to stand the test of time. As Guthrie expands, “You aren’t worried about how long it lasts – or if the fabric fades! You can explore ideas that would otherwise be unviable in a commercial sense. The idea remains pure!”
Lexus
Hecker Guthrie
INDESIGN is on instagram
Follow @indesignlive
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
A longstanding partnership turns a historic city into a hub for emerging talent
It’s widely accepted that nature – the original, most accomplished design blueprint – cannot be improved upon. But the exclusive Crypton Leather range proves that it can undoubtedly be enhanced, augmented and extended, signalling a new era of limitless organic materiality.
Gaggenau’s understated appliance fuses a carefully calibrated aesthetic of deliberate subtraction with an intuitive dynamism of culinary fluidity, unveiling a delightfully unrestricted spectrum of high-performing creativity.
Tokyo unveils its most anticipated architectural urban redevelopment project, Ginza Six.
Manufacturing is quickly becoming recognised as the third essential element in the trifecta of Australian creativity – design, manufacture and retail, Nicky Lobo explores this notion
Zenith Interiors introduce their new web site. Designed by FROST the new site reveals the company’s ambitions. The new brand identity also signals their commitment to continued improvement in everything they do. “Our improved logo will carry through our marketing activities including our advertising campaigns, brochures and electronic media programs,” the company says. Zentih introduce […]
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
This year’s Open House Melbourne Weekend program has been unveiled, with almost 200 buildings, places and experiences set to open to the public in July.
While the alluring myth of a lone genius can be particularly appealing, Knoll’s enduring legacy was built on a more profound reality: that a singular vision is only augmented through dialogue, proving that collaboration is one of the most transformative tools in design.