Week 2

There were two main exhibitons that were viewed at the Powerhouse Museum Sydney.  The Australian International Design Awards 2011 section featured a number of top designs including a joeycan for recycling shower water, a lightweight flip bike and a piece of medical techonoigly designed to treat obstructive sleep apnoea. The awards aknnowdedge excellence in design and innovation. The packpack bed was a highlighted design. The backpack bed is a lightweight back pack that rolls out into a full length, mesh protected bed.

Backpack bed by Swags for Homeless

Designs from the Engineering Exellence Designs Awards 2010 were also on display including The articultated head, the Aldar headquarters building, The Gated Auto-Synchronous Luminescence Detector and The Crucible Carbon Pyrolysis Process Engineering Prototype. The articulated head was a particularly popular design. It is a conventional industrial arm that has been converted into a pleasing installation piece. The piece interacts with audiences with human-robot interactions. 

The exhibition ‘Love Lace’ included a number of playful and inventive works that present a provocative challenge to traditional concepts of lace. These artists take lace to new and innovative levels by working with hair, steel wool and other unconventional materials. However made, lace creates very interesting visual effects with its interplay of light, space and shadows. This exhibition pushes lace from just textiles into different areas of design. 

Design on a truck by Ingrid Morley