The fifth edition of DESIGN Canberra Festival will celebrate the Australian capital city’s image as a ‘global city of design’. To run from November 5 – 25, 2018, the annual design festival – themed ‘geometry’ – presents a highly eclectic program with over 100 events, talks, exhibitions, tours, activations, markets, collaborations, artist studios and open homes to showcase the city’s thriving and globally connected design community.
“DESIGN Canberra has resonated with Canberrans, the design sector and design lovers near and far because design is in Canberra’s DNA. From the time of Walter and Marion Griffin’s visionary design a century ago, to iconic experimental architecture of the 1950s and 60s, through to contemporary and sustainable design developments today, Canberra has been – and always will be – a living design laboratory,” says Rachael Coghlan, CEO of Craft ACT and Artistic Director of DESIGN Canberra 2018.
Continuing a practice that began two years ago, DESIGN Canberra once again invited a local designer to create the look and feel of the festival aligning with the chosen theme. This year’s designer in residence is Chelsea Lemon, known for her work with timber, especially her new and fresh approach to a traditional woodworking technique. For the 2018 festival, she has created a design that refers to Canberra’s geometric buildings and visual forms.
DESIGN Canberra will also feature Kengo Kuma, one of the world’s leading architects, who has designed the DESIGN Canberra inaugural ephemeral architecture project, which will be installed on Aspen Island in Lake Burley Griffin; and Enrico Taglietti, an acclaimed Canberra-based architect, who will be celebrated during the festival through tours, exhibitions, a symposium and installations.
Architecture tours at this year’s festival have been organised around the 2018 DESIGN Canberra theme, geometry, with the tours to introduce people to architects who have used geometric forms in a variety of ways. The tours will be presented by local architecture enthusiast and founder, writer and researcher of CanberraHouse.com.au, Martin Miles.
Montreal-based Daily tous les jours will bring their internationally award-winning pop-up installation, which will invite visitors to share their dreams and visions for Canberra’s city centre through a playful yet beautiful field of balloons.
DESIGN Canberra is the primary outreach program for Craft ACT, a not-for-profit membership-based organisation, which supports artists, craft practitioners, designers and makers at every stage of their careers.
