Rigg Design Prize

The highest accolade for contemporary design in Australia, the triennial Rigg Design Prize is awarded to an Australian design practice displaying outstanding creative achievements.

For the first time in the more than 150-year history of the National Gallery of Victoria, contemporary interior design was the focus of a major exhibition in its Ian Potter Centre.

The exhibition brought together ten interior design practices, who were invited to create a forty-square-metre purpose-built room as an entry to the Rigg Design Prize, which is awarded triennially. Themed “domestic living,” the participants’ responses offered diverse perspectives on ways of occupying and expressing residential spaces.

Melbourne-based practice Hecker Guthrie was awarded the $30,000 prize for its installation titled The table is the base. The design, which celebrates the ubiquitous table, is the epitome of a highly analytical, reductive and abstractive approach to design practice.

The entire installation is made from just two elements, the Parsons table, originally designed by Jean-michel Frank in the 1930s, and terracotta.

Designers Paul Hecker and Hamish Guthrie identified that the table is a recurring element that could be the foundation of the domestic spaces. They noted that all the participants in the exhibition had used a table in some form. In their design, the basic form of the table – four legs and a top – is shortened, stretched, turned over, laid on its side or stacked to create various interior furnishings and fittings, from a bench to a seat, a bed, shelving and, of course, a table.

The second element was a series of unfinished terracotta objects created by Bruce Rowe of Anchor Ceramics, which are used to express various uses.

Shashi Caan, international judge of the Rigg Design Prize 2018, said, “The Hecker Guthrie project demonstrates the power of design restraint and curiosity at play [and it’s a] testament to the potential and capacity of design.”

At the other end of the spectrum, the practice of collection, or in other words a highly additive approach to design, is seen in the work of The Society Inc by Sibella Court, titled Imaginarium. Inspired by the sixteenth-century cabinets of curiosities, the space cohesively brought together a disparate collection of prized objects in a highly stylized way.

Similarly, Scott Weston Architecture Design’s creation Wunderkammer was a series of six dioramas, each representing a room in a house that he is restoring. Each room of the diorama includes a cabinet that represents his collections of objects, ornaments and materials.

A special commendation was awarded to Danielle Brustman for her creation Inner-terior. Originally a theatre designer, Brustman created an installation intended as an interior within an interior but also as an expression of her inner self, which explored the fantastical from different

“The Rigg Design Prize is the only design prize in Australia that champions design and cultural production as creative practice,” said Simone Leamon, curator of design and architecture at the NGV.

sources of inspiration, including Xanadu, American Art Deco bandshells, 1960s European futurism and 1980s roller staking rinks.

This self expression is also explored in a number of the other creations. Sisters Yasmine Ghoniem and Katy Svalbe of Amber Road used their installation, Take it Outside, as an expression of their multiple and shared heritages: Australian, Egyptian and Latvian. The hybrid interior-exterior space is a highly personal creation – a memoir to parts of their childhood spent on their grandparents porch. It captures the mood of summery nights with its musty pink screen and the sound of cicadas.

A number of the installations also demonstrate the role of design as cultural reflection. Flack Studios We've boundless plains to share is a richly layered space and has a hidden message about honouring Indigenous history, diversity, multiculturalism and shared cultural identity. Flack Studio and its collaborators represent nineteen different cultures and were asked to create something for the space that represents inclusion. The title of the work is taken from the little known second verse of the Australian anthem and it’s also a political comment on Australia's asylum seeker policy.

The role of digital media in contemporary life was explored in Richards Stanisichs Our natural needs in a digital world, which juxtaposes an ancient aesthetic of antiquity against shiny black surround and a neon blue light that flashes intermittently. David Hickss Panic Room is a rather unsettling creation that explores peoples constant exposure to digital media and the rise of social paranoia and anxiety.

Arent and Pykes response to the theme was to create an antidote to

overloaded contemporary lifestyles. Home: Feast, bathe, rest is a space with rich materiality and signifies high-end design. It's “the ultimate manifestation of soulful wellbeing,” the designers said.

New York-based Australian design firm Martyn Thompson Studio created a space filled of furnishings made from his own photographs. His installation, Atelier, uniquely depicts how the space could be experienced through the passage of time, with a lighting element that represents the transition of the sun.

“The Rigg Design Prize is the only design prize in Australia that champions design and cultural production as creative practice,” said Simone Leamon, curator of design and architecture at the NGV. “What we’ve asked our designers to do is to push themselves and really examine what design as a creative endeavour and a cultural practice can mean.” A

Rigg Design Prize — 12 October 2018 – 24 February 2019 Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia, Federation Square, Melbourne Victoria Right — Titled The table is thebase, Hecker Guthrie’s installation celebrates the ubiquitous table.

Above — Hecker Guthrie worked with Bruce Rowe of Anchor Ceramics to create a series of unfinished terracotta objects that denote various uses.

Above — Danielle Brustman’s Inner-terior was inspired by different sources – 1980s skating rinks, American Art Deco bandshells and 1960s European futurism.

Above — Scott Weston Architecture Design’s creation Wunderkammer was a series of six dioramas, each representing a room in a house that he is restoring.

Above — Arent and Pyke created Home: feast, bathe, rest a space that is an antidote to overloaded contemporary lifestyles.

Above — Amber Road’s Take it outside was an expression of the two directors’ heritages: Australian, Egyptian and Latvian.

Above — Richards Stanisich’s Our natural needs in a digital world explored the role of digital media in modern life.

Above — Flack Studio’s We’ve boundless plains to share honours Indigenous history, diversity and multiculturalism.

Above — Martyn Thompson Studio’s installation depicts how the space could be experienced through the passage of time.

Above — Imaginarium by the Society Inc by Sibella Court was inspired by the sixteenth-century cabinets of curiosities.

Above — David Hicks’s Panic Room explores people’s exposure to digital media and the rise of social paranoia and anxiety.