Studio 13
13 Kurilpa Street
West End
QLD 4101
07 3844 1951
www.studio-thirteen.net

Street & Garden Furniture Co. director David Shaw sought to create a unique space to share with Brisbane's art/design community. His converted warehouse space, which is also home to his design studio, offers high ceilings and vast floor space. The space hosts regular seminars as well as periodical art, design and music events.

“A great place to hang out” was the prerequisite for this ex-warehouse space in Brisbane, Australia. Considerations included where to place games tables, sound system, bar and balconies for Fridays afternoons and entertaining clients. It was to become a place creatives gravitate towards and fight to leave.

The Street & Garden Furniture Co. design team set out to adapt fabrication methods and materials from recent street furniture products defying expectations of scale. The play of light though voids, derived from classic computer games, cherry blossoms and dappled light, create impromptu patterns day and night. Both structural and decorative elements are adorned in this way; the gates weighing 140kg each represent an enlarged Rorschach inkblot, while they swing without a sound on custom hinges. Externally street art was commissioned to bring further life into and around the space. While internally, a balance between the white of a gallery space and the robustness of a warehouse was sought. The designers workstations defy gravity, creating both private and shared spaces to encourage collaboration and conversation.

Unwilling to give up creative control, the Street & Garden design team went about designing every

detail, relying on laser cut aluminium and steel bent and welded into shape. Compact laminates were used
in unconventionally large spans and plexiglass was
routed and detailed with the studios unifying pattern. Magnetic paint has been applied behind workstations so that critical information is quick to hand and personalizing is encouraged. A mix of finishes were
applied to metal work throughout the building; from bead blasting to galvanizing and powder coating. Both the finishes and the production methods were applied from the street furniture and urban solutions with which the team are familiar and scaled up with their collective architectural experience. Even large canopies, gates and the feature balcony are built in relatively thin material, given strength by strategically bending and discreetly gusseting.

Special consideration was given to light and its interaction with elements in the space. The lights' luminescence and distance from decorated surfaces determine the scale and frequency of the laser cut pattern. Applying principles of photography insured that the dappled light remained in focus. Not intimidated by unfamiliar materials, the team specified Corian to be used in thin, cantilevered vanity basins and bench tops.

The strong connection between the in-house design team and the local design community has seen many memorable exhibitions in design, art and music come together in this space.

Photographer: Florian Groehn