In 1^stC BCE, Vitruvius established three timeless principles of good design – firmitas, utilitas, and venustas (strength, utility and beauty). Modernism reshaped the translation of these principles for the machine age, and in the 1970s, German designer Dieter Rams coined his own ‘ten principles of good design’.

Half a century on, how do we define ‘good design’? What is considered strong, useful and beautiful today? Design practitioner and educator Dr Anthony Duckworth will facilitate a lively panel conversation exploring the spirit of design in 2024 and beyond, as ecological crisis, new technology and Indigenous ways of knowing necessitate radical change.

Special guest panellist Liam Young will be joined by Future Materials founder, Foolscap Studio associate director Renae Tapley, and Whadjuk and Balardong Nyoongar woman and cultural consultant Sandra Harben, to consider the role of design and designers in the past, present and future.

This event is part of the Fremantle Design Week Conversations Series.

Students and concession card holders can use code FDWCONCESSION for 10% off tickets.

Image: Dieter Rams ponders the question

Conversations Series presented by:

Dr Anthony Duckworth

Anthony is an urban design professional who strives for new and impactful ways to tackle the challenges of growing cities in the contemporary context of ecological crisis.  He has two main areas of focus. The first is enabling and advocating for good design through education, professional design review, research, communication and practice. The second is how to strengthen local and community influence in urban planning and design decision making. Fairplace, the enterprise he manages, focusses on this, creating unique and innovative tools to inform public policy. Good design is durable and adaptable, communities prioritise well-being and healthy environments. These are the foundations for a responsible built environment future.

Liam Young

Liam Young is an LA-based designer, director and BAFTA-nominated producer who operates in the spaces between design, fiction and futures. His visionary films and speculative worlds are both extraordinary images of tomorrow and urgent examinations of the environmental questions facing us today. 

As a worldbuilder, he visualises the cities, spaces and props of our imaginary futures for the film and television industry, working in Hollywood and across the globe. His own films have been widely exhibited and are in the collections of international museums including the Art Institute of Chicago, Cooper Hewitt, the V&A, the NGV, M Plus Hong Kong and MoMA. 

Liam has been acclaimed in both mainstream and design media including features with TED, Wired, New Scientist, Arte, Canal+, Time magazine and many more.

Liam’s film work is informed by his academic research and he has held guest professorships at Princeton University, MIT, and Cambridge. He now runs the ground-breaking Masters in Fiction and Entertainment at SCI Arc in Los Angeles.

Renae Tapley

Renae is an interior designer and an associate director at Foolscap Studio, a boutique interior architecture practice that works across Australia. With over 20 years experience leading interior architecture projects and design teams, she is an agile thinker and an engaging leader with a focus on sustainable building materials and the green economy. She is a 2023 recipient of the Western Australian Government’s New Industry Fund: Innovation Booster Grant for her project, Future Materials, and was awarded a 2023 Churchill Fellowship to research innovation in green building materials’ manufacture and supply in global markets. The goal of the project is to drive demand for circular and closed loop products, and sustain a thriving local supply chain of green materials innovation.

Sandra Harben
 
Sandra Harben is a creative Whadjuk Noongar cultural consultant working across social services, government and business. A graduate of the University of Western Australia, in 1995 she studied at the University of Illinois as a recipient of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Overseas Study Award. In 2003 she was awarded Murdoch University’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Scholarship.

In 2021, Sandra collaborated with Fremantle architecture practice Penhale & Winter on the Fremantle Biennale architectural commission Gathering Place. The project won the 2022 Nicholas Murcutt Award for Small Project Architecture in the National Architecture Awards.

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