Creating Space: The early days...

To help celebrate Space’s 30th birthday, More Space is taking a design ride back to the early days in a three-part series. From the launch of Space’s architecturally designed showrooms in Sydney and Melbourne in 1993, to the bold SPACE identity and cache of campaigns, the design festivals, installations and international design guests, architects, designers and clients who have embraced design icons for their projects and homes, we explore Space’s design journey across South East Asia, and talk to some of the people instrumental in shaping who Space is today.

The high tech, hand made world of Edra

With legendary art director Massimo Morozzi, founders Valerio and Monica Mazzei launched Edra in the final days of the Memphis movement, developing a research hub where designers Francesco Binfaré and Fernando and Humberto Campana helped establish Edra's reputation for art, innovation and a fascination for the avant-garde. 

Monica Armani on design that refreshes the soul

Based in Trento at the foot of the Dolomite Mountains, architect Monica Armani has created a house and studio that balances private and work spaces, and is immersed in nature which Armani describes as ‘the engine of everything’ and the foundation for objects and spaces that ‘refresh the soul’.

The language of clay inside Italian ceramics studio Rometti

Born and raised in Umbertide, a small town “immersed in the Umbrian countryside, among woods, streams and medieval walls,” since 1927 the Italian ceramics studio Rometti has adapted and re-formed artisan practice, shaping ancient clay with bold expressiveness and opening up the studio to visiting artists from around the world. 

Sue Carr and the elegant restraint of design

Designer Sue Carr is motivated by "the power of what interior design is about" to create work that is defined by a "seamless interface with architecture". Heading up Carr one of Australia’s leading practices that just celebrated 50 years, Sue Carr was recently awarded an (AM) of the Order of Australia for significant service to interior design.

The classics by B&B Italia

Since the 1960s, B&B Italia has led a trailblazing mission to open up new furniture typologies by revolutionising craft through innovation. Now after more than 50 years working with Mario Bellini to Patricia Urquiola, Antonio Citterio and Jean-Marie Massaud, the furniture powerhouse has become synonymous with award-winning classics that connect with us way beyond their function.

Cini Boeri, design trailblazer

The remarkable career of designer and architect the late Cini Boeri, who was affectionately known as the "lady of Italian design”, is an important legacy. One of the first women to graduate in architecture, then working with Gio Ponti and Marco Zanuso before setting up her own studio, Boeri was at the forefront of the groundbreaking ideas coming out of Italy in the 1960s and 70s.

How architect Brad Swartz is transforming small spaces with big ideas

Architect Brad Swartz has received a prestigious Australian Interior Design Award (AIDA) in the category of Emerging Interior Design Practice and it’s no wonder, in the last two years his Sydney studio has won a string of accolades for inventive apartments that punch way beyond their size.

Charlotte Perriand and the art of living

The largest exhibition on influential French designer Charlotte Perriand and featuring furniture and interiors across her nearly 80-year career, included her first big break, the polished aluminium and glass ‘Bar sous le Toit’, or, Bar under the Roof, at the Salon d’Automne in 1927 that caught the eye of Le Corbusier and began their 10-year collaboration.

Piero Lissoni, leading by design in Milan

Italian architect, art director and designer, Piero Lissoni, has studios in Milan and New York and since the mid-1980s has worked on establishing a practice that weaves between the design of buildings, furniture, exhibitions, and graphics.

How the 1960s inspired Gaetano Pesce's famous UP Series

Launched in 1969, the same year as the moon landing, art director Enrico Trabacchi developed a sci-fi campaign for UP using typography, photography and graphics described as “somewhere between Barbarella and the Amazons from outer space”. 

The many characters of Donna Wilson

London-based designer Donna Wilson makes all manner of knitted objects in her East London studio and dispatches them to the world. From cushions and creatures, to sweaters, scarves and ceramics, Donna Wilson’s designs are playful and funny and have developed a life of their own.