A self-confessed architecture nerd, the comedian, writer, television presenter and, most recently, podcaster, Tim Ross, is on a mission to share his love of design with the world, one spoon, lamp, chair, building and city at a time. More Space caught up with him to chat about 'Tim & Kev's Big Design Adventure', the power of niche content, all the fun he's having working with Kevin McLeod, the universal things that connect us, and his orange KD28 lamp by Joe Colombo.
Tim Ross is on his next big design adventure
Hi Tim, congratulations on the podcast, Tim & Kev’s Big Design Adventure. Let’s talk about the big idea behind it.
I think Kevin and I wanted to find something to work on together that we could do ourselves, and that didn’t require other people believing in it. Something simple that allowed us to visit each other and roll around in our passions with complete control. As Kevin quite aptly says, ‘We’re too old to be told what to do’. The show is not just us banging on, it’s a discovery process that involves meeting people and visiting places that inspire us, so hopefully this idea of the adventure is inclusive in the way that people can come along on the journey and feel part of it. From the success of it, there are are a lot of people who find what we're talking about interesting too.
You mentioned your audience, who is turning up?
I think they're generally people who are interested in either me, Kevin, us together, and in design and life. As much as it’s got design on the tin, we’re talking about humanity, we’re talking about people. They're all very universal things. I would love people to think that it's much broader than simply a design podcast, but I'm not fussed about that. People always find things. That’s the beauty of niche content, it’s for people who really like a particular something.
This might be hard to narrow down, but what is one of your highlights?
I am constantly inspired by the people and places we meet. When we’ve recorded in the UK, that's probably been more eye-opening for me because it's much newer. These trips over to the UK and Kevin coming out here to Australia, we’re each playing tour guide so we're doing our best to show off our own country, our architecture and stories.
Visiting the house of architect Patty Hopkins and her husband Michael in London was definitely a highlight for me. It’s a house that I’d only seen photos of and always been fascinated by. It’s incredibly interesting because it’s a modernist house of my time in the 1970s when I was a kid. Patty’s in her early 80s and is an extraordinary architect, really interesting. She has a great take on history and her own career. Extremely pragmatic, Patty is very much of that generation of women who just got on with things. I find that incredibly admirable because they were up against all sorts of roadblocks and she is one of many who navigated them perfectly. That’s my mother’s generation, and I'm in awe of those women. I think when you can marry great architecture with an incredibly inspiring person, that’s the perfect sweet spot for me and that constantly comes up.
We often say, every house is your favourite and every new person you interview is your new friend. It sounds like you're a bit of a floozy but we've got room in our hearts for more than one house and more than one song or one book, and I think that's okay.
Tim Ross with his KD28 lamp designed by Joe Colombo in 1967. Photo c/o Tim Ross.
The KD28 Lamp in a myriad of colour re-released by Kartell in 2025. Photo c/o Kartell.
'I've got an original orange KD28 and classics are classics. It’s that expression. Those bright colours of the 70s certainly connect with me on that front, but when I was putting some images together for Instagram I saw something completely different. They also just feel incredibly contemporary.'
Tim Ross, co-host, Tim & Kev's Big Design Adventure
You and Kevin have known each other for many years, what have you learnt working with him – maybe something that surprised you?
Well, he carries a steamer around with him to steam his own clothes, that was pretty amazing (laughter). I love his energy in terms of the way he interacts with the world, it’s extraordinary. He is very thoughtful and generous and curious and will happily chat to everyone about anything and I find that inspiring. He also is sillier than a lot of people realise, and he’s definitely funnier, but of course he's got this huge intellect. What I really like is that I can sort of babble away about something and he'll just listen and then distil it and present it to the audience in the most perfect way.
What are the universal ingredients that make a great house?
I like the layers of history where spaces change but the ideas remain. A great house has to reflect a life well-lived, they have to be full of things that mean something and tell the story of the people who lived there, and they have to feel lived in. They’re not always the best designed houses in the world. A house can have a great spirit because the people who live there have lovely things, are great cooks, or have great personalities. A wonderful warm family in a funny old house. Sometimes it’s the small design things that can make our lives better. You can talk about great design elevating people's lives but you’ve also got to be prepared to say that you know we've all lived in houses that haven't been designed as such but there's thoughtfulness in them, they lift your spirit. I grew up in a small house as a kid and that stays with me. I live in a smallish house now and I like the proximity of being around my wife and my children.
You're a self-confessed modernist fan. What is it about that design moment that really connects with you?
A big chunk of it started with nostalgia because it was the architecture when I was a kid. Modernism in its simple form was the architecture of television and movies, so I was always fascinated. More recently it's about understanding what a modernist house can do for you and the joy it can bring. If you're living in a house that’s full of sunshine, that you can open up so fresh air comes in, I think you have a healthier life. It arcs back to the early ideas of modernism and the simplicity, for me that's the magic.
Is that why you're so passionate about saving the moderns?
Yes, but I'm passionate about saving everything really. It doesn't really matter which era, I’m interested in all types of buildings. If we change everything we will regret it. We will lose what makes our cities and suburbs feel like home and without history in our built environment we've got nothing, and I think our lives are less rich for that.
Tim & Kev's Big Design Adventure weekly podcast engages through stories about design and the people who shape it. Image c/o Tim Ross.
Kevin McLeod and Tim Ross at the Kettle's Yard gallery at Cambridge University, here and next. Photos c/o Tim Ross.
'I think Kevin and I wanted to find something to work together on that we could do ourselves, and that didn’t require other people believing in it. Something simple that allowed us to visit each other and roll around in our passions with complete control. As Kevin quite aptly says, "We’re too old to be told what to do".'
Tim Ross, co-host, Tim & Kev's Big Design Adventure
Part of that modernist history is the Kartell KD28 lamp designed in 1967 by the legendary architect Joe Colombo that’s just been re-released. How do you feel about the design industry’s nostalgia moment?
I think for all brands there's so much in the back catalogue and I there is a new audience. I've got an original orange KD28 and classics are classics. It’s that expression. Those bright colours of the 70s certainly connect with me on that front, but when I was putting some images together for Instagram I saw something completely different. They also just feel incredibly contemporary. There’s a reason why people still lust after a bentwood chair designed over 100 years ago. They speak to us in some way. It's a bit like music. I was in a local Op shop and there were some kids who were about 14 and a woman in her 80s and they were all singing along to a Fleetwood Mac song that was playing. In many ways there's nothing more contemporary than Fleetwood Mac and furniture is the same. The things that affect us emotionally will always reign supreme.
If we talk about furniture of the 1960s – Mario Bellini and his Camaleonda and that wonderful self-inflating UP Series by Gaetano Pesce – they are pieces designed more than 50 years ago now finding a new audience which is really interesting.
A lot of the 1960s was defined by new materials and new ways of manufacturing so there was an excitement for young designers. Suddenly they could use materials in a far more inventive way and that pushed their minds, everything was possible is the best way of putting it. You can feel that spirit in them. Some things are timeless for a good reason because they are well designed and they speak to us in some way, and we can't always put our finger on that.
'There’s a reason why people still lust after a bentwood chair designed over 100 years ago. They speak to us in some way. It's a bit like music... The things that affect us emotionally will always reign supreme.'
Tim Ross, co-host, Tim & Kev's Big Design Adventure
You dig into stories about design, about cities and planning, right down to the design of furniture and cutlery. Is there a story that has really caught your interest?
When we went to the David Mellor Cutlery Factory in the UK, inside the beautiful Sir Michael Hopkins building, known as The Round Building that's inside an old gas works, we called it the most beautiful factory in the world. They are still manufacturing by hand. David’s son Coran runs it now and he's doing his own designs. I loved it when he said, ‘Well if you bought a teaspoon 50 years ago, you can still buy that teaspoon when you lose one’. Something about that really appeals to me. They’ve been able to scale up significantly but also remain deeply connected to the handmade. Some of the machinery has been there since the 60s and it is still fabulous.
I think the further we get away from the handmade the less we become connected to things that we own. When we buy something that is handmade, or has a certain amount of craft, and is well designed, you connect with the person who actually made it. Those things become more special. I now have David Mellor cutlery on my wish list because I have a personal connection from being there, seeing how it's made, and knowing that if and when that happens, that cutlery will be with me and my children for a very long time.
Do you think it’s design’s back story that people connect with?
I think so. When I made the television series ‘Designing a Legacy', it was all about connecting architecture to people. If you make a broad series about architecture, the building and the process, and it doesn't have sense of family or home, it’s just less likely to strike a chord. I like to focus on stories because if you don’t initially appreciate the architecture you can connect with the classic family moments that are incredibly universal. Then in the background, the story of the architecture is bubbling away. It's an entry Into the world of design through storytelling.
I was recently in a 1960s house in Adelaide, talking about how we live, what we can learn from modernism and why those homes work for us. I was telling a story about friends of mine who live in New Zealand in another great 60s home. When the architect designed it for the original owners he was 22 or 23. They loved it but said there was one problem, ’It doesn't have a laundry’. (laughter) Those simple, humorous stories always connect with people because they find the folly and humanity in it. They give us the stickiness for people to stay engaged. That is the basis of what I do, and certainly that's what Kevin does as well. He is a very successful story teller and that's why he's been able to light up the screens for all these years.
'Buildings reveal everything. We travel to see the history of other people’s cities and then in our own we often destroy them, which is completely absurd. We need to tell those stories here too because we want to be uplifted by that history and the people who have done good things.'
Tim Ross, co-host, Tim & Kev's Big Design Adventure
You tackle the big issues in a really positive way, telling stories through inspiring projects that build a picture of what could be. What projects are inspiring you right now?
I believe the most important thing is to look at everything in terms of positivity. We have a negative cloud over almost everything we see online and in the news cycle, and that becomes oppressive. Kevin and I talk a lot about conservation and how we should celebrate buildings so that we have a connection to them, and broadly understand why they should remain. That way we don’t remove the character of our neighbourhoods, we hold onto heritage and offer different types of housing for people.
We recently visited a suburb just near Fremantle and met Kate Fitzgerald of Whispering Smith. Kate has taken a 1960s house and instead of knocking it over, she restored it and will put another dwelling at the back. So that lets you hold onto the heritage of the suburbs. It’s a funny old house, full of terrazzo and stories of who we are and where we’ve come from, so that’s really embodied there which is important. Rather than a dual occupancy to replace it, another good house will go behind it that is sympathetic to the neighbourhood and gives everyone what they want. Kate also wants to go further. By taking those little slithers of land all over our suburbs, rather than just putting a granny flat up, she wants to build four micro-houses in the back of a laneway. As she says, it is density by stealth.
The government is doing good things with the Housing Pattern Book guide in New South Wales, but the language around heritage is not particularly promising. They need to rethink what it is about the city and suburbs that is important.
The character and stories of the past that enrich our lives and make us happy, that make us think about the lineage of this city and who we are. Buildings reveal everything. We travel to see the history of other people’s cities and then in our own we often destroy them, which is completely absurd. We need to tell those stories here too because we want to be uplifted by that history and the people who have done good things. It’s infectious. People are good and thoughtful and do great work and we need to celebrate that.
Thank you Tim, it's always a pleasure chatting with you.
The 1967 KD28 by Joe Colombo has been re-released by Kartell and is available exclusively from Space Furniture – Australia and Space Furniture – Singapore and Malaysia.
Space is a proud supporter of Tim & Kev's Big Design Adventure.