Saturday, 5 April 2014

Look Upstairs Wrap Up - agIdeas - Melbourne 2014

I know after three days of non-stop presentations that each speaker had inspired us all to keep persevering with our studies to become designers. Whether that is graphic design, multimedia design or industrial design each profession has so much to give to our societies all over the world. 

Each day there was around 2,000 students, professionals and educators which sat and listened to some particularly intriguing and innovative solutions to problems. 

To pick out some designers out of this amazing pool. 

I would have to say John Bielenberg's (North America) work stood out to me with such projects like as Project M which helps young designers prove their work to have a positive impact on their communities. Giuseppe Demaio's (Australia) work such as the campaign to highlight problems in some of the poorest communities on the planet. The movement is called NCDFREE a global movement against non-communicable deseases. Kongjian Yu (China) a landscape and urban designer. His work prioritizes the environment first allowing design to deliver it to the people that interact and walk through it. Studio Roosegaarge (Netherlands) a social design lab which had projects such as the Smart Highway using smart paints, energy harvesting and sensors to improve safety, efficiency and the overall driving experience. Lotus Dome made from a unique temperature sensitive foil which moves in relation to heat opening and closing accordingly. These works really stood out to me. There were so many more that I could talk about but it would take hours and hours!

Over the 3 days right outside the Hammer Hall a design garden was set up allowing during the breaks and for the design week people to socialize and hang out. 


1st Day - Seats were comfortable, not so on the 3rd Day

Amazing ceiling lights, Hammer Hall

Old school vespa with tray!

Design garden with digital exhibition on the lawn

Just stumbled across this once empty block now converted into "Testing Grounds"

Pallets, Fruit, Vegetables, Water, Tacos what more could you want

Design garden


Well they said that this is the last agIdeas. I luckily got to go twice in its long history of events in Melbourne. The tickets were not cheap at all, but in the end totally worth it.