Original Thinkers Podcast

Sophie Bence and Shamus Mulcahy are co-founding directors of Bence Mulcahy, an award-winning Hobart architecture firm founded by the pair in 2014. Sophie and Shamus believe that great design shapes the engagement between people and the world around them and that architecture should be driven by the spirit of generosity. They are interested in global ideas applied to the specific context and push the boundaries to create unique and distinctive buildings that make a difference.

"Having complexity, and having parameters and rules and constraints, actually makes it quite easy – you just bounce off them. I mean, obviously, there were so many parameters to this project, but there was a determined design agenda as well, and trying to maintain that through all of that, is probably the real trick."

originalthinkers.com.au/bence-mulcahy

Links & Show Notes:

• Bence Mulcahy Architects
• LIMINAL Studio
• Article: Maximum Style, Minimum Waste
• Terroir
• Featured Architect: Scott Balmforth
• Article: Launceston’s mass timber building a glimpse into the built environment future
• Article: Fusilier Cottage
• Australian Institute of Architects – Fusilier Cottage
• Wild Huts
• Recorded at Production Farm (Hobart)
• Hosted by Claire Bennett
• Produced by Simon Brooke

Episode Sponsors:

• Tasmanian Timber
• Porta

Scott van Tuil is a Tasmanian designer-maker and the founder of VAN TUIL Design Studio. Scott graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Environmental Design and was named the 2015 DIA Vic-Tas Graduate of the Year for Furniture Design. He works with a range of materials to create objects that are beautiful in both form and design.

"I like the phrase – that if something is too beautiful or too good to throw out, then you've done a good job in terms of sustainability. That object or thing, whatever it is, is going to go on and serve its purpose for a much longer time."

originalthinkers.com.au/scott-van-tuil

Links & Show Notes:

• Scott van Tuil
• Loft Bench
• Art School – Hobart
• Matthew Prince – furniture designer
• DIA 2015 GOTYA – Furniture Design
• Design Tasmania – Permanent Wood Collection
• Loft Design Chair
• Moss Hotel
• Lexus Showroom Hobart
• Pumphouse Point
• Magic Box
• The Still – The Lark Bar
• Liminal Architects
• The Arch Vessel
• The Turbine Bowl
• Recorded at Production Farm (Hobart)
• Hosted by Claire Bennett
• Produced by Simon Brooke

Episode Sponsors:

• Tasmanian Timber
• McKay Timber

Dayne Davis is the Managing Director of Timber Design Studio, a firm that designs timber buildings internationally. They bring sustainable and forward-thinking design approaches to the mainstream of society.

"We actually have a really challenging one we're doing at the moment in the Middle East, a resort in the Middle East, where we're having to deal with a beautiful free-form canopy structure, which is cantilevering off moment-resistant connections about nine metres, and it's twelve metres tall so it's on an angle, but it being out in the desert, dealing with high humid, we're having to work with different species to overcome these challenges, and so it's exciting, you know, we always wanna be on the cutting edge but doing it within the realms of acceptability."

originalthinkers.com.au/dayne-davis

Links & Show Notes:

• Timber Design Studios
• Cusp Building Solutions
• Ron Goldschlager
• Terroir
• St Lukes Health, Launceston Mass Timber Building
• Glue Lam
• Nitens – Tasmanian Plantation Oak
• Spruce
• Radiata Pine
• Paris Climate Agreement
• Explaining Carbon Sequestration
• What is Carbon Sequestration?
• Article: Business needs to lead for our climate, and buildings are low hanging fruit
• Facadism
• LOD 400 Level of detail, or level of development
• The Shard (London) - the tallest skyscraper in Europe
• Green Swans by John Elkington
• Recorded at Production Farm (Hobart)
• Hosted by Claire Bennett
• Produced by Simon Brooke

Episode Sponsors:

• Tasmanian Timber
• Abelwood by Neville Smith Forest Products

With an eye for dramatic tension, Adam Gibson's photography reflects a life spent roaming within and beyond the wild Tasmanian landscape. Responding to diverse creative briefs, architecture, people, and landscapes are the heroes of his work.

"I think my creativity gets nurtured from doing anything but being creative. So, in some ways it's about being in the ocean, it's about being in the mountains - walking or riding, or trying to teach my kids about creativity, or kind of fostering their minds in terms of creative thinking as well. So, I think my creativity comes from my connection to place. That's probably the ultimate driver of my inspiration and my motivation."

originalthinkers.com.au/adam-gibson

Links & Show Notes:

• Adam Gibson
• Keep Cup
• Philippine Islands for Qantas Magazine
• Gourmet Traveller Magazine
• Aman Luxury Resorts
• The Girl with the Green Eye
• Josh Lamont
• Ancient Remains, Tasmanian project with Josh Lamont
• Preston Lane
• Taylor Hinds
• Taylor Hinds - Krakani Lumi Camp
• Taylor Hinds - Jordan Hill Road House
• High Feature Timber - Grades of Tasmanian Oak
• Saul Leiter
• Recorded at Production Farm (Hobart)
• Hosted by Claire Bennett
• Produced by Simon Brooke

Episode Sponsors:

• Tasmanian Timber
• Britton Timbers

Scott Balmforth is an architect and Director at Terroir — Terroir is a collective of architects and urbanists dedicated to producing work that increases the connection between people and the places they inhabit. With offices in Tasmania, Sydney, and Copenhagen,  Terroir engages in the world from opposite corners of it, bringing breadth and depth of experience and multiple perspectives on the fragility of our world and the need to care for it.

"Most wonderful clients - St Luke's Health - who at the core of what they do, they've got the fantastic vision for Tasmania to be the healthiest island in the world. When it came time to do the project, we just thought doing a mass timber building and the inherent qualities that, that will bring in terms of proven data around the benefits for people that are using those buildings, the enjoyment, the healthy aspects of working within an all-timber building, it was a perfect fit."

originalthinkers.com.au/scott-balmforth

Links & Show Notes:

• Terroir
• Cusp Building Solutions
• St Lukes Health
• Dayne Davis
• Timber Design Studio
• Wikipedia: Spatial Planning
• Article: Launceston’s Mass Timber Building
• Cusp: Why Build with Mass Timber
• Hosted by Claire Bennett
• Produced by Simon Brooke
• Recorded at Production Farm (Hobart)

Episode Sponsors:

• Tasmanian Timber
• Cusp Building Solutions

Peta Heffernan & Elvio Brianese of LIMINAL Studio — LIMINAL is a globally connected, creatively agile think-tank that integrates design and architecture with the disciplines of interior design, furniture, object design, arts, curation and production design. Embracing a multi-disciplinary design approach driven by purpose, function and meaning, LIMINAL was recently awarded the Tasmanian Architecture Medal, the highest accolade of the Tasmanian Architectural Awards along with a raft of other awards for the Hedberg, the University of Tasmania's Performing Arts Centre.

"It's about re-imagining something that already exists. That for us is what generates our approach to new thinking. It's not starting from a blank canvas, so much of this has already existed before. But it's, how do you look at this a bit more sideways? How do you actually reimagine this to make it something that fits this place? It's similar to the way that we looked at the materiality of the building, and the interiors and the timbers that we used."

originalthinkers.com.au/liminal-studio

Links & Show Notes:

• Liminal Studio
• Peta Heffernan
• Elvio Brianese
• The Hedberg
• Article: The Hedberg
• Cusp Building Solutions
• 2022 Tasmanian Architectural Awards
• WOHA
• Theatre Royal
• Eduardo Chillida
• San Sebastian Scultpure Park
• Michelle Maynard
• Carbon Neutral Bricks
• Structural Grey Tasmanian Plywood
• David Walsh
• Greg Nolan, Centre for Sustainable Architecture with Wood (CSAW)
• Biophilic Design
• Lucy Given
• Hosted by Claire Bennett
• Produced by Simon Brooke
• Recorded at Production Farm (Hobart)

Episode Sponsors:

• Tasmanian Timber
• Hydrowood

David Brand has over 40 years of experience in forestry investment, forest management, science, and public policy and holds a PhD in Forestry Quantitative Ecophysiology from the University of British Columbia. David is the Founder, Chair and CEO of the forestry investment management business New Forests. New Forests manages nearly 9 billion dollars in forestry, conservation and wood processing assets across Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Africa and the United States.

"I look out 20, 30, 40 years and we think about a world of 10 billion people. We think about a world that the gross world product will triple; that's like putting three of the world's economies on the same planet. And when you think about that weight of economic activity, it drives you to thinking about sustainability as central to everything, and so then I thought about the forestry sector as really, a source of sustainability solutions."

originalthinkers.com.au/david-brand

Links & Show Notes:

• New Forests
• ActivAcre
• Article: David Brand on ActivAcre
• Kyoto Protocol
• Carbon Rights Legislation Act 1998
• AB 32 Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006
• Australian Emissions Reduction Fund
• Timberlink Australia
• Cross Laminated Timber
• The Global Impact Investment Network
• Hosted by Claire Bennett
• Produced by Simon Brooke

Episode Sponsors:

• Tasmanian Timber
• Porta

Henry Williams is a multi-disciplinary designer and head of Henry Williams Studio. He was recently Senior Architect for Snohetta Australasia. Henry collaborated with Designer Maker Jon Goulder at Melbourne Design week for an exhibition called Self Portrait - creating a table from cross-laminated timber with a collection of ceramics and tableware.

"A lot of the products that endure have been anonymously designed. Things like staplers, coffee makers, coat hangers - they're so familiar we almost forget that they had to be designed. And interestingly, all efforts to design them better, tend to fail. They do what they need to do. They're not acts of one-off creation; industry, economics, and a thousand little creative acts get them to that point. It's a modest way of thinking about design, but I think a really powerful one."

originalthinkers.com.au/henry-williams

Links & Show Notes:

• Henry Williams Studio on Instagram
• Video: Cusp x Williams + Goulder Table
• Article: Williams + Goulder choose Cusp CLT for Self Portrait at Melbourne Design Week
• Melbourne Design Week
• MDW 2022: Self Portrait
• Jon Goulder - Designer Maker
• Cusp Building Solutions
• Super Normal - Jasper Morrison & Naoto Fukasawa
• Snøhetta
• Hosted by Claire Bennett

Episode Sponsors:

• Tasmanian Timber
• Cusp Building Solutions

Michelle Boyde is a designer and curator living in Tasmania, with a Bach (Design) at RMIT's School of Architecture and Design and a background in contemporary dance. Michelle approaches design in a broad-thinking and cross-disciplinary way, with a unique and transferable skill that spans fashion, interiors, objects and installation.

She has designed and curated extensively within the national cultural sphere for organisations such as Chunk Move, Mona, Bakehouse Studia, State of Design and Melbourne Fashion Week. Michelle is the co-creator of Unconscious Collective.

"I think people are drawn to Tasmania and Tasmanian design; designers here treat their materials with a respect that comes from being inextricably linked to the natural world. Sustainability comes naturally to us, living on an island, and I think people are drawn to that - we've been practising it a long time, and are leaders now, I guess, in sustainability."

originalthinkers.com.au/michelle-boyde

Links & Show Notes:

• Michelle Boyde on Instagram
• Unconscious Collective
• Melbourne Design Fair: PRESENT | Design Tasmania
• MDW 2022: Design Tasmania
• Melbourne Design Week
• Laura McCusker
• Scott van Tuil
• Jon Goulder - Designer Maker
• Hosted by Claire Bennett
• Recorded at Production Farm (Hobart)

Episode Sponsors:

• Tasmanian Timber
• McKay Timber

Fiona Lyda is the Principal behind Spence & Lyda, a Sydney retail showroom that seeks to showcase design that adds meaning to the living experience - pieces designed to stay in our lives for generations. She has a background as a production designer, art director and spent 20 years as a costume designer for film and tv, before opening Spence & Lyda.

"What has always driven Spence & Lyda and always driven me, is a fascination for the why of the thing, not just the wow of the thing. There needs to be a reason for things to exist, and it can be and should be obviously beauty, but it really should also carry with it the embodied elements of care for our planet, care for ourselves, and the stories behind why it's being built."

originalthinkers.com.au/fiona-lyda

Links & Show Notes:

• Article: Innate 2.0 by Jon Goulder and Fiona Lyda
• Video: Innate 2.0 at MDW 2022
• Article: Spence & Lyda's Innate Collection is a Timely Rally Cry
• Video: Spence & Lyda - Innately Australian
• Spence & Lyda
• Spence & Lyda: Showcase - Innate 2.0
• Spence & Lyda: Innate by Jon Goulder
• Spence & Lyda: Showcase - Futures Collective
• Jon Goulder - Designer Maker
• Melbourne Design Week
• MDW 2022: Spence and Lyda presents Innate at Futures Collective
• MDW 2022: Futures Collective
• Tasmanian Timber: Blackwood
• Tasmanian Timber: Tasmanian Oak
• Boyz II Men - Water Runs Dry
• Winning Appliances
• Hosted by Claire Bennett

Episode Sponsors:

• Tasmanian Timber
• Britton Timbers