Guests Toast to the Fifth Urbis Designday

In one of the most anticipated events in the Auckland design calendar, Urbis Designday 2010 has now begun!

The canapés are ready, champagne poured, models styled and after weeks of planning, the stunning and creative installations completed - all to entertain and delight Auckland design fans for one day only; Saturday 20th March.

The best of New Zealand’s multimedia artists, landscape and graphic designers, architects, fashion designers, and creatives have worked to the same brief; ‘off the grid’ and the results are remarkably varied with each showroom being transformed with colour, light, fabric, and technology into an individual piece of theatre.

Urbis Designday guests are transported from showroom to showroom until the circuit is finished, after seeing – in all – 13 inspiring presentations.

HQ for the day is at the award winning Ironbank on Karanaghape Rd, where a fabric sculpture is woven through the building and integrated with the new Audi A5 sportback on display; the installation is created by Richard Naish from RTA Studio – the architects of Ironbank.

Other installations include the ghostly wonderland created by fashion designer Alexandra Owen at Inovo in Parnell. Fabric and obscure objects integrate with bathroom ware in a tribute to twisted film noir.

Around the corner at Poggenpohl the scale and detail of architectural collective OH.NO.SUMO’s 3-dimensional geometric installation definitely has “wow factor” as guests walk through a dream space celebrating ‘the power of three’.

There’s a kiwi twist on classic Italian art at Studio Italia; and the nine muses are the inspiration at Hafele. And for the first time at Urbis Designday young designers from AUT are exhibiting their work in the HP Future Designers installation at Simon James in Newton.

Urbis editor Nicole Stock is thrilled with the scale and variety of this year’s installations. “It really has been a huge creative effort for the designers and showrooms to pull together such awe-inspiring installations,” she said. “It’s an unforgettable day and I’m sure Designday guests will finish the day truly inspired.”

Urbis Designday is endorsed by the Auckland City Council and The Hon John Banks QSO Mayor of Auckland City has said “excellent architecture and design will be a key part of a greater Auckland. Urbis Designday is an opportunity to showcase some of the key people and businesses who are already contributing to world class design within our city.”

The 2010 Urbis Designday collaborations are:

- Cite / DUB module & World

- design denmark / Penny Vernon

- Häfele / Patrick Reynolds

- Poggenpohl / OH.NO.SUMO

- Matisse / Brendon Reid & Automation Associates

- Matisse Contract Interiors / Brogen Averill & Automation Associates

- Inovo / Alexandra Owen

- Kohler / Zambesi

- Essenze / NZ Design Collective (Chris Metcalfe & Te Rongo Kirkwood, plus David Trubridge)

- Cavit & Co / Xanthe White Design

- Studio Italia / Dulux & newimproved

- AUT / HP Future Designers at Simon James

- RTA Studio / Audi & Urbis at Ironbank.



Designday guests must register and passes can be bought on the day from Urbis HQ at Ironbank; 22 Cross St, Newton from 10am. For more information see www.urbismagazine.com/designday