Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Expanding Stories

Evolution of the Castle Hill site from botanical research station to Museum Discovery Centre

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

Powerhouse Renewal

A transformative renewal program across four sites

We Rise

Blak Powerhouse

Powerhouse-1 Mission Launch to the ISS

An initiative of the Powerhouse: Future Space program

2024

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

Sydney Design Week

Across Sydney12—24 Sep

2025

NSW Design Residency

The NSW Design (Early-Career) Residency, connects emerging designers with experienced mentors at Powerhouse Ultimo.

‘The Powerhouse is committed to nurturing emerging talent and supporting their growth. We believe this residency will be a pivotal opportunity, fostering the development of their work and practice.’

Lisa Havilah, Chief Executive, Powerhouse

Valued at $75,000, the Residency supports three early career designers to enrich their professional practice during a six month residency under the guidance of experienced mentors at Powerhouse Ultimo. Each resident will receive $25,000 in financial support; mentorship by an established designer relevant to their field; studio space at Powerhouse Ultimo, including access to the museum's curators and collection, workshop facilities and technicians; and connections within the sector to develop their networks and skills.

The NSW Design (Early-Career) Residency is made possible through a partnership between Create NSW and Powerhouse as part of the Create NSW Creative Leadership Fellowship programs.

‘By investing in NSW's design talent, the NSW Government is ensuring our creative industry flourishes as an engine room for the innovation and groundbreaking design needed to meet the challenges of our times and revolutionise how we live and work. ’

Annette Pitman, Chief Executive, Create NSW

Powerhouse Initiatives

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Funded by Create NSW

2023 Residents

Marlo Lyda, Joel Sherwood-Spring and Ben Styles were selected for the inaugural NSW Design (Early-Career) Residents for 2023.

Marlo Lyda

The fellowship program builds upon Marlo's graduation work Scraptopia (2021) from Design Academy, which demonstrates that copper can be reclaimed from electronic waste and transformed into desirable objects in an infinite cycle.

This new body of work will emerge from a uniquely Australian context, tracing the lifecycle of copper from soil to recycling. Drawing on archival documentation and first-hand research into copper mining in Australia, Marlo intends to develop physical outcomes (objects or furniture) that are 'mined' from a sustainable source, like copper recovered from our urban waste streams.

The fellowship will be pivotal in scaling Marlo's existing research (in Scraptopia) to introduce larger objects and a system for their production, including sourcing materials from urban e-waste collection/recycling facilities.

Joel Sherwood-Spring

The program originates from asking, ‘What if an analysis of Architecture and Urbanism began with what and who is disappeared in the process?’

By embracing a decolonial methodology of Indigenous Storywork the study further explores embedded relationality in Indigenous Knowledge systems and how that extends to the material world. This study seeks to locate the lineages and limitations of colonial thought and its materialising affects as an epistemological base by which racial difference is consolidated in this country. Both in the histories of settler colonialism, but also, in contemporary articulations that continue to erase Indigenous cultures and narratives.

Ben Styles

Ben will research and explore radical innovation in the speculative re-design of consumer goods and appliances used to enhance our daily lives.

The vision and the outcome of the fellowship is a public cultural shift away from product overconsumption and wasteful design, and towards a sustainable future where user ownership celebrates the care, upkeep, and active role in the lifecycle of the essential products we require.

He also aims to use the extensive Powerhouse historical archives to conduct anthropological case studies of the design, assembly, and user-experience of three or more pervasive household consumer products. The body of work will be publicly presented in an exhibition of augmented post-consumer goods and in the development and delivery of exploratory workshops where participants will engage directly with research concepts and hand building/crafting.

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