A silver gelatin dry plate glass negative in landscape format.

Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

Sepia photograph of the Technological Museum and a cow in the foreground

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Sepia photograph of the Technological College and Museum in Broken Hill

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Colour photograph of red corrugated iron building from a high vantage point

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Powerhouse Museum, Stage 2 exterior from high angle, city skyline in background

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Blurred image from film with museum object number

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

A table of material testing samples including objects 3D printed from algae, oyster shell waste and biobased plastics.

Powerhouse Renewal

Two people standing next to a cow in a field of cows.

Powerhouse Food: Producers

Across Western Sydney24 Aug 2024 — 25 Jul 2025
Pop art collage with many bright colours and overlapping graphics.

Powerhouse Lane

Parramatta Lanes23—26 Oct
Shadows cast by the Powerhouse Parramatta exoskeleton on concrete

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

A woman stands on stage in front of a large audience. She has her left hand raised in the air and a microphone in her right hand. The audience are holding their phones up recording the woman.

Blak Powerhouse

Powerhouse x We Are Warriors

Slider thumb2023
A table of material testing samples including objects 3D printed from algae, oyster shell waste and biobased plastics.

MEDL x SDW

Tag iconExhibition
when
Ended 24 Sept 2023
where
Sydney Design Week Material Labs

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Material Ecologies Design Lab (MEDL) is teaming up with Sydney Design Week to bring the Material Ecologies Design Lab (MEDL) x Sydney Design Week kitchen to Eddy Avenue. MEDL is a lively creative practice and research lab committed to transforming waste, transitioning material systems and designing for a post-petrochemical world.

The Material Ecologies Design Lab (MEDL) x Sydney Design Week kitchen will host designers cooking up a range of sustainable, renewable and bio-based materials on site, provoking conversations about material futures, circularity and the culpability of design. It will showcase designers working with recycled glass, algae, cellulose, mycelium and brewer’s spent grain, and their creative approaches to challenging unsustainable production chains using new technologies.

Exhibitiors

Dr Stefan Lie is a product designer and co-director of the UTS Material Ecologies Design Lab, working at the intersection of product interaction, material ecologies and sustainable design. His research emphasises the relationship between humans and materials based on an object’s form, surface and texture and its resulting contribution to cultures of overconsumption and waste. He has a particular interest in the use of next-generation bio-derived polymers as an alternative to petrochemicals.

Nahum McLean is a designer, maker and PhD candidate with the UTS Material Ecologies Design Lab. McLean has worked for some of Australia’s leading fashion houses as a drape-based designer and patternmaker. His research is responding to climate breakdown and developing novel biobased and biodegradable materials for applications across fashion, design and architecture.

Saul Mazabow is a designer and PhD candidate who is researching and developing sustainable rapid prototyping processes for use in product design. His research involves the development of novel material composite pastes for 3D printing, derived from locally sourced organic waste.

Dr Kate Scardifield is an artist and co-director of the UTS Material Ecologies Design Lab. Her research charts materials through states of transformation, emphasising the importance of transitioning critical systems of production away from petrochemicals and towards more sustainable material futures. Scardifield leads interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects that bring together material culture studies and materials science, connecting science with creative practice and driving innovation through expanded forms of design.

Ella Williams is a product designer and PhD candidate with the UTS Material Ecologies Lab, working at the intersection of sustainable materials and digital technologies. Her research aims to find ways of using bio-based and waste materials through 3D printing and computational design methods. Her current research looks at 3D printing of building components with a recycled glass powder.

Details

Venue

On Gadigal land

Sydney Design Week Material Labs
4–7 Eddy Ave Central Station
Haymarket NSW 2000

Entry

Free

15–24 September 2023
Daily 12–4pm
Weekends 10am–4pm

Supported by