Online Form Submission
Title: White Bay Design and Innovation Precinct / Australian Design and Creative Precinct
Details:
"The White Bay Power Station presents a unique opportunity to position Australia as an Asia Pacific Hub
for design, innovation and technology. The new Precinct would provide a perfect location to showcase the
very latest in design and technology across a broad range of design disciplines including: Industrial
Design, Architectural Design, Digital and Communications Design, Business Design and Service Design
and Social Innovation.
The transformation of an old Power Station into a modern centre for design and innovation creates a
strong narrative that reflects the current evolution of Australian industry from a mining and
manufacturing base into a design-led service based economy offering high value design and positioning
Australia as a modern, sophisticated and prosperous country.
This is not a museum, not a technology park, not the Powerhouse Museum - it is a creative precinct that
allows innovation to flourish.
An innovative country is grounded on deep technical expertise but it’s not enough to invest in being
‘smart’ – we need to foster creativity and create an environment where design and innovation can be
celebrated. Australia does not have a central home for design - this concept presents a unique
opportunity to centralise a precinct around design, innovation and creativity that is both nationally and
internationally recognised.
Based on a similar concept where a power station was transformed into a design and arts hub in Essen,
Germany (see attached pictures) the Design and Innovation Precinct can be positioned as a home for
Australia's design industry by co-loacting the offices of a multitude of design organisations such as Good
Design Australia, the Australian Design Centre, the Australian Design Alliance, Design institute of
Australia, Australian institute of Architects, Engineers Australia etc. The centre would also attract the
interests of leading design-driven corporations such as Cochlear, ResMed, Dyson, Tesla, Lexus,
Sunbeam, Breville, Qantas, Deloitte, etc.
Many of these organisations would also be approached as commercial partners to help facilitate the
development and sustainability of the precinct.
The precinct would create an environment to offer a wide range of events and services including:
- regular design and design-related seminars and events aimed at businesses, consumers, government
agencies, international delegates;
- exhibition services, product launch events and cocktail parties, awards ceremonies and student
lectures;
- design referral services, industry consultations etc;
- local and international design award exhibitions and showcases;
- scholarships to connect talented students and industry professionals in Australia and OS
- sub-leasing of design studios, crowd funding mechanisms to promote new startups etc.
In addition to a physical location, a funding incentive for industry to use Australian design services could
be created. This would need to work for both start up and established firms on a sustainable basis. This
is a strategy unfolding in universities such as INSEAD, Stanford and IESE and embedded in corporations
like Apple, GE and IBM. Even Silicon Valley VC’s know that a hot technology is only part of the equation
and are hiring designers to join engineering and management teams to create top-line growth. A central
home for this sort of activity in Australia would ensure the new centre is not just a physical attraction but
is underpinned by a business-led program that creates the next generation of designers, innovators and
entrepreneurs in this country."
THE PRESS, Christchurch
Saturday, January 2, 2010 BUSINESSDAY C19
A former industrial wasteland in Germany has been transformed into the 2010 European cultural capital. It’s already a
magnet for artists and designers – and a showcase of economic renewal. The Press’ DAVID KILLICK reports.
Bright future: Neon orange staircases lead up to the Ruhr Museum.
Art showcase
springs from
old coalmine
T
Industrial design: The Red Dot Design Museum designed by Lord Foster,
once the boilerhouse.
Grimy past: Zeche Zollverein, near Essen, in the heart of the Ruhr. Once the world’s largest coalmine, the complex has become a design museum and arts centre. It will be the venue for the
Photos: DAVID KILLICK
grand opening of Ruhr 2010, a year of cultural events beginning on January 9.
centre and exhibition space for
The museum celebrates awardcontemporary art. Gerber
winning industrial design with
Architects, who are responsible
products from kettles to telefor the project, have rebuilt
phones. Cars are suspended
historic buildings and designed
from steel girders. As you climb
innovative new ones in Germany
from one level to the next, you
and the Middle East.
look through the exposed steel
Some of the world’s leading
skeleton embedded with heavyarchitects, including luminaries
duty gauges and dials. The raw
such as Pritzker Prize winners
structure never lets you forget
Rem Koolhaas and Herzog and
the former function of the
de Meuron, relished the chance
building.
to become engaged in the
Another new concrete
frenetic building activity under
building with massive
way
asymmetrical
throughout
windows,
Visitors can also
the Ruhr.
designed by
dine at a
British
Sanaa, of
architect
Tokyo, will
restaurant amid
David
house a school
steel and
Chipperfield
of managedesigned the
ment and
concrete pillars
new Folkwang
design.
. . . and marvel at
Museum.
Visitors
The
can also dine
the solar power
building will
at a restaurant
station.
feature an
amid steel and
exhibition
concrete pilentitled ‘‘the
lars; take a ride
on the ‘‘sun wheel’’, a giant ferris most beautiful museum in the
world – the Folkwang Museum
wheel built into a battery of
coking ovens; marvel at the solar to 1933’’, a reconstruction of the
museum’s spectacular pre-war
power station; wander through
the gardens; go skating on the ice art collection.
With 300 cultural projects
rink; and even take a dip in the
and 2500 events, culture fans can
swimming pool on the roof.
expect an action-packed
Classical, pop, jazz, and
electronic music concerts, as well programme next year.
Other highlights will include:
as dance performances and art
Odyssey Europe, in which six
exhibitions will wow visitors to
dramatists will rewrite Homer’s
the Zollverein.
Odyssey, to be presented in a
In nearby Dortmund we
theatrical marathon in six
explore the ‘‘Dortmunder U’’.
different theatres; the world’s
The former brewery is a
landmark, and hard to miss with first Biennale for International
Light Art; Shaft Signs, in which
its giant U on the roof. The U
hundreds of gigantic balloons
will stay but the building is
will be launched to a height of 80
becoming yet another design
metres above the ground for one
week (the balloons will mark the
locations of former mineshafts);
a day of song featuring a million
voices and the biggest choir in
the history of German music
with 65,000 singers; the longest
party of the year held on the
shortest night of the year; a
60-kilometre long banqueting
table set up on the A40
motorway; and a love parade
celebrating contemporary street
and party culture.
With so many events and so
many building projects under
way, let alone the cultural events,
all surging ahead despite the
global downturn, one is entitled
to ask: Who’s paying? The €65.5
billion (NZ$130b) Ruhr.2010
budget is being met by both the
state government of North
Rhine-Westphalia and private
enterprise. The five main
sponsors are Deutsche Bahn (the
German railway), E.ON Ruhgas,
Haniel, RWE and Sparkassen
Finanzgruppe.
The organisation and logistics
are formidable. Expected
revenues from ticket sales are
forecast to be €11 million.
However, the biggest payback
is likely to be long term, in the
growth and vibrancy of the
region.
Once an example of the worst
environmental effects of
industry, it is becoming a
showcase for best-practice
design, and co-operation across
industry sectors.
For other parts of the world
blighted by industrial decay, the
‘‘Ruhrpot’’ is an object lesson in
how to rebuild and re-energise
for the future.
Fairground
attraction:
With its
massive steel
towers, pulleys
and cogs,
shafts and
pipeways, the
Zollverein looks
like the setting
for an
apocalyptic
sci-fi movie.
Designed
between 1920
and 1932, tit
has been
preserved as a
Unesco World
Heritage Site.
Industrial
revolution:
Zeche
Zollverein
is one of
the best
places to
appreciate
the scale of
the
transformation.
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he Ruhr. It doesn’t
sound much like a
capital, and it doesn’t
sound very cultural.
It’s Europe’s third
largest urban conglomeration
after London and Paris, and
represents 53 cities and 5.3
million inhabitants – bigger than
New Zealand. Its largest cities
are Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg,
and Bochum. The area’s even
got a zappy new name: the
‘‘Ruhrpot’’.
Yet most people have never
heard of it. Or if they have, they
think of it as an industrial zone,
which it was. From the mid 19th
century, hundreds of steelworks
and coalmines sprang up.
Known as the armaments
factory of the Third Reich (Essen
was where the Krupp factory
built cannons), the area was
bombed to smithereens in
World War II. Industrial
production boomed again after
the war and the Ruhr fuelled
Germany’s ‘‘Wirtshaftswunder’’,
or economic miracle of the
1950s.
In the 1960s coal and steel
declined. Like the ‘‘city of steel’’,
Liverpool, the Ruhr suffered a
structural meltdown. Its
reputation for industrial squalor
persisted. People still think of the
area as a grime-infested, polluted
rust belt full of smoke-belching
factories.
No longer. Pitheads,
coalmines, blast furnaces, and
even breweries have been
gradually transformed into
industrial monuments along
what is now the Ruhr’s
‘‘industrial heritage trail’’. You
will find artists, designers,
engineers, builders, universities,
100 concert houses, 120 theatres,
and more than 200 museums,
galleries, and performance
centres – many of them based in
former industrial complexes.
Once considered a total outsider among cities vying for
recognition, the Ruhr has been
designated the 2010 European
cultural capital, and it will host a
feast of events and performances
throughout the year.
One of the best places to
appreciate the scale of the
transformation is the Zeche
Zollverein, near Essen. German
Federal President Horst Koehler
will officially open Ruhr 2010 at
the site next weekend.
Sprawling over a
14,000-square-metre site, the
Zollverein was once the largest
coalmine in the world until it
closed in 1986. With its massive
steel towers, pulleys and cogs,
shafts and pipeways, it looks like
the setting for some apocalyptic
sci-fi movie. Designed between
1920 and 1932 by architects Fritz
Schupp and Martin Kremmer,
the Zollverein has been
preserved as a Unesco World
Heritage Site.
Inside, the place still pulsates
with energy, and it’s a heap of
fun to visit. Guided tours will
take visitors on an exploration of
the former coalmine and coking
plant and its architectural history. Twin glass and steel
escalators, bathed in an eerie
orange glow, lead up to what is
taking shape as the Ruhr
Museum.
The old boilerhouse has
become the Red Dot Design
Museum, a bold redesign by
British architect Lord Foster.