Rockets, Racing Cars and Running Shoes…
TheNewDowse all fired up for second season of HotHouse exhibition from October 24
The second season of TheNewDowse’s popular design exhibition HotHouse is about to take off with ten new entrepreneurs showcasing their inventions. HotHouse, an exhibition of New Zealand's hottest entrepreneurial ideas, celebrates New Zealanders’ reputation as the most inventive and resourceful people in the world. The season includes the winners of some of New Zealand’s top design competitions.
Twig Coat Stand: Knobby by Nature and Design is a coat stand resembling natural twigs with a twist. Designed by Jamie McClellan and Fletcher Vaughan, it was the Winner of the 2009 Home New Zealand Design Award. Also featuring in the show is the Winner of the 2009 Westfield Style Pasifika New Zealand Fashion Awards and the 2009 Mittel Moda fashion Award, Trompe L’oeil: Tricking the Eye by Nadeesha Godamunne. An Auckland fashion designer, Godamunne uses shift dresses as canvasses to create the illusion of numerous garments overlapping each other in a Trompe L’oeil effect. She is off to Italy for the next stage of the Mittlel Moda Fashion competition.
Following the fashion theme is the Winner of 2009 Moromoda Maori Fashion Week Award, Tu Ake: Standing Strong, Maori-moko inspired running shoes by Titahi Bay’s Wiremu Barriball. Fashion was not at the forefront of Hamilton designer Jamaaine Fraser’s mind when creating Te Paea Tohoro: The Stranded Whale, an ingenious cloak made from plastic granules that helps protect stranded whales. Inspired by images of long-finned stranded whales, Fraser’s Korowai O Tangaroa was runner-up of the 2009 James Dyson Award.
HotHouse also includes a revolutionary rocket designed by Aucklander Peter Beck from Rocket Lab, Rocket Lab: Shooting for the Stars. Rocket Lab’s primary project is to launch the Atea Suborbital Rocket which will conduct scientific research for a minimal cost (the company currently have a contract with a US company to take human ashes into space). Blenheim company Carbonscape showcases The Black Phantom: A Supersonic Microwave which can turn waste wood into a valuable charcoal for soil improvement and Nick Tucker and Richard Williams have created Potatopak Mirrors for a Green Racing Car, biodegradable rear view mirrors made from potato starch for a new Formula 3 car.
With Face Off: Taking the Game to a Whole New Level, Palmerston North designer Simon Barnett has created new lightweight sports face mask which offer protection like never before. Surplus and Creativity: Conspicuous Statement Bibs is Benjamin Paton’s response to the Massey University School of Design 2009 Surplus and Creativity Challenge, a range of children’s bibs made from food recycling plastics and supermarket bags; and Lower Hutt scientist Dr Tim Kemmit has developed a new form of solar nano-technolgy: a photovoltaic solar cell named Sunnyside Up.
“HotHouse represents an inspired approach to develop, in young and old, a heightened appreciation of our immense creative capabilities and the extraordinary contribution we can all make. Fresh thinking is imperative for a new New Zealand and a better world,” says Mark Pennington, HotHouse Patron and Foundation Sponsor and Design Director at Formway.
HotHouse is curated by Leanne Wickham and designed by Tim Wigmore and James Moir. It includes TheNewDowse’s first mp3 audio tour. The exhibition is supported by GNS Science, Fraser Engineering Group and Idealog.
Media enquires and images:
Rachel Healy
Communications Advisor, TheNewDowse
T +64 4 560 1477 | 027 687 4226
E rachel.healy@huttcity.govt.nz
W www.newdowse.org.nz