Cave Urban is a collective made up of architects and an interior designer who will be showcasing a sculpture as part of Sculptures by the Sea in Sydney in October and November.
The team includes architects Angel Heredia, Alice Nivison, Nici Long, architecture student Jed Long, sculptor Clary Akon, interior designer Kate Ratner and freelance journalist Lachy Brown.
Architecture & Design spoke to the team about their sculpture, what Cave Urban is and whether sustainability is more than just talk in Australia.
Can you tell A&D about Cave Urban? What is it? What does it do?
Cave Urban is a design collaborative built upon the sharing of information. It is an open forum, created to inspire and encourage development, research and connection with other individuals and organisations on a local and global scale.
Our aim is to look at architecture within a passive framework and find present-day solutions for sustainable systems based on vernacular models. It is also to achieve an understanding of indigenous structures as models for future development and to use vernacular, organic, recycled and recyclable materials where possible, sourcing locally and encouraging community interaction.
How did it come about?
We are a small architectural practise that wanted to do more research and development as part of the practise moving forward. We then included family friends and other work associates who were also interested in passive sustainable systems.
What do you hope to achieve with it?
We decided to publish a series of folios with the results of various research and experimental projects as guidelines for our own office but also as a way of sharing the information we gathered with others who are interested. The first folio is on bamboo and lightweight structures, which will be finished in a couple of months. The next one after that is on living structures.
Can you also explain the Mengenang (Remembrance) sculpture, your sculpture at Sculptures by the Sea?
It is a wind driven sound installation consisting of 222 bamboo poles.
What was the inspiration for the sculpture?
The Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005.The idea of marking the event 10 years on was the motivation for the piece, but almost from the moment we began to contemplate how we would make it, what it would look like and the sound it would make etcetera there was a metamorphosis. So in a sense the art is a new medium for the memory. When we put it up in October no doubt it will take on a life of its own ... and perhaps have a poignancy for those people who walk through it and around it without knowing anything about its inception.
You talk about sustainable living systems. What is your definition of a sustainable living system?
A sustainable system and a living system are different things. A living system involves a life and death cycle where a sustainable system looks to be enduring through an ever-changing cycle. Sustainable systems are like rings in still water – there is always a bigger picture to be considered.
How would you rate sustainability in Australia?
I’d rate it as nine. Cost will always be a 10.
