Marmalade Issue 5, 2017

There’s no denying Melbourne and Sydney are two of the
country’s largest creative hubs, although that’s not to say
they’re the only ones. The number of practitioners based
outside Melbourne and Sydney has surged exponentially
in the last few years and in places like Adelaide, a new
crop of talent joins the industry’s more established players
in reinvigorating the national design landscape. In the
meantime, the suggestion furniture designers are producing
good work despite hailing from the City of Churches has
officially become an outdated narrative.
As one of the country’s finest and most highly regarded,
Khai Liew lives and works in Adelaide, after relocating
from Malaysia when he was 18 years old. Geography
certainly wasn’t a consideration when White Rabbit
Gallery owner, Sydney-based art collector Judith Neilson
recently commissioned him to fit out her new home, the
award-winning Indigo Slam, in the inner-Sydney suburb
of Chippendale (touted as the city’s answer to New York’s
Chelsea district). Liew, who began his career as a furniture
conservator and has no formal design training, was
simply the only designer she trusted to furnish her entire
Chippendale abode (designed by Smart Design Studio),
and it took him and a team of skilled craftspeople two years
to complete the arguably unprecedented, ambitious project.
The result is a bespoke collection of exquisitely detailed
furniture, lighting and rugs that perfectly complements
the building’s impressive architecture.
Adelaide has long had a reputation for producing wellcrafted
furniture and JamFactory has in a large part been
responsible for nurturing this tradition. Since the formal
opening of a Furniture Studio within its Morphett Street
facility in 1992, the organisation has trained over 50 furniture
designers as part of its Associate Program. Under the
tutelage of current Creative Director Jon Goulder, the studio
has increased private commissions, regularly manufactures
for JamFactory’s popular product range and has graduated
a number of highly successful Associates, amongst them
Rhys Cooper and Nicholas Fuller.
Both of these designers have achieved much since
completing their Associateship in 2015, including Cooper’s
launch of three new products at Melbourne’s trade event
Denfair 2017, where Fuller was also named Best Emerging
Designer. Their highly refined pieces have that signature
elegant form and overall clean, minimalist appearance
characteristic of the ‘Adelaide Aesthetic’.
Left: Franco Crea, custom tables for Antica Pizzeria e Cucina.
Photographer: Iain Bond.
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