Artists Talks | Urban Biome | Thor Diesendorf, Spike Dean and David Taylor with Lucy Wilson

Join the creative team behind the Urban Biome installation in Civic Square for a discussion about the regenerative elements and collaborative process behind this work.  Lucy Wison from CIty Renewal Authority will facilitate the discussion about place making, design and sustainability across the City Renewal Precinct. Urban Biome is a site-specific modular art installation which demonstrates ways in which regenerative design, reuse of materials and endemic plants can be incorporated into public space.  

Artists’ Biographies 

Thor Diesendorf 

Thor Diesendorf began making furniture from recycled timber in the early 1990’s working for Paul Lynzaat, a resourceful carpenter & joiner based in Canberra. Inspired by the beauty of the Australian hardwoods they were salvaging, Thor began to save more timber and develop new products in collaboration with local builders, leading to the creation of Thor’s Hammer in 1994. Thor’s Hammer designs and makes furniture, joinery and architectural products from recycled timbers recovered from demolition sites around Australia. These valuable materials are renewed and reused for projects from domestic to commercial, and have been purchased by national institutions like Parliament House, Commonwealth Place, the Australian National Botanic Gardens and Old Parliament House grounds. Minimising environmental impact is key in Thor’s work. This includes practicality and simplicity in design, and making a high quality, durable product. The ethic extends into the production process, and includes the use of plant based resins and oils for filling and finishing the timber, turning waste sawdust into clean burning fire briquettes, and investment in electric forklifts and a big solar PV array. Thor loves to work out design solutions which make best use (and sometimes push the boundaries) of the natural qualities of timber. He has designed many of the furniture pieces on display in the Thor's Hammer gallery and showroom, and has regularly exhibited as part of Design Canberra. The Polyedrica chair Thor produced for architect Enrico Taglietti was collected by the National Gallery of Australia. 

Spike Deane 

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David Taylor 

David Taylor specialises in working with Australian plants and landscape and has worked in horticulture and botany since the 1980s including as the Curator of the Living Collections at the Australian National Botanic Gardens. He now runs Ephemeral Country doing landscape design and planning that explores collaborative opportunities using a diverse range of ways to connect to place and Australia’s biodiversity.

Lucy Wilson 

A landscape architect with an urban focus, Lucy's had a broad career in State Government, Local Government and private practice in both Australia and internationally.At the Authority, Lucy's team provides strategic program and project leadership for design and sustainability across the City Renewal Precinct. Prior to working at the Authority, Lucy worked between Main Roads WA and the Office of Government Architect WA, shaping the design quality of large-scale infrastructure projects. She has also won numerous awards, including heading up the once in a generation transformation of Perth's East End at the City of Perth. 

Image| Burnt Banksia 2024 | David Taylor