This year, Sydney Design Week is based around the theme of Design Futures, exploring the changes in the way we design, produce and consume, with an exciting Sydney-wide program of talks, exhibitions and workshops.

UNSW Built Environment is partnering with the Powerhouse Museum to present a number of innovative events and exhibitions as part of the week-long Sydney Design festival.

Take part in the panel discussion, 3D Printing and Digital Fabrication: Don't Believe the hype? on August 19.

Hear how industry and media commentators claim that 3D printing and associated digital fabrication technologies will transform the way me make things at home, at work and in the manufacturing environment.

Panelists include a range of industry experts and design professionals including CEO of Good Design Australia Dr. Brandon Gien, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design at UNSW Built Environment Dr Miles Park, Industrial Designer at Vert Design, Andrew Simpson, and Architect, Robert Beson from AR-MA.

Over at Customs House, UNSW Built Environment will present the exhibition, Interchanging: Future designs for responsive transport environments from August 16-24.

The exhibition explores what public transport will look like as it is transformed by digital technologies. Visitors have the opportunity to get hands-on with a 1:1 scale, interactive mock-up of a public transport Interchange of the Future. Featuring two large screens and several sensors you’ll be able to interact with the model and experience a new world of travel and commuting.

The Interchange of the Future incorporates the 2030 vision of the City of Sydney as a green, global and connected city. It takes in 21st Century digital technologies, as well as aspects of 21st Century urban life, such as social networking, online shopping, multimodal travel, recycling, active lifestyles and sustainability.

Orkhestra on display at the Powerhouse Museum

First shown at the 2014 Luminale in Frankfurt, Orkhēstra is an interactive light installation reconstructed by UNSW Built Environment Architectural Computing students, which will be on display at the Powerhouse museum from August 16-24.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Inspired by underwater coral, Orkhēstra animates the work to infer movement. Colour sequences change when a mobile camera flash is directed at the installation. It’s a collaboration between teams from University of New South Wales, Sydney; Städelschule Architecture Class (SAC, Frankfurt); Media Architecture Institute (Vienna/Sydney) and Ludwig Maximillian University (Munich) in partnership with AHL LED Shenzhen.

Find out more about these events by visiting the Sydney Design website, or clicking on the individual event links above.