Urban Biome: A Celebration of Regenerative Design & Recycled Materials
October 2024
Urban Biome is coming to Civic Square, as part of the 2024 Craft + Design Canberra Festival, featuring some brand new products developed by Thor Diesendorf, our founder and director here at Thor’s Hammer.
Opening on October 31st and running until November 30th in Canberra’s Civic Square, this site-specific modular art installation will demonstrate some of the ways that regenerative design, reuse of materials and endemic plants can be incorporated into public space.
Urban Biome is a collaborative work featuring Thor Diesendorf from Thor’s Hammer, glass artist Spike Deane from the Canberra Glassworks, and horticulturalist David Taylor from Ephemeral Country.
Collaborators Bringing Unique Skills Together
The idea behind Urban Biome is all about collaboration. Recycled timber, recycled glass, and endemic plants have been combined to form an inviting and thought provoking public space.
Thor has designed special decking tiles, garden seats and planter boxes all based on a hexagonal footprint, which have been combined creatively for the installation (check out the wooden nails used in the construction!).
David Taylor from Ephemeral Landscapes has created a regenerative story with native plantings and a combination of stone and burnt mulches, filling the hexagonal planter boxes and moving through the installation from fire to new life.
Recycled glass terrazzo tiles and containers by Spike Deane bring colour and texture, and are part of the ongoing work she has been doing exploring new ways to use recycled glass. All three makers in this collab work in different fields, but exploring reuse and regeneration together has been really exciting, and the collaboration has produced some very interesting ideas and new work!
Make sure to drop by the installation some time in November to check out our new recycled timber hexagonal decking tiles, garden seats and planter boxes, which will be on sale during the installation (join our email list to be the first to hear when these are on sale).
Urban Biome progress. Photo: Bianca Knox.
What You’ll Find in Urban Biome
The pieces in Urban Biome are designed to be functional as well as eye-catching:
Parallelogram decking tiles (which form hexagon patterns) crafted from recycled timber using wooden nails. Finished with Osmo decking oil
Hexagonal seats and planter boxes made from recycled timber, wooden nails and corten steel. Finished with Osmo decking oil
Native plantings selected and arranged by David Taylor from Ephemeral Landscapes, using local species and sandstone mulch
Recycled glass terrazzo tiles by Spike Deane, which add texture and colour to the installation
These elements come together to create a peaceful spot to sit, walk through, and reflect. It’s a simple but engaging space, designed to show how recycled materials can be reimagined for new uses.
Installation Details, Opening & Extra Events
Official opening:
Thursday, October 31 at 6 pm
Free event (bookings essential)
Sketching workshop (in Urban Biome installation):
Thursday, November 7 from 12 - 1pm
Free event (bookings essential)
Artist talks:
Friday, November 8 at 5:30pm
Free event (bookings essential)
Installation to the public:
November 1 - 30. Open 24 hours a day
Civic Square, Canberra (180 London Circuit, ACT 2601)
Free entry, no bookings required
Urban Biome progress. Photo: Bianca Knox.
Urban Biome is supported by City Renewal Authority and Yarralumla Nursery