Urbanism 10 December: Ply-ability and Absolut giveaways
Designday Audi Revealed 
Audi and Urbis have announced the new car that will be powering Designday 2010: the A5 Sportback. The five-door model combines the best of various vehicle genres: the elegance and feel of a coupe, the comfort of a sedan and the practicality of a station wagon.
“Audi design is distinctive – it is the harmony of form and function,” says Stefan Sielaff, Head of Design at AUDI AG. “Above all, it is the proportions, the sculptures of our automobiles that portray the interplay of technology and design. This philosophy has a remarkable past – it is a key facet in Audi’s history.”
The A5 Sportback will be priced from $89,000. Follow the link below to watch Wolfgang Egger, head of Audi group design, demonstrating sketches for the new car.
>> Visit herePaper Cuts 
Colenso BBDO has bridged the gap between YouTube and literature with a piece of animated film that brings Maurice Gee’s classic novel, Going West, to life. Over eight months, the communications agency worked with London’s Anderson M Studios to painstakingly create hand-cut scenery that pops up from the pages of the book itself. The two-minute film was produced for the New Zealand Book Council.
>> Visit www.bookcouncil.org.nzBest in Show 
We liked Tara Brady’s art-jewellery medals with their tongue-in-cheek rewarding of mediocrity and chic military-femme designs so much we featured them in our Best Design issue. Now, we’re pleased to see that the Whitirea graduate is participating in a new show. Running at Auckland’s Masterworks gallery until 19 December, the Intimate Treasures group jewellery exhibition features 25 artists and makers working across a wide range of media.
>> Visit www.masterworksgallery.com
Ply-ability 
Europe may have had the Bauhaus, but New Zealand had its own modernist furniture maker in the person of Garth Chester, who recognised the attributes of plywood and developed his own collection of innovative furniture based around the material in the 1940s and 50s.
Ply-ability, at the Hawkes Bay Museum and Art Gallery, runs from 11 December to 27 June next year and features work by Chester and other New Zealand designers. Using plywood as a common element, the exhibition includes rare examples of modernist furniture alongside work by leading New Zealand contemporary furniture designers, including Candywhistle, Simon James and David Trubridge.
The gallery is giving away a double or family pass, and an exhibition catalogue, to five lucky winners. (RRP for each pack is $40.) Email sam.eichblatt@agm.co.nz with the name of the Hawkes Bay Museum and Gallery’s hometown, with Urbanism in the subject line, specifying a family or double pass. Entries close on 21 December.
>> Visit Hawkes Bay Museum and Art Gallery
Swimming with Architects 
Zaha Hadid’s design for the London Olympics 2012 Aquatic Centre is now taking concrete form. The typically free-flowing, abstract shape is, she says, inspired by the fluid geometry of water in motion, creating spaces and a surrounding environment in sympathy with the river landscape.
Watch the fly-through here
Another Rock ‘n Roll Christmas 
However far from grace Gary Glitter falls, his ubiquitous and not-at-all-rock-n-roll Christmas single continues to persist in the world of commercial radio. Fight back with this gift pack from Absolut Vodka – for what could be more rrrrawwk than a bottle of vodka for Christmas? A bottle of vodka covered in black leather and studs, obviously.
We have three gift packs (RRP $34.99 each) to give away to readers – over 18 only, please. Email the name of the band involved in Absolut’s Rock Edition to sam.eichblatt@agm.co.nz, with Absolut Rock in the subject line. Entries close 21 December.
>> Visit www.absolut.com/rockedition
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