“Small Slide” Table by Neil Durbach in American red oak

“Einstein’s Hat” Vase by Neil Durbach in American red oak and cherry

The side table is a developmental prototype of a side table Neil has worked on before. It is a diminutive, and curious interpretation of a more conventional sliding table. In this case, the slide is just a few centimetres, enough to reveal a metallic finish in the separation, and cast “shadows that seem to be like smiles”. The plan shape is conceived as being a more geometric version of a cross-section of a tree. For the vase, Neil referred to the classic Aalto Vase which he collects obsessively. The 13-sided outline for this vase is a shape provided by geometry that was discovered by a group of mathematicians in 2022/23. It is an ’aperiodic tiling’, a shape that can be put together without ever repeating the overall pattern. The internal line of the vase is looser. This is a prototypical experiment in timber, a material that is not generally conducive to holding water. The interior, still developing, is ultimately to be a highly reflective metallic.

Graduating from the University of Cape Town, South Africa in 1978, Neil Durbach set up practice in Sydney after winning the National competition for the new Royal Australian Institute of Architects headquarters building at Tusculum, Sydney in 1983. In 2005 Durbach was made an Adjunct Professor at University of NSW. He has taught, lectured, exhibited, judged awards and been published both nationally and internationally. In 2008, he co-curated the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Durbach Block Jaggers, established with partners Camilla Block and David Jaggers, has won the Australian Institute of Architect’s Robin Boyd Award (National) and the Leslie Wilkinson Award (NSW) for residential architecture three times.