A peg that doubles as a bench seat and furniture made out of balloons and old computer keys are just a few items that will tantalise the senses and breathe life into Brisbane's laneways on Friday.
The Changing Lanes festival, held alongside Brisbane InDesign, is a novel one-night laneway party held in Hynes Street in Fortitude Valley, showcasing the latest ideas from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) design students.
Michael Molloy, a lecturer for QUT's School of Design said the "urban-grunge furniture" made and designed by his students would act as a centre piece in the street exhibition alongside works by students in architecture, interior design, industrial design, urban design, landscape architecture, fashion and urban-informatics.
"Projects like this help to duplicate the kind of things we're seeing happen in the old laneways in Melbourne," Mr Molloy said.
"They are such interesting places - people like visiting laneway cafes and bars rather than sitting in corporate coffee chains. We're working to create that same atmosphere here in Brisbane."
Live music, a pop-up bar and boutique food stalls will accompany the student designs, which will be judged on the night by the Changing Lanes industry collaborators which include local architects, engineers and interior designers.
Two prizes of a $1000 will be up for grabs on the night.
Tonic Architecture will be awarding the prize for best architecture design, with the best furniture design being jointly awarded by firms BE Collective and Wrightson Stewart.
"The whole thing has been designed to have an urban-grunge feel, but is made up of a lot of beautiful objects, that also have some functionality," he said.
"The architecture students will also have a PechaKucha-like demonstration about how to make laneways more interesting places to interact."
Immediately following the Changing Lanes Festival the eleven furniture pieces will also be displayed at the newly refurbished Collectors Cafe in the QLD Museum until the end of June.
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Media contact: Alita Pashley, QUT media officer, 07 3138 1841 or alita.pashley@qut.edu.au
