Foolscap Studio
Foolscap is an interior architecture and design practice based in Australia. Their holistic approach extends to all facets of the design process, often leading to the studio developing its own bespoke furniture as an extension of their interior projects.
One such project was the major redesign of Melbourne Airport’s mezzanine workplace, located above Terminal 4. A long-standing relationship between Foolscap and Manapan was established through the client’s special commissioning of furniture for their new executive suite, leading to a deeply collaborative process between designer and maker.
Foolscap’s response to the furniture brief involved regular engagement and consultation with Manapan’s craftspeople on Milingimbi Island. The studio worked closely with Manapan founder, Mark White; senior craftsman, Josiah Baker; and Milingimbi elder, Keith Lapulung, relaying primary design concepts of ‘Dynamic Movement’ and ‘Temporal Rhythm’. From these workshops emerged a coherent design direction inspired by the mythical tale of Gulnura, the water-bringing lightning snake that visits Milingimbi every wet season.
Gulnura has been immortalised through symbolism across the resulting family of furniture, which uses native materiality as a canvas for Indigenous expression. Crafted from Australian spotted gum, the rounded shape of the 16-seat boardtable is informed by traditional battle and ceremonial shields. Intricate, scale-like carvings adorn the table’s perimeter, doubly referencing the crossed landing strips of Milingimbi airport, while a serpentine junction through the sectional top allows for easy transportation to site.
‘The Manapan team brought a knowledge of narratives and a range of unique craftsmanship skills to the design process, which would otherwise have been inaccessible to us as designers’
– Rob Harper, Senior Designer and Project Lead, Foolscap Studio
The results of this unique collaboration have been celebrated throughout the design community in Australia, and more recently, internationally. In the same year Melbourne Airport was completed, a second large-scale commission took place – this time, as part of Foolscap Studio’s refurbishment of ANZ Bank’s executive level. Here, a carved timber insert, five metres in diameter, became the central focal point to the client’s existing ring-shaped board table, filling the huge void in the centre, and thereby physically linking those that sit around its circumference.
