de Fiddes are excited to introduce you to our new blog page! This is a place where we plan to share our thoughts and reviews on design, architecture, products and the latest cutting edge research.
Our team will be posting regularly on de Fiddes projects, review new and exciting innovations, pass on to you the latest education, share and promote notes of inspiration and show you some fabulous photos from our interior fit outs. Keep up to date on latest products in the market, articles of interest and research findings from our Managing Director, Debbie de Fiddes.
Our blog will not only be an example of what keeps the team at de Fiddes committed to being at the forefront of innovation but a fun place to collect and seek ideas, advice for all things design and even just to share whatever is on our minds.
To be the first to receive our latest posts sign up to our newsletter inKIND here.
Enjoy!
What an exciting month it has been! Not only have we been published in the journal of Aging and Social Change: Designing for Dementia but also being interviewed for the Home Journal Asia Magazine for our project we are working on in Hong Kong.
Read Morede Fiddes was thrilled to be invited to join Curtin University in a bid for a Cooperative Research Centre. We attended the first workshop, joining approximately 10 other organisations, on 6th August and met the CRC bid partners from Queensland.
Read MoreTravel seems to feature highly in this month’s newsletter. Samantha is off in September to present The E’s in Research – Expertise and E-Delphi at the Aging and Social Change 9th Conference in Vienna. Needless to say we are all volunteering to carry her luggage! So good luck Sam and stay tuned for an update for when she gets back.
Also Erin, Kathryn and Christine have just come back from Sydney after visiting the Interface factory.
Read MoreWell winter is definitely upon us and I don’t know about everyone else but I have found this year so far to be incredibly cold and wet. I know we all have different ideas and perceptions of cold so maybe mine is because I’m getting a little older!!
This month the girls have been invited to a number of different and interesting supplier presentations.Tarkett recently had a speaker discussing Trends and Forecasts
Read MoreSurely 450 Scientists cannot be wrong! This month we are talking about sustainability.
The latest UN report that was released last week revealed that 1 million species are at risk because of a range of human activities. I don’t know about you but I find this incredibly troubling and we should all be outraged.
Read MoreThis month we were asked to contribute an article in a new eMag called TILT by Build in Common. For any of you who haven’t heard of them Build in Common was created to EMPOWER, ENABLE and DE-MYSTIFY the process of building or renovating.
Read MoreI would like to thank everyone who participated in our survey last month, we were thrilled to get such a great response. The winner of the wonderful Treasury Gift Voucher was Graham Francis, CEO of SwanCare. Congratulations Graham, enjoy the Treasury. This time of the year also means the launch of new products and showrooms, so the design team have been busy looking and evaluating all the wonderful new products on offer. They also attended the launch of the new Materialised showroom and I believe what is now on offer allows them better opportunities to design bespoke fabrics and wallcoverings. This means more exciting product to offer all our clients.
Read MoreI’m sure all of you know of Bernard Salt and recently I read an article he wrote on the future of aged care design. I’m always fascinated with his findings and observations and I truly believe his messages are right on the money!
Read MoreHappy New Year to everyone, it’s a brand new year, new beginnings and new standards!!
We have thoroughly examined the new Aged Care Quality Standards and there is considerable expertise within de Fiddes to assist with Standard 5.
Read MoreThis year’s ACSA annual Christmas party was attended by our Marketing Coordinator, Amy Bosnar and Graduate Architect, Ben White from Gary Batt Associates.
Read MoreOnly 12 more sleeps until Xmas. I cannot believe another year has ended and what a year it has been! Let me start by saying thank you to all our wonderful readers. It has been 2 years since we started our newsletter and we really hope that you have found the information valuable. We look forward to presenting new products and interesting ideas in 2019.
Read MoreIt seems time has accelerated these last couple of months and already here we are thinking about Christmas and the end of the year!! What we ought to do now is slow down the clock and take time to enjoy these lovely sunny spring days. However, that is not the case here at de Fiddes as we will be busy right up until we close for our Xmas break.
The LASA conference has just been held in Adelaide where I had the opportunity to speak about connection to place and the importance of place to each and every one of us, especially those living in aged care. My talk was very relevant with the theme of the conference being “Ageing Transformed ….. The Dawning of a new Era”.
The power of words was no better illustrated than at the Aging & Society 8th Interdisciplinary Conference held in Tokyo last month. The discussions and papers were really interesting and very much focused on the latest evidence based research. I was speaking at the Conference and my talk was entitled “Design is not for Philosophy; it’s for Life” which is a famous quote by Issey Miyake.
Read MoreOur newsletter this month is all about Calm and nothing could be calmer or more relaxing than going on holidays. Kathryn and I ventured off recently to celebrate a friends 60th birthday in Cambodia and whilst places like Phnom Penh and Siem Reap are frenetic, cruising down the Mekong on a beautiful old timber sailing ship certainly was very relaxing.
Read MoreEvery month seems to be a busy one here at de Fiddes and this past month was no exception.
This month we visited an award winning facility in SA. This facility absolutely perfected the small scale design model within a vertical building - very impressive!
Read MoreThis month I had the pleasure of attending a Placemaking workshop that was run by David Engwicht from Creative Communities International. There is no doubt that this discipline will become an important component when designing residential aged care.
Read MoreI don't know if it is because I am getting older but I am astonished that 6 months has flown by and we are about to enter the second half of the year - which I know is going to be as jam packed and as exciting as the first half.
We have just had our delightful client Maria from Hong Kong visit our office with her wonderful team. It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to show them several aged care facilities as well as some of our WA hospitality.
Read MoreI can’t believe where this year has gone. May has been a busy month with a trip to Singapore to attend the APAC awards and the Ageing Asia conference. Sadly we didn’t win this time but it was still wonderful that our work at Amaroo was shortlisted for an Asia Pacific Award.
Read MoreApril so far has been a month of celebrations and also our National Day of Remembrance. This month I celebrated a birthday, not a milestone (I’m still 28!) and of course we have just had a public holiday for Anzac Day.
Erin headed off to Spain for a walk of a lifetime across the Camino Trail so if any of you have been wondering about Erin’s footwear the past month you will now understand why the boots have been necessary!
Read MoreIt was an absolute pleasure to attend the Regis Aged Care, Woodlands Grand opening last week in the lead up to the official April 9th opening.
Serving a sensational menu accompanied with songs sung by the local Holy Rosary School the night was a huge success and a fabulous way to celebrate the efforts of all those involved!
Congratulations Regis on another fantastic opening!
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