SZILVASSY STUDIO | DION HALL

Szilvassy is a ceramic studio and showroom for artist shari lowndes.

Situated within melbourne’s collingwood yards precinct, a creative arts and hospitality precinct.

The project operates as an adaptable spatial framework, a flexible system of display elements conceived to evolve alongside ongoing exhibitions and collaborative programs.

The design establishes a material dialectic between lowndes’ organic ceramic vessels and their built environment.

Metal plinths and linear forms, fabricated from stainless steel, aluminium, and galvanised steel, provide structural rhythm and precise datum lines. this deliberate contrast in materiality creates a unique spatial proposition: the coolness and rigidity of industrial metal surfaces amplify the handmade character, mineral glazes, and gestural forms of the ceramic works.

The spatial composition is tempered by softer domestic layers: vintage italian furniture and a hand-tufted loom rug introduce warmth and tactility.

For the recent gemini exhibition, recycled douglas fir tables and plinths were introduced (informed by enzo mari) expanding the material vocabulary while maintaining tonal coherence.

Italian design and architectural heritage inform the curatorial approach throughout.

Vintage pieces by colombo, scarpa, magistretti, and castiglioni occupy the space as both functional elements and homage to lowndes’ italian lineage.

These canonical objects, varied in form, material, and provenance, introduce temporal depth and domestic scale, framing the ceramics within a continuum of making.

Within this choreographed composition, szilvassy’s vessels occupy a threshold between grounded presence and elevated object, generating quiet tension between craft and industrial structure, permanence and change.

Photography: TRAIANOS PAKIOUFAKIS and EMILY WEAVING