Cave Urban Interview

Cave Urban is a Sydney-based multidisciplinary studio formed by artists, architects and designers. Their practice explores the intersection of art and architecture by creating large-scale public installations, with an emphasis on community engagement, collaboration, and ecological design. They utilise the design and making process as a means of open-source research and development. For Cave Urban, community engagement is key in every project. The aim is to establish a public connection to the work through education and participation; empowering those who participate and sharing a sense of ownership of the project with all who are involved.

Cave Urban work at an ambitious scale, bringing together the combined knowledge and experience of artists, architects, and designers with a focus on sustainable materials and communal production. Flow was created in response to The Cutaway site and, at 1000 square metres, is one of the largest bamboo structures ever produced in Australia.

With undulating forms inspired by the energy and movement of water, the course of Flow is altered by its contact with the architecture and other artworks. So too, its twists and turns influence our bodies and perception of space – at some points we are standing on the riverbed, submerged beneath the water; at others we look down at its textured surface. Enveloping and tactile, Flow embodies a river while also holding the memory of the forest.

Half of the 1000 bamboo poles used in the installation were harvested from a renewable forest in New South Wales and the rest repurposed from previous projects. Flow will, in turn, be put to reuse in future endeavours. Fast growing and adaptable, bamboo is utilised worldwide as an ideal natural building material, offering, as Cave Urban write, 'strength, versatility, renewability and aesthetic beauty.'