Highlights of Melbourne Design Week 2024

Oshinowo’s address touches on architecture and urbanism in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, particularly as it relates to meeting cultural and climatic needs in the 21st century.

Held at various venues across the city and in regional Victoria from May 23 to June 2 – and presented by the National Gallery of Victoria and Creative Victoria – MDW 2024’s innovative programming crisscrosses architecture, urbanism, sustainability, education, art, interiors and object design under the 2024 umbrella theme, Design the World You Want.

It’s a theme that’s particularly fitting for one of the event’s biggest drawcards, Nigerian architect Tosin Oshinowo, who delivers the MDW keynote address on May 26. Oshinowo’s Lagos-based studio is dedicated to creating human-centred design that carefully considers cultural, environmental and climatic needs. Her address touches on architecture and urbanism in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, particularly as it relates to meeting cultural and climatic needs in the 21st century.

“What sets ‘Readymade’ apart is its origin – a harmonious blend of sustainability, artistry and community engagement.”

Oshinowo’s global presence is matched by an extraordinary Australian contingent, whose work for the festival focuses on the three ‘Es’: energy, ethics and ecology, and how they can be used to bring about change, reimagine existing systems and offer innovative design solutions to global challenges. For ‘Readymade’, Melbourne designer Sarah Nedovic has created a lighting installation where a series of limited-edition pendants made from recycled glass grace the Marion Wine Bar in Fitzroy. “What sets ‘Readymade’ apart is its origin – a harmonious blend of sustainability, artistry and community engagement,” Nedovic says.

For Forward Focus, held at Tait’s Melbourne showroom in Fitzroy and curated by multi-disciplinarian designer Zachary Frankel, a group of young students from independent Melbourne school Hester Hornbrook Academy reveal a series of innovative chairs crafted from waste materials and created with limited tools. Mentored by a collective of Melbourne creatives, the chairs were made in a two-day workshop where collaboration, sustainability and experimentation were the bywords.

In ‘Call Out’, eight established and emerging architectural firms present a piece of furniture that reflects the role of furniture design in both their practice and research.

Nine leading Australian designers and studios, including Coco Flip, Ross Gardam and Tom Fereday – who is also presenting a series of solo works in the ‘Aver’ exhibition at Oigåll Projects in Fitzroy – have created compact, collectible objects for ‘Souvenir’, held in the specialist architectural Bookshop by Uro store in Collingwood Yards. Gardam, for instance, has crafted a solid brass paperweight inspired by the form of his Hemera marble lamp. There’s an equally stellar line-up of design talent in ‘Call Out’, in which eight established and emerging architectural firms – including Wardle Studio, Sean Godsell Architects and Baracco + Wright – present a piece of furniture that reflects the role of furniture design in both their practice and research. The installation is curated by Do Works and will be staged in the heritage-listed Union Bank in Prahran.

At Cibi design store in Collingwood, the focus shifts to the East with ‘Everyday Living Japan: 1950s & Today’, a beautifully curated exhibition of Japanese furniture from the 1950s and 1960s by the likes of Isamu Noguchi, Sori Yanagi and Yamanaka Design Office. Around the corner at Useful Objects in Easey Street, ‘Desire x Design’ features work by 11 of the country’s most dynamic designer-makers whose objects challenge the norms of function and materials in sophisticated and unexpected ways.

One of the perennial highlights of MDW is the biennial Australian Furniture Design Award, presented by Stylecraft and NGV, now in its fifth year. The five finalists for this year’s award represent critical and creative thinking, sustainability, material development and research that explores innovative modes of production. They include Bala Ga’ Lili, a long-time cross-cultural collaboration between woodworkers and designers Bonhula Yunupingu – a Yolngu man from North-East Arnhem Land – and Damien Wright; Marta Figueiredo, a Portugal-born, Melbourne-based architect and multi-disciplinarian designer; and Michael Gittings, an artisan who works with metal and who was named a design game-changer by Architectural Digest in 2021.

Visit the MDW website for full program details.