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Marta Figueiredo Wins 2024 Australian Furniture Design Award
Australian-Portuguese architect and multidisciplinary designer Marta Figueiredo has been announced as the winner of the 2024 Australian Furniture Design Award.
Marta Figueiredo, who founded her practice in Melbourne in 2018, is the winner of the fifth iteration of the Australian Furniture Design Award, announced in Melbourne late last month. Founded by Stylecraft and presented in collaboration with the National Gallery of Victoria as part of Melbourne Design Week, the award celebrates critical and creative thinking, sustainability, material development and innovation.
Figueiredo blends traditional craft processes with innovative technology to create immersive projects drawing on narrative and sensory interactions. Her work has been exhibited internationally and she recently unveiled a public art installation, The Diva Garden, at the Dorsett hotel in Melbourne’s CBD. The designer has received other notable awards, including a High Commendation in the 2021 Clarence Prize for Excellence in Furniture Design.
The judges were drawn to the vulnerable quality of Figueiredo’s work Chronicles of Resilience, a cabinet that highlights women’s health, specifically endometriosis, a chronic illness that affects one in seven women in Australia. The cabinet features three rotating drums, each detailed with tiles decorated in a workshop run by Figueiredo with a group of women experiencing endometriosis. The facade is segmented into four thematic panels representing different stages of the endometriosis journey: challenge, resilience, empowerment and an imagined future. The design also features nuanced references to Figueiredo’s Portuguese heritage.
“Marta Figueiredo’s Chronicles of Resilience cabinet is a deeply personal and symbolic work that draws attention to women’s health,” says Ewan McEoin, one of this year’s judges and a senior curator at the NGV. “It is exciting that this year, the Australian Furniture Design Award has a winner that is using the medium of furniture as a platform to discuss women’s health. This is an adventurous and courageous piece – and we look forward to seeing it ignite important conversations.”
Figueiredo receives a $20,000 prize, a two-week residency at the JamFactory in Adelaide and is invited to develop a commercial range or product with Stylecraft. The company’s managing director, Anthony Collins, also a judge this year, adds: “Amid the challenges encountered by emerging furniture designers breaking into the industry, the Australian Furniture Design Award offers a promising gateway within the Australian design community.”
Artwork images credit: Installation view of Marta Figueiredo’s cabinet Chronicles of Resilience, the winning design for the Australian Furniture Design Award 2024 presented by NGV and Stylecraft.
