Melbourne’s annual architecture competition will return in 2021 as part of the National Gallery of Victoria’s (NGV) winter season of exhibitions, which was unveiled yesterday.

The shortlisted teams for this year’s competition are Aileen Sage Architects with Michaela Gleave, Common, MDF Architecture, Simulaa and Finding Infinity, and Taylor Knights and James Carey.

The winner, which will be announced at Melbourne Design Week later this month, will follow on the heels of the 2019 Architecture Commission In Absence by Edition Office and Yhonnie Scarce.

Last year’s installation was postponed when the NGV was closed due to COVID-19 restrictions. Melbourne Design Week too was affected by the pandemic, but returns to the 2021 season from 26 March-5 April.

This year’s theme, Design the world you want, will be explored in more than 300 exhibitions, talks, tours, films and workshops highlighting the critical role of design in shaping our present and our future.

Programming will celebrate and investigate the role of local and international designers in responding to current issues and improving quality of life.

Another highlight from the 2021 season is Sampling the Future, which presents newly commissioned projects and design works drawn from the NGV Collection focusing on design experimentation.

Large-scale installations, objects, sound and film from the likes of Alice Springs-based Elliat Rich, Sydney-based duo Kyoko Hashimoto and Guy Keulemans, and Melbourne duo Georgia Nowak and Eugene Peripletchikov will reimagine the future at the Ian Potter Centre from 21 August.

The Rigg Design Prize also returns in 2021. The last iteration, which is held every three years, featured Australian interior architects and designers, while this year’s prize will highlight local advertising and creative communications agencies.

But the season’s major exhibition and the centrepiece of the NGV’s winter is all about French Impressionism.

Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which is undergoing renovations, the exhibition will feature works by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Gustave Caillebotte, Mary Cassatt. It opens from June 2021 and brings more than 100 masterworks in this Australian exclusive exhibition.

Find out more about the NGV winter season on its official website.

Lead photo: 2015 Summer Architecture Commission–John Wardle Architects. Photo © John Gollings Photography