Artists, designers and architects are being invited to pitch their projects and ideas for Melbourne Design Week 2022.

The Victoria-wide 11-day program of talks, tours, workshops, launches and exhibitions builds upon the 2021 theme – ‘Design the world you want’ with two new “pillars” – Civic Good and Making Good.

For the former, Melbourne Design Week organisers encourage participants to “think beyond the individual” and look to the objects, buildings, designs and services that make people feel part of a community.

The latter, on the other hand, considers the many ways in which ideas and experiments are realised through the “lens of ethical and sustainable practices”, making good and rethinking design processes, production and materials.

Expressions of interest are now open for ideas that consider “how design can shape our lives”, encompassing everything from communication, industrial and service design to gaming, architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, fashion and functional art.

And in line with the program’s multi-disciplinary and diverse approach, a wide range of practitioners, including designers, galleries, educators, innovators and industry, are being invited to submit something before the cut off date on 23 September 2021.

Scheduled for 17-27 March 2022, Melbourne Design Week has already confirmed exhibitions of collectible and limited-edition design by Sydney industrial designers Adam Goodrum and French marquetry artisan Arthur Seigneur, and Adelaide duo Daniel Emma.

Highlights from the 2022 program also include the NGV Architecture Commission by Taylors Knights.

Working in collaboration with Melbourne artist and RMIT lecturer James Carey, Taylor Knights’s pond[er] will be installed in the Grollo Equiset Garden at the NGV International from November 2021.

The installation will feature a body of indigenous plants and a body of water, and has been designed as a place for visitors to “cool off” during the summer months and “reflect on their relationship” with the environment.

Also set in stone is an exhibition celebrating 25 years of the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards.

And as in 2021, the program will be teaming up with Open House Melbourne to take its focus beyond metropolitan Melbourne and into an expanded satellite program in regional Victoria.

Expressions of interest to participate in the 2022 Melbourne Design Week will close on 23 September 2021.

For further information, visit the Design Week website.

Lead photo: Installation view of From Form by Studio Flek during Melbourne Design Week 2021. Photo: Tom Ross.

The 2021 Melbourne Design Week was the first to feature a specially designed digital platform packed with digital programs, including talks, virtual galleries, photo archives, interviews and podcasts.

This complemented its more than 300 exhibitions, talks, films, tours and workshops across Victoria and online, which included ‘A New Normal’ – a project led by Australian-based sustainability organisation Finding Infinity that challenged Melbourne to become an entirely self-sufficient city with installations and talks from some of the state’s leading architects and designers.