Must-see events at Melbourne Design Week 2025
Must-see events at Melbourne Design Week 2025
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Autumn in the Garden State is synonymous with many things – the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, fluttering brick-coloured leaves, footy scarves galore and Melbourne Design Week. The globally celebrated design week returns on 15 May and patrons can expect 11 memorable days packed with more than 350 events, exhibitions, talks and installations.
Melbourne Design Week is marked by the recurring theme of ‘Design the world you want’, encouraging designers to ponder how their creations and contributions influence successive generations. NGV director Tony Ellwood AM emphasises the importance of this theme, confirming Design Week uplifts works that “shape the future for the better”.
Veteran and newly minted Design Week lovers will be darting around the city visiting an array of exhibitions that pay homage to this theme. Seeing everything is an overwhelming and exciting feat, and one that we will hopefully make a little easier by providing a non-exhaustive list of the 15 unmissable events at this year’s Design Week.
Keynote: Kennedy Nolan at the NGV Great Hall
On 21 May, hear Patrick Kennedy and Rachel Nolan, the founders of one of Australia’s most renowned architectural practices, unpack the altruism of architecture and how designers can incite meaningful change as individuals and collectively.
Death, Design and the Macabre: Echoes of the Past through Design
Kick off the first day of Design Week at Old Melbourne Gaol, where experts in design, pop culture and ethics interrogate how design influences how we engage with iconic landmarks marked by death, tragedy and the macabre. Design is a gripping storytelling vessel that can help the horrifying histories of institutions and places respectfully resonate with contemporary audiences.
100 Lights
From 15 to 18 May, 100 lights will illuminate the sweeping Meat Market Stables in North Melbourne, creating a visually wondrous exhibition by 100 artists, designers and makers, staged by Friends & Associates. Patrons will delight in a glowing landscape dotted by lamps, pendants and sconces made by practitioners including Adam Goodrum, Ross Gardam, Tantri Mustika, Marlo Lyda, Jay Jermyn and more. No bookings are required and visitors can visit for free.
Elliat Rich. Photo: Sara Maiorino
Dhawurr / Batjbarra (Fish Trap)
Running every day of Design Week except 25 May, Agency Projects and Bula’bula Arts will showcase a collection of traditional Yolŋu fish traps and nets at Easey Street, Collingwood. This exhibition emerges from a Yolŋu-led initiative launched last year that restored freshwater fish populations by relying on traditional Yolŋu fish trapping methods. This exhibition emphasises the value of Indigenous knowledge and craftsmanship in ecological conservation efforts.
Dhawurr/Batjbarra (Fishtrap) in collaboration with Bula’bula Arts and Agency. Images courtesy of Tim Hiller.
Goodbye London Plane
Although no friend to those who suffer from pollen allergies, London plane trees are a recognisable landmark of Melbourne’s urban landscape, representing 70 percent of the total tree population in the inner city. However, a slew of studies, draft masterplans and complaints from Melburnians and visitors have prompted the City of Melbourne Council to draft a long-term plan to phase out the trees – in 40 years, they will only account for five percent of the city’s tree population.
Led by Andy Ward and curated by Ben Mooney, this group exhibition at Ma House Supply Store will show how an often vilified tree can be repurposed from the city’s fallen and felled.
Dining on Design: A three-course design dialogue
Spend a Tuesday night with Leyla Acaroglu and Alice Blackwood, who are hosting an evening of design discussions while tucking into a curated Smith & Daughters dining experience. A three-course meal and discussions generated from conversation cards will allow patrons to walk away with food for thought regarding the role of design in addressing grand existential musings, such as how to tackle food systems failures and build resilience amidst political and geopolitical turmoil.
Illuminating Darkness: Shining a light on women’s safety in running
For one night only on 20 May, amateur athlete and design creative Katie Kelso will lead a five-kilometre run around the backstreets of Collingwood and Abbotsford to enable women to wield power and influence exercising in Melbourne’s streets at night. Night running is deemed by many women as unsafe and an unattainable luxury. Kelso wants women to reclaim the night in solidarity and numbers. Ticket profits will be donated to the HER Move campaign. All genders and allies are welcome.
Inspired Perspectives
Held at the Australian Centre for Glass Design, Inspired Perspectives displays collaborative work between design professionals, creatives and glass makers to highlight the power of architectural glass to renew and rejuvenate the built environment. This event is free and no bookings are required.
Bio (Me) Reimagining Biomaterials and Waste
No Vacancy Gallery at QV is hosting a group exhibition examining the value of material reuse and the symbiotic relationship between art, design, material innovation and sustainability. Participants will demonstrate how materials such as mycelium, kelp, food waste, rubber, mud and other materials can find a new life in unexpected places.
Nau Design x Artedomus
A secluded warehouse space in Flemington will play host to esteemed Australian designer Tom Fereday’s latest furniture collection with Nau Design across all 11 days of Design Week. The exhibition hopes to inspire attendees to consider the various applications of sustainable and innovative design solutions that speak to the aesthetic and functional aspects of living and working spaces.
Work Shop: Low Key, Toni Maticevski X Fiona Lynch and Fiona Lynch archive
Presented in its Collingwood studio, Fiona Lynch Office presents three exhibitions, including one that focuses on the studio’s archive over the past 14 years. Low Key showcases the work of numerous local designers, while Toni Maticevski X Fiona Lynch celebrates illumination and beauty with a lighting and furniture project repurposing fabric remnants.
Deep Calm: The regulating effect of pressure and touch
Need a hug and someone to tuck you in? Furniture has the ability to hug, hold and squeeze users, a belief explored in this exhibition at Curtin House. Patrons can access reprieve and relaxation in the custom-designed floor rugs designed to emulate the feeling of a hug through a sensory tactile base and weighted soft forms or sofas.
By / Product: Oxide, Locki Humphrey
Artist and furniture maker Locki Humphrey is the third star of Craft’s By/Product. At Watson Place, Humphrey reimagines the production waste from the prickly pear tree – an invasive species – as a sustainable leather alternative.
Natural Brutalism: A sustainable collaboration
Capra Designs and Anna Sassi Design invite patrons to learn about the tactile beauty of cork, an environmentally responsible material capable of unlocking innovation in interior design. The exhibition is free and bookings are not required.
Alexandra Howie: Surfacing
Emerging ceramicist Alexandra Howie receives a spotlight at her debut exhibition held by Amy Voterakis and HALI Rugs. Surfacing sees the intangible adopt a physical form and salute the concept of emergence.
Regenerate
Through a series of sensory, experiential and educational installations, Tait hopes to underscore the importance of regenerating native grasslands, which have reduced to less than one percent of their natural coverage. A new product range by Adam Goodrum will also be released at the exhibition.
Futureproof
REDACTED & RMIT School of Design are gearing up to host Futureproof, slated to be ‘the coolest industrial design event of the year’. Across three nights, the exhibition communicates the alarming environmental crisis and how design can assist in combatting such ecological challenges and obstacles.
Featured Image: Alexandra Howie’s work in progress. Photographed by Brent Lukey.
For the full list of events and to book tickets, visit the Melbourne Design Week website here.
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