Opening May 16 as part of Melbourne Design Week 2026, the exhibition 100 Chairs will showcase original work from over 130 Australian creatives, transforming the historic Abbotsford Convent into a massive survey of local furniture design.
Following 2025’s landmark 100 Lights exhibition, this latest iteration from design collective Friends and Associates posed each designer a strict requirement: every piece must be both designed and made within Australia. Dale Hardiman, a founder of Friends and Associates, thinks it might be Australia’s largest chair exhibition ever. “No one can confirm whether there has been a bigger chair show in Australia, so I’m claiming it’s the biggest chair show in Australian history!” says Hardiman.
The diverse lineup includes architects, industrial designers, and ceramicists, featuring names like Davidov Architects, Nicholas Johnston, and IF Architecture alongside high-profile collaborations such as Foolscap and Alpha60, Studio Gram with Daniel Emma and Bel Williams with Claire Markwick-Smith. Adele Winteridge, founder and principal of Foolscap, says the platform “gives an established practice like Foolscap license to experiment and test ideas that we are working on in the field.”
“The thought of 100 Australian designed and made chairs in one exhibition is so exciting, and something I’m really proud to be a part of,” says Patrick Adeney of Studio Adeney.
The exhibition will feature early-career designers alongside industry veterans. Friends and Associated co-founder Tom Skeehan notes that the format “allows a non-thematic presentation, whereby contributors of any discipline can participate and aren’t limited to the themed exhibitions held throughout the rest of the year.”
100 Chairs is free to the public and runs from May 14 to May 24, with an official celebration event on the evening of May 16.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
