With more than 400 events taking place as part of this year’s Melbourne Design Week from 14–24 May, our editorial team picked their favourites from the program of talks, tours, films, exhibitions and workshops. Here’s what we’re most looking forward to:
100 Chairs chosen by Cassie Hansen, InteriorsAu editor
South Magdalen Laundry at Abbotsford Convent, Abbotsford / 14–24 May
A follow-up of sorts to 2025 Melbourne Design Week’s 100 Lights, this exhibition, unexpectedly called 100 Chairs, explores the industry’s favourite piece of furniture: the chair. Presented by Friends and Associates, this year’s exhibition will actually feature 120 chairs (I know, I know, but 120 Chairs doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?), with each submitting creative asked to design and make the piece in Australia.
Some of these creatives have never designed a chair before, while for others, this is their bread and butter. I’m looking forward to seeing the work of some interesting collaborations, most notably Adelaidians Studio Gram and Daniel Emma working together, designer-client collaborators Foolscap and Alpha60 joining forces again, and talented emerging makers Bel Williams and Claire Markwick-Smith coming together to make a chair to call their own.
On at Abbotsford Convent from 14 to 24 May, 100 Chairs looks to be a perfect sit-uation.
Susty Spec chosen by Lucia Amies, ArchitectureAu editor
Johnson Street Building at Collingwood Yards, Collingwood / 16 May
Hemp, bamboo, cork, mycelium. These are words that get an architect’s pulse racing. Four years ago, they had the same effect on architect Isabella Peppard, who took on the goal of researching locally made biomaterials in order to find out how they could be more readily adopted by the construction industry to reduce carbon emissions.
Through her media platform Susty Spec, Peppard took to interviewing Australian manufacturers on the regenerative nature of their materials and processes. This one-day exhibition (plus launch party!) continues her line of questioning, focussing on practical solutions and how one might go about specifying biomaterials – many of which will be on display – and how to coordinate their integration in building projects.
Gordon Studio Glassblowers, Red Hill / 17 May
God, who doesn’t love glassblowing? I still remember vividly when I first saw a glassblower in action. I was a little kid visiting a vocational college open day (a weird choice of activity for a child, in retrospect), and there was a bloke with a blowtorch making glass swans for anyone who asked.
An utterly transfixing, transforming moment, watching him work. It was a type of alchemy. Sure he had the most burnt fingers you can imagine and was bearing more than one fresh bandaid (it was a college after all) but it was clear that it was a kind of magic that few crafts can touch – a fact that becomes more apparent as the artform becomes less and less common.
The demos at the highly acclaimed Gordon Studio Glassblowers is a rare opportunity to experience that magic first hand among artists at the top of their field. Not to be missed.
Table Manners chosen by Alexa Kempton, Houses editor
Florian Home, Carlton North / 14–17 May
The title Table Manners first brought to my mind the formal dinner setting of Julia Roberts’s scene in Pretty Woman, where using the wrong fork constitutes a social faux pas. “Where’s the salad?” she whispers anxiously. “That’s the fork I know.”
Mercifully, this exhibition – set inside homewares store Florian Home – shuns such stuffy dinner party etiquette and instead questions why the design of cutlery has remained standardised, when eating itself is so personal.
Curated by Georgia Smedley, Table Manners will comprise one-off sets of cutlery produced by 12 contemporary designers and makers, including Belle Thierry, Hamish Munro, Hamish Donaldson, Julian Leigh May, Ryan Mueller, Sebastião Lobo, Snelling Studio, Soie Lait, Streifen, Studio Yeodong Yun, Studio Kyss and Tai Snaith. They will be set alongside historical and contemporary cutlery pieces restored by Arne and Nicolette from The Kraftsman, and in so doing the exhibition hopes to prompt visitors to consider what dining habits we have inherited, and which of those we might unlearn.
Le Space, Collingwood / 14–24 May
Cane toads are a highly destructive invasive species in Australia. They’re also fascinating, being highly adaptable, about to reproduce at a very fast rate, and very poisonous. Lisa Tabrah who has curated this exhibition creates projects that demonstrate how environmental issues are also cultural issues. Tabrah produced cane toad couture for MONA’s Eat the Problem project which argued that one way to deal with destructive invasive species was to consume them.
I’m intrigued by the alchemic act of transforming something ugly or low-value into something beautiful or high-value. Design is about turning challenges into opportunities – and this exhibition seems to be aiming to do just that.
You’ve Got Mail chosen by Lucia Amies, ArchitectureAu editor
Above Mitty’s Newsagency, Melbourne / 22–24 May
It really is impossible to pick just one favourite, so here’s another … You’ve Got Mail promises to be a fun spin on the epnoymous 1998 rom-com film, though perhaps with a little less rom and com, and a little more intrigue. The exhibition will the feature work from more than 20 international designers, currently in the post and on its way to Melbourne. Once it gets here, the international mail will be installed alongside its necessary counterpart: the letterbox, reimagined by seven Australian designers in bold, expressive ways to give new significance to this oft-overlooked everyday object.
Curated by Athanasia Spathis and Sean Brickhill, You’ve Got Mail is on for three days only, from 22–24 May.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
