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The Melbourne Design Week program champions design through promoting a broad array of disciplines, including: communication design, industrial design, furniture design, service design, gaming, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, urban design, fashion, craft and functional art.
In 2021, Melbourne Design Week explored the theme ‘Design the world you want’ and asked designers to consider how they could collaborate to create a better and healthier future. In 2022, the program continues with this call-to-action to celebrate the diverse ways design can work towards this better future under two pillars – civic good and making good.
We’re honoured to be presenting ‘Designing the Future of Hospitality’ alongside Cassie Hansen (Artichoke Magazine), Georgia Danos (JRF), Ronnen Goren (Studio Ongarato), Ryan Russell & Byron George (Russell & George) and Khanh Nguyen (Sunda & Aru).
We are excited to not only be a part of this year’s’ program, but to attend many of the amazing events presented by our design peers.
We’ve put together our shortlist and wanted to share it with you.
DESIGNING THE FUTURE OF HOSPITALITY
Presented by James Richardson Furniture
How can design transform hospitality? Join Cassie Hansen, journalist and editor of Artichoke Magazine, as she brings together a panel of hospitality figureheads to discuss the impact design has on the hospitality industry. Hear from award-winning designers, Russell & George, Co-owner and Executive Chef of celebrated restaurants Tonka and Coda, Adam D’Sylva, renowned branding agency, Studio Ongarato and trusted furniture provider James Richardson Furniture as they delve into what makes a new age restaurant, how to foster community, and create a dining experience that stays with someone forever.
Our event is sold out but we of course had to include it anyway!
Presented by the Authentic Design Alliance
AUTHENTIC DESIGN ALLIANCE presents CAGED by Ash Allen, an exhibition of one-off interpretations of modern furnishing icons recreated by Ash Allen as a statement about how replica and knock-off furniture are empty and meaningless. The project grew during Melbourne’s series of rolling lockdowns as an expression of being caged with Ash reflecting that this also represents how copied designs harm culture, the environment, and the industry at large. The installation is accompanied by a series of limited-edition photographic works of the collection by Tom Blachford.
Presented by Fiona Lynch Office
Acclaimed interior design practice Fiona Lynch Office launch their first capsule collection for Melbourne Design Week 2022. Expanding on the studio’s commitment to sustainable materials, the pieces are produced with waste materials and local fabrication. The collection is inspired by the studio’s interior design for the soon-to-open Ace Hotel in Sydney, offering a sneak peek of the upcoming project’s custom-made furniture, textile and joinery elements.
BARBERA STUDIO 2022 BCE – 2022 CE
Presented by Daniel Barbera
A historical design narrative as presented by Barbera studio within the Bates Smart Gallery. The genesis of the exhibition is metals were cast over five thousand years ago, and have survived to be here today, and the objects BARBERA create in the year 2022 CE have the ability to last thousands of years, just like their counterparts designed and created 2022 BCE. The process of sand casting hasn’t changed much in 5000 years. Barbera Studio presents an activation highlighting the studio’s material evolution and production processes. Utilising sand with curated cast componentry and its relationship to ceramics in various states of production. This interpretation with old BCE minerals and material exploration includes bronze, ceramics, and glass. Sustainability and historical touch points aim to demonstrate an artistic visual representation of ancient materials encapsulated with specific design methodologies highlighting the studio’s selected finished products.
Presented by BayleyWard
Over the course of Melbourne Design Week, BayleyWard’s studio will become a space to design, create and showcase rammed earth artefacts. Throughout the week, studio members and members of the public are invited to join in the making of an array of sustainably produced sculptural objects that will be presented in an exhibition at the end of the week. The workshop format will encourage users to engage in research, experimentation, and testing of the material through the lens of ethical practices. Each object will have unique traits, marked by its maker and their interpretation of the process, expressing the craft and tactility inherent in the construction method. Materials for the project are gathered locally, and each location charted on a map of the city. By mapping the source of the materials, we will demonstrate the benefits of rammed earth as a sustainable construction method, raise awareness of opportunities available within a local precinct, and demonstrate the social and environmental impact associated with procurement of materials.
Presented by Melbourne Connect
Artist Robert Walton worked with a team of data scientists, builders, architects and lighting designers to create an artwork that reveals a building’s heart. The artwork will be integrated into the building and connect directly to its nervous system of sensors and its respiratory system of heating, ventilation and air conditioning. The Heart will begin beating soon and will continue for at least 42 years, or longer, for the life of the building. This artwork acknowledges Melbourne Connect as a breathing, sensing synthetic being striving to support the life of its community. Though not alive, it is by the admission of its creators, ‘smart’, amongst the ‘smartest yet made’. Buildings such as these are on the cusp of becoming new kinds of superorganisms. Let’s make them benevolent beings. Like the non-human life that teams through our bodies, we are part of the zoology that exceeds the sum of its parts to create semi-autonomous built environments. As the heart will be at the beginning stages of installation, the artist will present a talk reflecting on the meaning of the work, and the collaborative design process behind its execution.
Presented by Heide, Museum of Modern Art; John Wardle & Simon Lloyd
This exhibition is a survey of works in timber and ceramic designed by John Wardle and Simon Lloyd. The twenty-five items of furniture, ceramics and objects that will fill McGlashan and Everist’s Heide II at Heide Museum of Modern Art provide a fascinating exposition of the skills of makers from Melbourne and Hobart.
Presented by Naomi Troski x Techne Architecture + Interior Design
Technē Architecture and Interior Design has collaborated with artist Naomi Troski to produce Modulations, a multi-level display of artworks throughout their Creative studio space in Carlton. These works explore the subtle changes in form and colour expressed through the movement of natural light.
Presented by The Company You Keep
An exquisite corpse (from the French term cadaver exquisites) is a method by which a collection of words of images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in a sequence. Invented by the surrealists, the technique involves players drawing on a sheet of paper, folding it to conceal part of the image, and passing it to the next player for a further contribution. Using this framework as a basis, TCYK and Collins will explore the process of collaboration via shared design files and ongoing dialogue. In designing the world we want, we’re experimenting with new design processes and modes of working to deliberately erode traditional barriers that could silo the creative process via geography, creative team, time zone or speciality. The result will be a typeface, poster or combination of design outcomes “unimaginable by one brain alone” – as surrealist Simone Kahn describes the process. By working within a collaboration method that hinges on free play and unpredictability, our goal is to push the design outcome beyond our day-to-day practice. Our process and outcome will be exhibited on 26 March, with a discussion and associated visuals with Rhys Gorgol, Luke Brown and Brian Collins.
DESIGN BEYOND EARTH: OPENING NIGHT
Presented by Scienceworks in collaboration with Hassell Studio
Opening night of the Scienceworks Hub for Melbourne Design Week includes a special presentation by Hassell Studio’s Head of Design Xavier De Kestelier and Computational Design Lead Jonathan Irawan sharing their current projects and collaborations with NASA and the European Space Agency envisioning new forms of human habitation in space.
THE MELBOURNE DESIGN WEEK FAIR
Presented by NGV
The Melbourne Design Fair showcases the best collectible contemporary design from over 100 Australian designers and makers with presentations staged by leading commercial galleries, studios, design organisations, and agencies in addition to a highlight exhibition of works for sale curated by the NGV department of Contemporary Design and Architecture.
The Eat Drink Design Awards Shortlist 2022
Interview w/ our Creative & Brand Director, Georgia Danos