Melbourne Design Week 2025: Creativity, innovation and its legacy

Melbourne Design Week returns on May 15-25, 2025, with an 11-day program including more than 350 events, exhibitions, talks, and installations showcasing a range of groundbreaking works from both emerging designers and well-established professionals.

One of the standout features of this year's festival is 100 Lights, an immersive exhibition held at North Melbourne's Meat Market Stables. Staged by Friends & Associates, this stunning display will feature lighting designs from over 100 artists, designers, and makers, including Adam Goodrum, Ross Gardam and Tantri Mustika. The exhibition will create a glowing environment, allowing visitors to experience the beauty and innovation of contemporary lighting design.

Another significant exhibition, Siblings Architecture's Deep Calm, will delve into how architecture can cater to neurodivergent audiences. This exhibition, the result of a year-long research project, will include designs like weighted sofas and tactile rugs, aimed at creating calming environments for individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

Another highlight will be Catch: Tales of First Nations fishing through the Artbank Collection, spotlighting the design ingenuity and legacy of First Nations designers, including Aunty Kim Wandin.

The festival will also highlight the careers of two Australian designers. Volker Haug, a decorative lighting designer from Stuttgart, Germany, will present a retrospective of his 20-year career in Australia with an exhibition titled 20 Years of Volker Haug Studios. The showcase will trace the evolution of Haug's design philosophy, blending functionality with artistic expression.

Trent Jansen, renowned for his design anthropology approach, will also celebrate his two-decade milestone with the exhibition Trent Jansen: Two Decades of Design Anthropology. Jansen's journey from repurposing road signs into furniture to collaborating with First Nations makers will be featured, highlighting his contributions to innovative Australian design.

A significant theme of this year's festival is the exploration of sustainable design practices. A New Normal, an exhibition at the Boyd Baker House in Bacchus Marsh, will present innovative ideas aimed at making Melbourne a self-sufficient city by 2030, featuring designs and policy recommendations by 12 Melbourne architects.

In addition to the design exhibitions, the Melbourne Art Book Fair (May 15-17) will feature more than 100 publishers from across the Asia-Pacific region, along with pop-up talks and workshops. The festival's theme of 'Design the World You Want' invites all participants to reflect on how their work shapes the future, making Melbourne Design Week a must-see event for design enthusiasts and industry professionals alike.

The full program and bookings will be available online from mid- April 2025 at the Melbourne Design Week website.