A platorm for emerging and established design practitioners to profile their works, ‘Melbourne Design Week’ is expected to kick off on May 23 and will continue till June 2. Now in its eighth year, the 11-day program celebrates all things design through a series of talks, tours, exhibitions, installations and workshops.
Themed โDesign the world you wantโ the 2024 design week will focus on energy (how design can champion new technologies in the transition to renewables), ethics (how design can be guided by societal values), and ecology (how design can respond to the physical environment and the influence of nature).
The program is curated into two streams. There is a stream of local and international exhibitions and presentations organised by the National Gallery of Victoria, which includes the Melbourne Art Book Fair and the Melbourne Design Fair.
Nigerian architect Tosin Oshinowo will headline the 2024 program with a keynote lecture on architecture and urbanism in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and diverse design approaches to meet cultural and climatic needs. The program includes a satellite event presented by Open House Melbourne that will explore the relationship between design and death and how spaces of burial can provide insights on how we live.
The winner of the 2022 Melbourne Design Week Award, Revival Project, will be back with an exhibition of 100 timber urns made from salvaged Cypress Macrocarpa trees from Box Hill cemetery.
Some program highlights include Beyond Housing, an exhibition showcasing architecture students work; The Vault, a program designed to explore the evolution of architectural documentation since 1947; Tiny Patches, an exhibition presented by Glas Landscape Architects, which explores the human relationship to biodiversity in an urban context; A roundtable discussion titled Migration Women Architecture, which reflects on personal experiences related to migration and architecture, and a tour of Bar Studioโs new design studio in Collingwood.
To find out more about Melbourne Design Week, visit the website. Some regional Victorian events have been announced as part of the program, to be held in Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong and Shepparton.
