Design the world you want: Melbourne Design Week – 15-25 May 2025

Melbourne Design Week 2025

Melbourne Design Week (MDW) – Australia’s largest international design event – hits the galleries, public spaces, studios, gardens, showrooms, educational institutions, cinemas and streets of Melbourne and regional Victoria for 11 dynamic days of exhibitions, symposiums, tours, workshops, launches and installations from 15 to 25 May 2025.

Now in its ninth year, participating designers, architects and creatives will be exploring design’s capacity to transform existing norms and create a better tomorrow by driving positive change to solve economic, social and ecological challenges.

The annual event welcomes more than 100,000 design aficionados and curious visitors to immerse themselves in all things design. This year’s eclectic program covers every aspect and application of design with a collective theme that reveals design as an act of repair and transformation.

With more than 350 exhibitions, activities and events to experience throughout Melbourne and regional Victoria, highlights include:

  • FINDING INFINTY | A NEW NORMAL 10 new, speculative architectural projects to make Melbourne self-sufficient by 2030 – at the Boyd Baker House, Bacchus Marsh
  • FRIENDS & ASSOCIATES | 100 LIGHTS 100 lamps by 100 Australian creative practitioners as a celebration of Australian design
  • TRENT JANSEN | TWO DECADES OF DESIGN ANTHROPOLOGY A retrospective of the works of one of Australia's most exciting and accomplished object designers who redefined the role of Australian design in reflecting on our past and reconstituting a contemporary identity
  • ARTBANK x AGENCYPROJECTS | CATCH: TALES OF FIRST NATIONS

Showcasing the design ingenuity and legacy of First Nations designers and artists, selected fish traps from the Artbank collection alongside borrowed works by significant creatives like Aunty Kim Wandin

  • OPEN HOUSE MELBOURNE | BEYOND THE GRAVE

A 2-day program beginning at the Shrine of Remembrance that explores the role of architectural memorials in urban planning and the ethical challenges of designing spaces marked by tragedy, followed by a floral design workshop

  • THE URBAN FOREST

5 projects that explore the transformative potential of reimagining urban trees through design, focusing on the sustainable reuse of timber to reduce waste contribute to a circular economy

  • MDW DESIGN TALKS DANCING PUMPKIN

Leading Victorian designers, Sarah Lynn Rees, Danielle Brustman, Fiona Lynch and Jessie French – and curator Dr Timothy Moore – discuss the memory of materials, their histories, transformations and cultural associations

  • VOLKER HAUG | 20 YEARS OF VOLKER HAUG STUDIO
    A curated selection of Haug’s most significant works celebrating 2 decades of innovative lighting design and his mastery of form, materiality and craftsmanship
  • CITY SHAPING TALKS Discussing how architects and urbanists are facing the challenge of growth and the climate crisis while ensuring the quality of life that Melburnians expect
  • SIBLING ARCHITECTURE | DEEP CALM Showcasing a year-long research project on designing for the senses that demonstrates the calming effects of deep pressure against the body

MDW2025 also features a series of dinners, the MDW Film Festival, the Art Book Fair, a hands-on silk-screening workshop, design-meets-sports networking events and the Stallholder Fair in NGV’s Great Hall.

For a full program of events and activities, please visit the MDW2025 website.