As Melbourne Design Week commences, we have compiled some of our top highlights from this month’s program that are not to be missed

Lucent’s Picks: 2019 Melbourne Design Week Program

Melbourne Design Week, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV, will showcase the works of the local design community, with events across Melbourne and Geelong between 14-24 March.

This year, the programme will incorporate a theme surrounding the concept of ‘Design Experiments’, featuring over 200 talks, exhibitions, tours and workshops with some of the industry’s best.

As the program commences later this month, we have compiled some of our top highlights that are not to be missed.


Melbourne: Megacity? Presented by Amy Evans and Conor Todd
15 Mar, 6-9PM
The population in Melbourne is set to double over the next 40 years, inevitably bringing major growth in the urban fabrication of the Melbourne landscape. Those in the design industries will play a central role in determining the type of city Melbourne will become. This exhibition presents ideas and propositions for Melbourne’s future as a megacity from an array of local designers, architects, urban planners and thinkers.


Material Thought: exploring material through the work of innovative Australian designers, presented by Modern Times
21 Mar 6-8PM
Join Melbourne institution Modern Times, in celebrating and examining material beyond the superficial, through showcasing the work of some of Australia’s most innovative furniture, lighting and object designers including Steelotto, Nicolette Johnson, Henry Wilson, Ebony Heidenreich, Maddie Sharrock, Alterfact, Coco Flip, and Christopher Boots. Counteracting the simplistic and implied categorisation of materials – sustainable/unsustainable, natural/synthetic, handmade/factory-made, recycled/new – Material Thought explores the history, constraints and implications of the materials in play. This re-contextualisation invites both designer and consumer to consider how design can shape our future, illuminating that the future is informed by the past, by providing a platform that explicitly and critically engages with material, form and use.

NGV Architecture Commission 2018: Doubleground by Muir + Openwork, presented by NGV
18 Mar, 12–12.30PM
Melbourne firm MUIR architecture and landscape architecture studio OPENWORK present a collage of dramatic structural landscapes for the 2018 NGV Architecture Commission, inspired by key architectural elements of Sir Roy Grounds iconic NGV International building. The winning proposal entitled Doubleground, draws from the façade forms, timber linings and internal courtyards of Grounds’ 1960s design, resulting in a multi-level installation that offers new vistas and perspectives for visitors to experience the NGV Garden.

John Wardle Architects: Somewhere Other, presented by NGV
Exhibition times: 7 Mar – 28 July, 10AM–5PM daily
Talk: 16 Mar, 11AM–12PM
The exhibition invites audiences to look through five portals housed within an intriguing timber and steel structure. Experiencing the project, audiences walk around, through and into a series of interconnected timber volumes, voids and apertures, each framing a ‘portal’, providing the viewer with a different experience in each instance. Somewhere Other was developed in collaboration with film makers Coco and Maximilian and New York based, Australia artist, Natasha Johns-Messenger.

How do we build the next generation of affordable housing? Presented by MGS Architects
15 Mar, 6-7.30PM
If Melbourne is to continue to be liveable as it grows, there is an increasing urgency to provide affordable housing close to jobs, social networks and transport. There have been a variety of measures put forward by the government, private sector and institutions, but we still fall well below our targets for affordable housing. In this panel discussion, representatives from government, housing associations, the development industry and the design sector will put forward their vision for addressing this urgent and complex issue.

For more information on the Melbourne Design Week program, please visit ngv.vic.gov.au