From 23 May to 2 June, Melbourne Design Week presents eleven days of 300+ innovative exhibitions, installation displays, symposiums, talks, and workshops throughout metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria. Exploring the theme of ‘Design the world you want’, the 2024 program brings into focus the use of energy, ethics and ecology to encourage positive change, reimagine existing systems and offer innovative design solutions to complex global challenges.

Installation view of ‘(NO THINGS) MATTERS’, presented by Marlo Lyda at Villa Alba, 18–24 May 2023, as part of Melbourne Design Week 2023. Photograph: Alice Hutchinson
Highlights include the Melbourne Art Book Fair, a marketplace of art books, publishing and design featuring more than 100 stallholders; the Melbourne Design Week Film Festival, presenting a series of films that explore the impact of architecture and design through the moving image and its power to affect change, innovate and shape community, cities and the environment; and galleries and design curators presenting a series of exhibitions highlighting the inspiring scope of Australian designers from Clement Meadmore to Visnja Brdar with displays at Craft, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Tolarno, MUMA, Pieces of Eight, Useful Objects, and more.

Making of ‘100 Circles’. Courtesy the artist and Revival Projects, Melbourne
Speculative design exhibitions and programs examine approaches to sustainability and design solutions for the future. Designer Ella Saddington presents Material Matters, which considers the longevity and sustainability of materials that surround us, while the exhibition MATTERS explores the themes of process, community and longevity from designers including Adam Goodrum, Dean Norton, Jordan Fleming, and Marlo Lyda. Also, Revival Projects has salvaged five large Cypress Macrocarpa trees from Box Hill cemetery to create an exhibition of 100 timber urns that will decompose and give life to a new tree; and Zachary Frankel will mentor young people in a series of workshops to build chairs using waste material, which will be exhibited during Melbourne Design Week.