The 5 best moments from Melbourne Design Week

1. Blown away

Hub Furniture has moved into a new home in Abbotsford and blew away the design community with an incredible installation by balloon artist Geronimo.

Parasitically attached to the side of the warehouse, the balloons were a beautiful spectacle and released the inner joy in many of the adult viewers.

Side note: the balloons were also made of a special biodegradable material.

 

2. A future in drones

Marcus Fairs, the man behind Dezeen, gave a keynote talk during the week. One thing that stood out clearer than any other was that he believes drones will change the way the world sees buildings and thus design.

Not only is Fairs set to release a documentary about the rise of drones, Telstra’s CEO Andy Penn also confirmed that the major Telco has 15 full-time drone handling staff. It was a revelation that begs the question – where does this leave your practice with some of the not-too-distant-future technologies?

 

3. Camaraderie trumps competition

We’re all part of a pretty small design eco-system here in Australia. By nature, it’s competitive. But one exhibition and event series tried to turn that on its head and show the power and force for good that can come by banding together.

The Design Co-op, an initiative by Anne-Claire Petre of Anaca Studio and Elizabeth Bull of One Fine Print, was a three-day showcase of design and discussion.

Myriad furniture brands, a range of interior designers and architects and talks catered to the public showed the sheer impact our industry can have when we all work together.

 

4. Treating design like art

It’s not often that design is elevated to art-world status. But several galleries across Melbourne used the Design Week to showcase design in exactly that way.

Elliat Rich, Dale Hardiman and Chen Lu all had one-off pieces on display at Sophie Gannon Gallery.

Blindside Gallery had Genevieve Felix Reynolds + Meagan Streader’s light sculptures on display, which explored three-dimensional space and architecture.

The Artefacts Objects exhibition showcased bespoke design objects by the likes of Michael Gittings, Sean Meilak and Maddie Sharrock.

5. Opening up the conversation

When it’s all said and done, the purpose of having a design week is to open up the conversation outside of the industry. And when you live and breathe design it can be all too easy to forget about the end user.

To have a week of cross-disciplinary, cross-pollination and bring the general public into the fold at the same time can only be a benefit for the industry as a whole.

Bring on next year!