For Australian design brand NAU, showing at 3daysofdesign is not simply about being seen in Europe. It is part of a longer project: building a platform for Australian designers that can hold its own internationally.
Presented in Copenhagen during this year’s festival, The Moment is NAU brought together the brand’s furniture and lighting collections through an exhibition, industry gathering and program of conversation. New and recent releases were shown alongside established pieces, with work by designers including Adam Goodrum and Tom Fereday offering a clear view of the brand’s position today.
3daysofdesign has become one of the key moments on the international design calendar, but it also carries a particular relevance for NAU and Cult. For decades, Cult has helped shape the Australian market’s understanding of international design, including a strong and ongoing relationship with Danish design. NAU reverses that movement. Rather than bringing European design into Australia, it takes Australian design into a city deeply associated with furniture, lighting and design culture.
Founded by Richard Munao in 2017, NAU grew from the wider Cult ecosystem and from Munao’s belief that Australian design deserved a stronger platform. Cult had already built the networks, credibility and distribution knowledge required to work internationally. NAU gave that experience a new direction, creating a brand focused on original Australian design and local creative authorship.
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For Munao, this ambition has remained steadfast. “When we established NAU, we made a commitment to champion Australian designers and take their work to the world,” he says. “Launching in Copenhagen is an important moment for our brand and for Australian design. It demonstrates that Australian designers have a unique voice and perspective that belongs on the global stage, alongside the world’s most respected design brands. We are proud to share a collection that is designed and made in Australia, and to contribute to the growing recognition of Australian design internationally.”
Certainly, NAU’s collection expresses Australian design without resorting to obvious cues. The character of the pieces shines through in the push and pull of restraint and warmth: furniture and lighting shaped by material clarity and comfort, with an understanding of how people actually live with objects.
At 3daysofdesign, that thinking was given more room through a program of conversation. A panel discussion explored the relationship between legacy and contemporary practice, looking at how designers work with tradition, longevity, material integrity and shifting cultural and environmental conditions. With Adam Goodrum present throughout the festival, the program placed Australian design voices directly within the Copenhagen exchange.
The accompanying gathering, NAU, Later, brought a more social dimension to the presentation, reflecting the openness and hospitality that sit naturally within the brand’s identity.
For Munao, this feels like a logical continuation of work that has been building for years. NAU is not only exporting furniture and lighting; it is building context around Australian design and giving local designers a more visible place in international discussion.
In Copenhagen, The Moment is NAU felt less like a one-off presentation than the result of years of groundwork — a clear expression of Richard Munao’s belief that Australian design has a serious place on the international stage.
