The design takeover of Melbourne kicked off first thing on Friday morning with the hotly anticipated Disrupt Design Living LiveLife seminar hosted in Darkon’s Collingwood studio. The hits kept coming throughout the morning, as we saw the best in the industry clash over and discuss the gender divide in architecture and design, Australia’s design heritage and cultural cringe, and how fed up with fame and the so-called ‘starchitects’ we are.

While we’re incredibly proud of the seminar series we presented, we were equally excited to see what our exhibitors had in store! We saw a fascinating talk with Ian McDougall, founding Director of ARM Architecture, who spoke about the design of ARM’s additions to the Shrine Of Remembrance in the Kings Domain Melbourne. The morning was rounded out by a terrific appearance from a special guest speaker at Sketch Tile Concepts; Fernando Mendez from Atlas Concorde touched down from Italy to introduce Sketch’s new range of Atlas Concorde tiles.

The afternoon continued the mix of Indesign and Habitus hosted seminar discussion events, sponsored by Scandinavian Business Seating and Herman Miller, and terrific exhibitor presented events. Heads butted as we see the industry debate over the practicalities of designing for the public and how important public opinion is when designing at the Interface hosted WorkLife Design for the Public discussion. While DKO Architecture and AJAR furniture offered up and afternoon house tour of DKO’s innovative Bedford St project, Authentic Design Alliance were showcasing the industry’s dirty secret – knock off design – and what we can do to stop it.

After a celebration of Indesign’s Launch Pad program with RE:LAUNCH, it was time to let our hair down and enjoy Melbourne Indesign after dark with Up Late. Up Late was a blast for all involved, as we bar hopped between a select catered collection of Melbourne’s cultural and design landmarks. From District to Hub Furniture, the National Gallery of Victoria, Zenith and COS, we feel humbled (and still a bit tired!) to have brought Melbourne alive with this series of one-night-only experiences.

There’ll be a lot more Melbourne Indesign photos and reviews in the coming days, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled.