In 2016 the Victorian Government announced a major new initiative to support, celebrate and enable Victoria’s design sector. Curated and presented by the NGV in collaboration with Creative Victoria, the Victorian Design Program is a year-long roster of design and architecture focused events and activities culminating in Melbourne Design Week each March.

In 2017 the NGV introduced a new strand to the program – The Victorian Design Challenge – which invites Victorian designers to form multi-disciplinary teams with professionals from other sectors to apply design in targeting a real-world problem. For the inaugural Challenge, the NGV partnered with VicHealth and asked designers to respond to the Challenge question:
‘How might we increase the resilience of today’s young people?’

Announced on 2 June 2018, the team Local Time, led by architectural graduate, Matt Dwyer and mental health and juvenile justice researcher Dr Sanne Oostermeijer, has been named the winner of the Victorian Design Challenge 2018.

Local Time proposed the creation of a new Design Standard to inform the implementation of Residential Diversion Programs for Victoria’s juvenile justice system. Articulating key principles and requirements for a resilience-focused facility design, Dwyer and Oostermeijer’s Design Standard will assist organisations, local councils and architects in the delivery of small-scale, temporary housing for Victoria’s young community.

The Victorian Design Challenge Jury concluded that Dwyer and Oostermeijer best demonstrated how design can be put to work to help vulnerable youth in society. This was achieved by linking the planning and design of a building facility with a resilient-focused service-system for young people which embraces access to mental health services, education, family, mobility and employment options.

Local Time was awarded the prize of $30,000 to help fund further development and prototyping of their design standard.

The shortlisted teams for the Victorian Design Challenge 2018 were:

Local Time
A collaboration between Matt Dwyer and Dr Sanne Oostermeijer. Team Leader: Matt Dwyer, Architectural Graduate (WINNER)

Failure Place
A collaboration between Global South, Ivanhoe Girls Grammar School, The Space Agency and Banyule City Council. Team Leader: Simon McPherson, Architect/Urbanist Global South

Future Peoples
A collaboration between The Future Ensemble & Local Peoples. Team Leader: Guiseppe Damaio, Director Local Peoples

Platform
A collaboration between Matt Calder, Courtney Brown, Olivia Potter, Lauren Garner, Will Muhleisen, Stephen Mintern and Simon Robinson. Team Leader: Matt Calder, Landscape Architecture

Partners and Supporters

The NGV Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture is generously supported by The Hugh D. T. Williamson Foundation.

Industry Supporters

Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA)

Design Institute of Australia (DIA)

Architecture Institute of Australia (AIA)