Melbourne Design Week Walking Tour

100 CHAIRS features the work of over 100 Australian creatives, studios, artists, architects and practices exploring the chair as a medium. The exhibition provides a platform for creatives at all career levels to present work collectively. All chairs have been designed and made in Australia.

Industry is an exhibition about legitimate sustainability with the aim of creating a circular economy model within a small designer–maker studio. The result is a series of speculative works — furniture, lighting, homewares, textiles and sculpture; some finished, some still concepts — where the entire ecological impact of the object is considered: materials, production, use, storage, transport and disposal, compelling a revision of outdated manufacturing models where sustainability becomes the true measure of an object’s worth.

The Latin word arum serves as the inspiration for Tom Fereday’s exhibition title, referencing the origins and transformation of raw material through the process of sand casting.

Fascinated by the tension between natural materials and contemporary design and manufacture, Tom Fereday develops unique designs through an inquiry into the role of objects today. Built on the principle of honest design, his work celebrates the materials and manufacturing processes behind furniture and objects, guiding thoughtful design outcomes that explore the notion of quiet innovation.

Curated by Emma Elizabeth and presented by Local Design, LOST HiDE explores design as a cultural force shaping how we live and imagine the future. Drawing on international experience, including past Milan curations, the exhibition champions Australian designers through a conceptually driven and material-led practice.

Synthesis by Studio Shields is presented within the Bishop’s Parlour and Foyer at the Abbotsford Convent. Heritage architecture becomes the framework for a contemporary interior installation, where encaustic tiles, stained glass and time-worn timber remain untouched, allowing the building’s existing character to anchor the space. Within this setting, a collective of Australian designers and artists present contemporary collectible works arranged as layered domestic vignettes rather than isolated objects.

Alice Blackwood is a strategic storyteller and experienced public speaker. For more than 20 years she’s passionately advocated for the Australian architecture and design industry, her roles spanning that of design editor, journalist, communications strategist, and program and editorial director. Alice has been integral in establishing numerous major platforms that recognise and celebrate the region’s most exciting architecture and design, elevating its industry leaders into the global spotlight. She served as Brand Lead and Editor on Indesign magazine and indesignlive.com until 2023 and is currently Editorial Director at Artedomus. She has contributed in a programming and strategic communications capacity on major international design festivals and events, as well as the INDE.Awards, and The (Emerging) Designer Awards. In 2026 she is a Member of the Open House Melbourne Building Council, Juror for The (Emerging) Designer Awards.