Melbourne Design Week 2026 returns with more than 400 events across Victoria

Melbourne’s biggest celebration of design is set to return this autumn, with hundreds of events exploring everything from food and fashion to robotics, interiors and furniture.

Running from May 14 to 24, Melbourne Design Week will transform venues across the city into hubs of creativity, with more than 400 exhibitions, talks, installations and workshops showcasing the latest ideas from Australian and international designers.

Now in its 10^th year, the event highlights how design shapes everyday life, from the way we eat and exercise to how our homes, cities and technologies are imagined and built. Held across locations including NGV International, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne School of Design, the National Communication Museum and showrooms throughout the CBD, the program has grown into the largest design event in Australia.

Among the headline speakers is Japanese industrial designer Shunji Yamanaka, who will deliver a keynote lecture at the National Communication Museum on work spanning prosthetics, robotics and product design. NGV International will host a conversation between Grand Designs Australia presenter Anthony Burke and Australian design legend Mary Featherston, while acclaimed architect Tom Kundig will also appear in a talk at the NGV.

The Melbourne School of Design will present a keynote and exhibition celebrating the 25-year career of Australian architect and designer Alison Page, whose work explores how Blak design perspectives can shape and enrich everyday Australian life.

Several city events will place a particular spotlight on Melbourne’s design and retail culture. At NGV International, Interior Design Day on May 23 will fill the Great Hall with talks and discussions featuring leading figures from the sector. On Collins St, the new Stylecraft showroom will host an exhibition of finalists in the Australian Furniture Design Award, while Muji Australia will present Muji Made, an exhibition featuring some of the brand’s most enduring products alongside reinterpretations by Australian designers.

Food and hospitality will also feature strongly. Yiaga: The Craft of Place will bring together chef Hugh Allen and architect John Wardle in a discussion about how design and craft have shaped Melbourne’s newest fine dining destination, while other events will span cutlery design, edible architecture-inspired chocolates and reflections on the relationship between kitchens, design studios and dining culture.

The Melbourne Art Book Fair will again form part of the program, with its annual stallholder fair taking over NGV International’s Great Hall from May 15 to 17 and highlighting publishers from South-East Asia, Latin America and the Australian Chinese diaspora.

Victorian Creative Industries Minister Colin Brooks said the event highlighted the strength of the state’s design sector, while NGV director Tony Ellwood said the program showed how deeply design influences daily life. Melbourne Design Week 2026 runs from May 14 to 24, with the full program to be announced in April.