Editor

The National Gallery of Victoria 2024 Melbourne Design Week will include more than 300 talks, tours, exhibitions, installations and workshops throughout an 11-day festival.

The program will see the return of a number of festival regulars, including the Melbourne Art Book Fair and the announcement of the Melbourne Design Week Award. Here, we've rounded up seven festival highlights for Melbourne's architectural community.

23 to 31 May

The Australian Institute of Architects exhibition held at the Brickworks Showroom features archival drawings shared by Victorian architecture firms and depict some of the state's most iconic buildings in their embryonic states. The drawings showcase the evolution of architectural documentation practices and techniques from 1947 to the present day, including drawings produced by Robin Boyd for the Small Homes Service.

24 May, 6-7 pm

The roundtable discussion explores personal experiences of migration and architecture, shedding light in the opportunities, barriers and inequities faced by women from cultural diverse backgrounds who work in the architecture, design and built environment professions. The conversation builds on issues raised in an edition of Architect Victoria, guest edited by Marika Neustupny, Mirjana Lozanovska and Maryam Gusheh with Helen Duong and Sonia Sarangi that emphasised the importance of inclusion and cultural diversity in architecture.

25 May

Presented by Second Place, this event explores issues of climate change, the biodiversity crisis and built environment practice through the edible medium of cake. The competition challenges a selection of Melbourne-based landscape architecture studios to reimagine an under-developed site in Melbourne's CBD as parkland, and present that vision in the form of an edible cake. The event includes live judging of the cake designs by a panel of experts as well as panel discussion on designing for biodiversity and non-human ecologies.

Various dates

Always a popular feature of Melbourne Design Week, the film festival features a number of documentaries that explore the impact of design and architecture in shaping communities, cities and the environment. This year's festival includes films on the work of mid-century architect and designer Eliot Noyes, Le Corbusier and his work in the Indian city of Chandigarh, the life and work of Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, and a "cinematic meditation" of a modernist glass skyscraper in São Paulo.

26 May, 4-5 pm

Nigerian architect Tosin Oshinowo will present a keynote lecture on architecture and urbanism in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and diverse design approaches to meet cultural and climatic needs. Oshinowo founded Lagos-based Oshinowo Studio in 2013 and has completed projects throughout Nigeria. She is known for her socially responsive approaches to architecture, design and urbanism. She was co-curator of the Lagos Biennial in 2019 and in 2023 she curated the second Sharjah Architecture Triennial.

28 May, 6-8 pm

Retroactively awarded the 2003 Gold Medal, Maggie Edmond will present her A. S. Hook address, as is customary for all Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medallists, at the 2024 Melbourne Design Week. The 2003 Gold Medal was originally only awarded to Edmond's business and life partner Peter Corrigan. In 2023, the Australian Institute of Architects amended the accolade to rightfully reflect the partnership.

28 May

This special collection of archival drawings depicts the architectural evolution of an elite women's club in the heart of Melbourne's CBD. Located in Ridgeway Place, the Lyceum Club was originally designed by modernist architect (Edythe) Ellison Harvie, and further developed by Berenice Harris with its most recent addition by Kerstin Thompson Architects. This event also includes a panel discusson between Eli Giannini, Kerstin Thompson and Julie Willis on the club's various transformations over the past 70 years.

1 June, 9:30 am - 4 pm

The satellite program presented by Open House Melbourne that explores the relationship between design and death and how spaces of burial can provide insights on how we live. Held at Bunurong Memorial Park, the event includes a panel discussion on designing the park's new Miscarriage Memorial, a discussion on designing inclusive spaces to meet the cultural and spiritual needs of mourners, as well as a tour of the park's memorial landscapes. Open House Melbourne will also host a Design and Death Symposium.

A number of architecture practices will also be presenting events, including Gray Puksand, Cox Architecture, McBride Charles Ryan, Bates Smart, Snøhetta, Woods Bagot, Nic Brunsdon, Wardle, Architectus, BVN, Clarke Hopkins Clark, Baracco and Wright, Plus Architecture, ARM Architecture and Techne Architecture and Interior Design.

See the full festival program on the Melbourne Design Week website.