Themes

Melbourne Design Week highlights the capacity for design to transform our environments – each year asking participants to ‘Design the world you want’. Responding to this call-to-action, designers use their skills to drive positive change, reimagine existing systems, and offer innovative solutions to pressing global challenges. 

Each year three pillars, which address the opportunities and challenges that designers are presently facing, underscore this call-to-action. In 2024, the Melbourne Design Week pillars are: ecology, ethics and energy.  

Ecology: Ecology explores the entangled relationships between beings and things: humans, animals, objects and environmental systems. Ecological design responds to the physical environment and considers its influence. 

Ethics: Designers address societal issues to contribute positively to their communities. Ethics aligns design with the values of society by providing and provoking frameworks that guide actions, behaviours and choices. 

Energy: Society is transitioning into a new era led by renewables, including solar, hydro- and wind energy alongside human power. How can designers harness new technologies and transform systems to both power and empower through design? 

As we look to the future of our city, suburbs and regions – and further to a global community with shared responsibilities – innovative design becomes a key to a better tomorrow. Melbourne Design Week 2024 is the time to look together towards the world we might make through design.