Regional Focus at Melbourne Design Week
Melbourne Design Week is an annual celebration of design presented by NGV Melbourne through a program of talks, tours, installations and workshops throughout Melbourne and regional Victoria. This year the program ran from 18-28 May 2023.
Since 2021, Melbourne Design Week has examined the potential of design to transform our environment - from inside our homes to the planet - with a call-for-action for individuals and organisations to 'Design the world you want'.
This provocation asks designers to think outside the status quo in order to face complex challenges like loneliness, climate disasters, social inequity, and the cost-of-living. Under this thematic, designers will demonstrate what design can do, what more it can do, and what can it do differently.
This year as part of the Design Week program Ballarat hosted a regional event - ‘Designing Growing Regional Hubs as Cultural Centres’ (presented by Plus Architecture).
An inherently creative city with a world-class heritage landscape, Ballarat is gearing up for the 2026 Commonwealth Games. Guided by the City of Ballarat’s Creative City Strategy, Ballarat is aiming to utilise the spark of creativity to support wider plans for a city led and informed by great design.
The Design Week event brought together a diverse panel of stakeholders and changemakers currently working across the architecture, engineering and construction industry in regional Victoria including:
Ballarat local and Hygge Property director, Joseph van Dyk
Plus Architecture director, Ian Briggs
Geelong local and Urbis director, Nat Anson
consultant to the hotel and hospitality industry, Roger Permezel
leading heritage consultant from Bryce Raworth Conservation, Martin Turnor.
Held at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, the panellists discussed how smart and sustainable urban design can deliver thriving and enjoyable regional centres offering quality cultural, work and lifestyle experiences. Images from the event below.
