Australian Furniture Design Award

Founded by Stylecraft and presented in collaboration with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), the Australian Furniture Design Award is the nation’s most significant furniture and lighting design accolade with a $20,000 prize that celebrates the most interesting and innovative furniture and lighting design being created in the country.

The Award is a two-stage competition with the first stage being an open call for a new and original furniture or lighting design concept and information on the entrant’s professional practice. From the entries received, a shortlist of entrants will be invited to proceed to Stage Two and present their realised designs for exhibition and judging at the Stylecraft showroom during Melbourne Design Week 2026.

This is the sixth iteration of the Australian Furniture Design Award. Sydney-based designer Seaton McKeon won the inaugural award in 2015 with The Sun The Moon and Me, a freestanding light and mirror. In 2017 Alice Springs-based designer Elliat Rich received the award for her sculptural vanity, Place. In 2020 Sydney-based industrial designer James Walsh won, impressing the jury with Anthropic bench, which combined rammed earth with recycled glass filings to produce a sustainable and hard-wearing composite. Ashley Eriksmoen received the award in 2022 with The Dream, or: the view from here is both bleak and resplendent a signature work that conveys the potential of postconsumer waste for transformation and reuse. In 2024 Marta Figueiredo’s Chronicles of Resilience cabinet was the winner with a personal and vulnerable work that highlighted women’s health. The cabinet features three rotating drums, each detailed with tiles decorated in a workshop ran by Figueiredo with a group of women experiencing endometriosis.

Registrations open October 16.

Please note: Both the design concept submitted in Stage One and the realised design submitted in Stage Two must not have been published, exhibited or commercially produced prior to the time of the AFDA exhibition, 13 May 2026.

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