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.

2026 Winner: Joanne Odisho for the entry Mod-u.

Joanne Odisho is a Melbourne-based designer committed to sustainable practices, emphasising mindful material selection to minimise waste. Her work aims to foster awareness of where products come from and encourage more environmentally conscious choices in the home. With a strong foundation in interior design, Odisho seamlessly blends spatial planning and human interaction into her creative process. She transforms abstract concepts into visually compelling, functional objects, drawing inspiration from architecture and the natural world.

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.

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.