Abbotsford Convent is set to transform into one of Melbourne Design Week 2026's most exciting destinations this May.
Running across the historic precinct from 14–24 May, Melbourne Design Week 2026 turns Abbotsford Convent into a sprawling, multi-site design destination with exhibitions, installations, talks and workshops tucked into buildings and green spaces that don’t usually see this kind of foot traffic.
Rather than a single venue experience, the setup encourages wandering: moving between works, stumbling across something unexpected, and spending real time in a place that already has centuries of story baked into its walls.
Melbourne Design Week at Abbotsford Convent
- When: 14–24 May 2026
- Where: Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Heliers St, Abbotsford
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
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Highlights across the MDW 2026 program at Abbotsford Convent include:
- 100 Chairs by Dale Hardiman, featuring 100 Australian designers, exhibited in the atmospheric Magdalen Laundries
- Arum by Tom Fereday, exploring the transformation of raw material into beautiful, useable objects through sand casting
- LOST HiDE by Emma Elizabeth, where overlooked upholstery leathers are reimagined not as decoration but as a vehicle for experimentation and transformation, resulting in bespoke and limited-edition works
- Synthesis by Ruby Shields, an interior installation transforming the rarely opened Bishop’s Parlour
- The Sheepskin Suite by Wilson & Dorset, a tactile takeover of the Convent Salon with walls, furniture and objects all enveloped in sheepskin
- Reclaim and Transform Initiative by Melissa Gilbert, an outdoor installation by First Nations artist Melissa Gilbert, who turns abandoned festival tents into furniture and sculptures
Abbotsford Convent is one of Melbourne’s most atmospheric heritage sites, and threading design practice through its corridors, chapels and courtyards gives the whole thing a texture you wouldn’t get in a conventional gallery setting.
Many of the spaces on show aren’t typically open to the public, which adds another layer of draw for anyone who’s been curious about what’s behind those doors.
There’s also an Up Late event on 16 May, a rare chance to experience the exhibitions and installations after dark, which should be something else entirely given the precinct’s moody heritage bones.
Melbourne Design Week runs from 14–24 May 2026 and is Australia’s largest annual design festival.
It’s an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, curated and delivered by the National Gallery of Victoria. Head to designweek.melbourne for the full program.
For more information, head here.
This article was made in partnership with Abbotsford Convent.
