For Melbourne Design Week 2023, from 18-24 May, Cult is proud to present three different exhibitions across three locations in partnership with Danish brands, Mater and Carl Hansen & Son, plus Cult’s own in-house Australian design brand, nau.

Melbourne Design Week is Australia's largest annual design event. The 2023 edition will transform Melbourne and parts of regional Victoria over 11 days with a series of exhibitions, talks, films, tours and workshops, responding to the theme: Design the world you want. See and collect new work from established and emerging designers, hear from industry leaders and take part in tours and workshops that reveal and celebrate the impact of design in shaping our world.

All three exhibitions presented by Cult at Melbourne Design Week 2023 are free to enter, open to all and within walking distance of each other. Each exhibition explores the Melbourne Design Week theme —design the world you want—in different and inspiring ways.

Cult's exhibitions include:
- WASTE DREAM | WASTE TO FURNITURE by Mater x Cult
- STOCK by Carl Hansen & Søn, supported by Cult
- VERSA by Tom Fereday x Charlie White, supported by Cult and nau

WASTE DREAM | WASTE TO FURNITURE
Presented by Mater x Cult

STOCK by Carl Hansen & Søn
Supported by Cult

VERSA by Tom Fereday x Charlie White
Supported by Cult and nau

WASTE DREAM by Mater x Cult

A circular design exhibition exploring how waste can be made into furniture .

This sustainability exhibition explores how different waste streams from industrial productionby companies such as Carlsberg and Grohe can become new materials in the furniture industry. Exhibition visitors can immerse themselves in 70m2 of circular waste installations and discover the design and production behind Mater’s ‘Conscious Collection’ - a series of innovative products by Børge Mogensen, Space Copenhagen, Eva Harlou and Nanna Ditzel. Each product in Mater’s ‘Conscious Collection’ is made with Matek® - a revolutionary suite of new materials developed by Mater that takes fibrous waste material, such as coffee bean shells, fishing nets, sawdust and beer kegs, and up-cycles it into a unique composite material that can be press- moulded to create new furniture.

Location

The ‘Waste Dream’ exhibition is located in a garage space adjoining the Cult Melbourne Showroom - visitors can enter via 137 Berkeley Street, Carlton VIC 3053. Smaller versions of this exhibition will also be on show at Cult Sydney and Cult Brisbane over the same period.

Opening Hours

On show from 18 - 24 May, 2023.

Weekdays, 8:30am - 5:30pm Saturdays,10am - 4pm Sundays, closed

Guided Tours

Cult will host five exclusive guided sessions of the ‘Waste Dream’ exhibition in Melbourne, led by Ole Bjerg from Mater. Sessions last for approximately 30 minutes and are bookable via Eventbrite. 

Exhibition visitors can discover the green-tech production behind the Mater 02 Ocean chair - a design icon by Nanna Ditzel reimagined using Carlsberg beer kegs that would otherwise have been discarded by the brewer. 

STOCK by Carl Hansen & Søn

Showcasing a storage collection celebrating craftsmanship - designed by Laura Bilde and Thibaut Allgayer and made by hand in the Carl Hansen & Søn apprentice workshop. This exhibition is proudly supported by Cult - an official Carl Hansen & Søn retailer in Australia.

Carl Hansen & Søn is one of the remaining Danish manufacturers with an apprentice workshop - a place where the brand trains people to become the world’s best cabinet makers and preserves craftsmanship in Denmark.

This exhibition celebrates the craftsmanship Carl Hansen & Søn is renowned for, through a creative project in collaboration with two emerging designers, Laura Bilde and Thibaut Allgayer. STOCK is a storage collection made from reclaimed Oregon pine, made by the talented apprentices in Carl Hansen & Søn’s own apprentice workshop. With STOCK, Bilde and Allgayer have turned the planks into drawers that are stacked in a protecting frame to mimic the boxes.

“We wanted to take the archetype of a shipping box and translate it into a piece of furniture. While discussing with the cabinetmaker apprentices at Carl Hansen & Søn, we discovered that, back in the days, cabinetmakers used to collect shipping wooden boxes from boats that were made of Oregon pine to rebuild furniture. So, it was a closed loop to build a cabinet in Oregon pine.” - Thibaut Allgayer

This travelling exhibition was recently showcased in Japan and now comes to Australia for Melbourne Design Week, with local architects, Studio Edwards supporting on the exhibition design and styling.

Location

28 Johnston Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne

Opening Hours

On show from 18 - 28 May, 2023.

Daily from 10am - 5pm

VERSA by Tom Fereday x Charlie White

Recycled material explorations by two Australian designers in partnership with nau, Mud Australia and Eco Outdoor.

Across three rooms at Melbourne’s industrial Meat Market venue, Tom Fereday and Charlie White showcase three separate material explorations: recycled aluminum in collaboration with nau - Cult’s in-house design brand; recycled porcelain in collaboration with Mud Australia; and recycled glass in collaboration with Eco Outdoor.

Looking closer at Tom Fereday’s collaboration with nau: recycled aluminum is explored with three products from his Cove range - a new collection which will be available from nau later this year. Products on show include the Cove Armchair, Cove Lounge and Cove Coffee Table cast with locally sourced aluminum machine waste. These pieces are re-purposed from solid timber prototypes to form a casting mold, allowing a reinterpretation of the design as a one-off sculptural polished cast aluminum series.

“The industrial materials and processes of the frame are contrasted by soft analine leather and represent an opportunity to experiment with the process of traditional sand casting based upon our timber Cove range developed for nau,“ - shares Tom Fereday.

These one-off collectible special editions are available for purchase - all sales enquiries should be directed to the designers.

Location

Meat Market Stables, 2-8 Wreckyn St, North Melbourne

Opening Hours

On show from 18 - 21 May, 2023.

Daily from 10am - 5pm

Preview of the new Cove range by Tom Fereday for nau. This range will be introduced to the nau collection later in 2023 in timber (bottom) and is on show during Melbourne Design Week in a one-off cast aluminum finish (top). Photography by Sean Fennessy and Tom Fereday Studio.

Melbourne Design Week is Australia's largest annual design event. The 2023 edition will transform Melbourne and parts of regional Victoria over 11 days with a series of exhibitions, talks, films, tours and workshops, responding to the theme: Design the world you want. See and collect new work from established and emerging designers, hear from industry leaders and take part in tours and workshops that reveal and celebrate the impact of design in shaping our world. View the full program at designweek.melbourne.