Melbourne Design Week Award 2026

Fourth-generation Australian furniture designer and maker, Jon Goulder, has received the 2026 Melbourne Design Week Award presented by Mercedes-Benz Australia. The prestigious $10,000 accolade recognises Goulder and his studio’s contribution to the Australian design landscape over the past 3 decades, as well as his work featured in Melbourne Design Week events at Chapter House, Abbotsford Convent and restaurant Yiaga.

Goulder continues a family legacy of creating refined, hand-made furniture, including seating, surfaces, cabinetry, lighting, textiles and objects. Working with longevity in mind, his pieces are intended to be lived with and passed down through generations. Working as a designer-maker, who both conceives and hand-makes each piece, Goulder is widely recognised for his mastery of craft, especially woodwork and leatherwork.

His practice spans one-off commissions, small-run furniture editions and large-scale commercial projects, allowing work to respond to a wide range of contexts and collaborators. Alongside his independent design practice, Goulder has held senior design and leadership roles at Snøhetta, Form Contemporary Craft and Design and JamFactory. His work has been shown in exhibitions across the country and is held in national and private collections, including the NGV, National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia and Wesfarmers Art Collection.

For Melbourne Design Week 2026, Jon Goulder presents a new series of works at Chapter House, in partnership with Australian fashion label Alpha 60. The display includes a monumental, 10-metre long table created in collaboration with architect Henry Williams. The work explores tensions between craft and technology, nature and artifice, material control and material expression, resulting in a piece that feels at once primitive and radical.

Alongside the table at Chapter House, Goulder also presents the Pavilion Chair, originally developed for chef Hugh Allen’s restaurant Yiaga in Fitzroy Gardens as part of a project by Wardle, as well as a collaborative collection of lighting and seating created in partnership with Andrew Carvolth.

Goulder’s Festival Chair, made in collaboration with Andrew Carvolth, also features in the Melbourne Design Week exhibition 100 Chairs, curated by Friends & Associates at Abbotsford Convent. 100 Chairs features the work of over 100 Australian creatives, studios, artists, architects and practices exploring the chair as a medium. All chairs in the exhibition have been designed and made in Australia.

Melbourne Design Week