Stylecraft and the NGV Announce Joanne Odisho as the winner of the 2026 Australian Furniture Design Award
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Mod-u is designed to adapt to changing domestic environments, the lamp can be assembled and reconfigured by users.
As part of Melbourne Design Week, the National Gallery of Victoria and Stylecraft are pleased to announce the winner of the Australian Furniture Design Award (AFDA), as Joanne Odisho for the entry Mod-u.
Founded by Stylecraft and first awarded in 2015, AFDA is a national competition open to all Australian designers and makers. As one of Australia’s most prestigious furniture design awards, it recognises excellence in furniture and lighting design and the contribution this makes to design discourse and Australian culture.
Joanne was selected from a shortlist of five finalists, who were invited to present their realised designs for judging by the judges panel and exhibit their designs at the Stylecraft showroom at 379 Collins Street in Melbourne during Melbourne Design Week.
About the Prize
In addition to a $20,000 cash prize, Joanne will receive support from Stylecraft for design, production and distribution of a furniture or lighting design.
2026 Theme – Living Well Living Small
Living Well Living Small challenges designers to respond to the realities of denser urban living by creating furniture and lighting that enhance comfort, functionality, and wellbeing in compact Australian homes. Submissions were asked to demonstrate intelligent, practical use of space and materials while embracing conscious living through sustainable, responsibly sourced, recycled, or upcycled approaches, and to explore circular or regenerative design models.
About the Winning Designer
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.
About the Winning Submission
Long before we encounter design theory or architectural language, many of us have explored modularity through play. Mod-u draws on this familiar, almost instinctive memory of stacking, rearranging, and building without rules. These childhood experiences, marked by experimentation, imagination, and hands on creativity, inspire the spirit of this piece. It invites users to reconnect with that sense of open-ended play, transforming lighting into a personal, expressive act.
Mod-u is a lamp that adapts with you, growing, shrinking, and changing in response to the evolving ways people live in and inhabit compact, ever-shifting spaces. When imagining solutions for evolving spaces, modularity naturally comes to the forefront. Flexible, intuitive, and future oriented, users can shape their environments with intention. Mod-u draws on this principle while tapping into a shared sense of nostalgia.
Mod-u, along with the other AFDA 2026 finalists’ submissions, will be exhibited in the Stylecraft showroom at 379 Collins Street, Melbourne for the duration of Melbourne Design Week 2026.
Jury Notes
“Mod-u is an elegant, faceted, self-assembled modular lighting system. The design responds to the 2026 brief’s call for lighting or furniture that is flexible, intuitive, and reflective of contemporary life, and does so with unusual material honesty.”
“Cast from eggshell composites, handmade from thousands of eggshells collected from local cafes and set alongside Unryu Thai paper-wrapped bio-filament blocks, the lamp is assembled by the user from the base up, its height and pattern a personal decision.”
“The jury was drawn to the rigour of its material development, a process that moved through trial and error, adapted, and arrived at an elegant system that is both biodegradable and beautiful.“
“In a small space, Mod-u offers something rare: a light source that is also a considered act. The Jury commends Odisho on her material experimentation, rigour in navigating production challenges, and believe this design has great potential to be fully realised as a sophisticated domestic light for living small and living well.”
2026 Jury Members
- Ewan McEoin, Senior Curator, Contemporary Design and Architecture at the NGV (Chair)
- Tony Russell, Brand Director, Stylecraft
- Ross Gardam, Director, Ross Gardam
- Brian Parkes, CEO, Jam Factory
- Pascale Gomes-McNabb, Director, PGM Design
For more information go to Stylecraft AFDA 2026 Winner
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