AFDA 2024 Winner
AFDA 2024 Winner
Stylecraft and the NGV announce Marta Figueiredo as the winner of the 2024 Australian Furniture Design Award
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 Marta Figueiredo for her entry Chronicles of Resilience’, a design championing women’s health and highlighting endometriosis.
Founded by Stylecraft and first awarded in 2015, AFDA is a national competition open to all Australian designers and makers. As Australia’s most prestigious furniture design award, it recognises excellence in furniture design and the contribution this makes to design discourse and Australian culture.
Selected from a shortlist of ambitious new work, Figueiredo’s Chronicles of Resilience cabinet is a personal and vulnerable work that highlights women’s health, with a focus on endometriosis, and is designed as a tangible platform for
advocacy to bring attention to the complexities of a chronic illness that affects one in seven women in Australia.
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 cabinet’s facade is segmented into four vertical thematic panels – Challenge, Resilience, Empowerment, and Imagined Future – each carefully designed to represent different complexities and nuances of the stages of the endometriosis journey.
In addition to the prize of $20,000, Figueiredo will be invited to develop a commercial range or product with Stylecraft, and a two-week residency at the JamFactory in Adelaide.
Marta Figueiredo is an Australian-Portuguese architect and multidisciplinary designer. In 2018, she founded her practice in Melbourne/Naarm, blending traditional craft processes with innovative technology to create immersive, playful, and sensory-rich projects. Her design work aims to challenge preconceptions about design through narrative and sensory interactions.
Figueiredo received the 2021 High Commendation Clarence Prize for Excellence in Furniture Design, her work has been exhibited internationally and she recently unveiled the captivating public art installation, ‘The Diva Garden’, in Melbourne’s CBD.
Shortlisted designers for the 2024 Australian Furniture Design
Award included:
• Bala Ga’ Lili – Bonhula Yunupingu and Damien Wright
• Michael Gittings
• Nae Tanakorn
• supermanoeuvre + Tomkins Design
The 2024 recipient was selected by a jury of industry leaders comprising Ewan McEoin, Senior Curator, Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture at the NGV (Chair); Tony Russell, Brand Director at Stylecraft, Melbourne; Anne-Claire Petre, Founder Anaca Studio, Melbourne; Hamish Guthrie co-director Hecker Guthrie, Melbourne; and Elliat Rich, Alice Springs-based designer and previous AFDA winner.
The winner was announced at an exclusive event held at the Stylecraft Melbourne showroom, marking the beginning of Melbourne Design Week. Finalist’s designs were exhibited for the duration of Melbourne Design Week, alongside new design launches from Skeehan Studio, including TAG and Hoshi Butter.
Previous AFDA winner James Walsh’s Tuck collection was unveiled at the event, including the Tuck lounge and coffee table and Lattice rug.
Part of Melbourne Design Week 2024, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV.
The Australian Furniture Design Award competition process is developed and delivered by CityLab