‘Sensory Surface’ panel discussion at Euroluce. Alice Blackwood, Dr Hayley North (Neuroscientist), Brooke Lloyd FDIA (Cox Architecture), Donn Salisbury (Electrolite). Image: Rohan Venn
Saturday Indesign 2026: Sydney recap
Saturday Indesign (SID) ran on the weekend across 33 venues in four precincts, including Paddington, Surry Hills, Waterloo and Alexandria.
The event launched in 2003 and alternated between Sydney and Melbourne for two decades. This was the first edition since organisers announced it would now stay in Sydney every September with a learning-focussed program
We covered more than ten stops across the VIP Friday previews and Saturday.
The sun shone. The stacked program was locked. Participating showrooms opened their doors, and the SID reboot was a go!
‘Array’ sofa system models by Snøhetta for MDF Italia, Bachli Furniture. Image: ADA
Friday night in Surry Hills: Sydney’s newest design district
BACHLI Furniture opened the weekend with a conversation about the new MDF ITALIA Array sofa system designed by global powerhouse Snøhetta.
Alice Blackwood led the conversation with Nathan Bachli and Matt Irvine, Senior Product Designer at Snøhetta. Nathan shared that the Cassina Family manages the MDF brand and unpacked MDF’s heritage. Matt revealed that the sofa system was developed using a people-first design approach. Adaptable, the configurations are almost endless.
The Bachli showroom featured a Fibre to Form installation, developed with Murray Industrial Hemp, exploring regenerative materials and circularity.
Friday evening talk at Bachli Furniture with Alice Blackwood, Nathan Bachli and Matt Irvine (Snøhetta). Image: ADA
Across the road, K5 Furniture previewed HALTIJA, using folklore to explore timber and making within Finnish brand Nikari, to celebrate its 25-year milestone.
The forest installation brought together Nikari furniture, Marimekko textiles, Helen Kontouris‘ Petra collection and Broached Commissions. Nikari CEO Johanna Vuorio and Jenni Mikkonen travelled from Finland for the event and joined several panel discussions.
Euroluce showroom
Saturday in Surry Hills
Euroluce, one of the ADA’s five founders, shared its Hill Street showroom with Bang & Olufsen and Bolon for Sensory Surface. The concept explored how light, sound, and material surfaces interact to shape our psychological and physical experience of architectural space. Three sensory environments examined how the brain subconsciously responds to design elements, influencing atmosphere, mood, focus, comfort, and overall wellbeing.
Euroluce also exhibited new architectural and decorative lighting from Flos, Wästberg and Oluce with a specially focused Vibia showcase. Bang & Olufsen added a listening installation and its Atelier customisation program, while Bolon’s woven flooring was underfoot.
Guests spilt out of the freshly overhauled showroom into the central courtyard. Hospitality ran from cooking on Mario Bellini’s Onfalos grill to Campari’s Negroni Edit later in the day.
The Mario Bellini-designed Onfalos grill, Euroluce courtyard. IMAGE: Rohan
Luxury Italian furnishing house Molteni&C opened its new Sydney flagship with Geometry of Nature. A floral installation by September Studio sat among pieces by creative director Vincent Van Duysen, Gio Ponti and others.
Savage Design, a fourth-generation metalworking business that makes architectural hardware, set up Ministry of Metals on the kerb outside.
Guests in branded lab coats and black gloves handled brass, stainless steel, mild steel and aluminium. Each participant customised a brass tube, then moved it through a series of baths to set its level of patination.
(Top) Ministry of Metals at Savage Design. (Above) Living Edge Knoll showroom with Brianviga. Images: ADA
The Alexandria Precinct
Living Edge, also an ADA co-founder, staged Destination Living Edge. Cabin crew with heritage airline trolleys served mocktails and food paired to each stop. Lounges featured Herman Miller, Knoll, Brionvega, Magis, Gufram, Tom Dixon and more.
Living Edge also hosted the Magis Puppy Design Challenge, raising more than $3,500 for Sydney Dogs and Cats Home. Fifteen architecture and interior design studios each reworked a plain white Puppy, Eero Aarnio’s design for Magis.
Hammond Studio‘s Trenca, which takes Gaudí’s trencadís mosaic technique as its reference, won Circular Champion. Woods Bagot took Best in Show with The Little Merpup, whose scales were made from discarded aluminium cans. fjcstudio’s Le Corwoofier, clad in fabric offcuts from the studio’s past projects, won the public vote for Top Dog.
Magis Puppy TRENCA by Hammond Studio, inspired by Gaudi, using upcycled tile pieces. Image: ADA
Space Furniture presented Making Matters: Material Alchemy, a hands-on look at the materials, processes and making behind contemporary furniture and objects.
Adjacent, the newly renovated Poliform hosted Lines of Nature, a collaboration with Listone Giordano. Visitors added to an evolving installation built around natural materials and pattern.
Space Furniture entrance featuring Up Series, Gaetano Pesce for B&B Italia. Image: ADA
Mobilia hosted the Southern Hemisphere premiere of the Eames Office Indoor Pavilion, developed by the Eames Office with Kettal and first shown at Triennale Milano. Charles and Ray Eames designed these modular buildings in post-war California. Eames Office and Kettal developed them into a universal architectural system in post-war California. Developed into a universal architectural system by Eames Office and Kettal.
Kettal Workplace included new work by Barber Osgerby and Foster + Partners.
(Top) Eames House from Dedon at Mobilia. (Above) Fermob paint workshop, creating the new colour palette. Images: ADA
Waterloo
Fermob‘s Feel the Colour roundtable explored how different shades shape the way people experience a space. Guests then mixed the tone they believed should join the Fermob palette as new colours.
For the second year running, Winnings drew the day’s biggest crowd.
The kitchen appliance brand’s co-located spaces wrapped around a central courtyard, with food on tap, waiters circulating with drinks and a DJ set up under towering speaker stacks. The hospitality pulled in SID visitors and passers-by alike, and most of them stayed.
Mocktails at Winnings Appliances. Image: ADA
So how was SID26?
The Euroluce courtyard showed it best. Through the afternoon, it filled with people connecting in real time. In person. Relaxed, over food and drinks. The glue that drives the industry forward.
At 5 pm, the music stopped. The lights dimmed. Doors closed. And that was SID, until next year.
Tell us what you thought and share your SID26 highlights here.
Living Edge showroom entrance. Image: Cassandra Harrigan
