Six of Australia’s most awarded architectural practices have used American red oak, cherry and maple to design heirloom-quality furniture as a direct challenge to disposable design culture, with the resulting works unveiled today at Cult Design’s Abbotsford showroom for the opening of Melbourne Design Week. KEEP: Forever Objects Designed by Six Australian Architects runs at Cult until 8 June 2026, following the show’s 2025 Sydney launch.
The exhibition has been curated by former Vogue Living Australia editor-in-chief David Clark, and is presented by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) in partnership with Melbourne furniture retailer Cult Design and Evostyle. Clark has commissioned new works from Edition Office, Kennedy Nolan, Lineburg Wang, Neil Durbach, Richards Stanisich with Meg Ashforth, and Virginia Kerridge — with each practice asked to translate its spatial thinking into the intimate scale of furniture, working only with red oak, cherry or maple.
The Melbourne run is the second Australian staging of KEEP after the show’s 2025 Sydney debut, and the latest move in a design-sector campaign AHEC has run across more than 50 international markets over three decades. The trade body represents thousands of American producers — from family-run sawmills to major flooring manufacturers — and has promoted more than 20 commercially available hardwood species to designers, architects and furniture makers worldwide.
KEEP pieces range from sculptural seating and tables to lighting and experimental objects — each translating an architect’s spatial thinking into the intimate scale of furniture. (Photo Credit: Graham Alderton, supplied by AHEC)
The resulting KEEP pieces range from sculptural seating and tables to lighting and experimental objects. Each work has been positioned as a direct challenge to throwaway furniture culture, asking what makes an object worth keeping.
“Historically, and in other places, it is more commonplace for architects to design furniture, for their own projects or for companies by commission,” Clark said. “In the nascent Australian furniture industry, it is less so.”
He said the exhibition is designed to test what Australia’s most accomplished practitioners might produce outside their usual spatial brief. “I thought it would be interesting to see what prominent and successful architects might design outside their usual focus, and perhaps, in the process and conversation, what they might bring to the texture and layers of the Australian design ecosystem,” Clark said.
Among the line-up is Brisbane practice Lineburg Wang, established by Michael Lineburg and Lynn Wang in 2018. The studio took out the AIA Queensland Architecture Medallion in 2023 and the Eleanor Cullis-Hill Award at the AIA National Awards in 2024 — placing it among the youngest practices in the show.
Each architect commissioned for KEEP has worked exclusively in American red oak, cherry or maple — translating spatial thinking into the intimate scale of furniture. (Photo Credit: Graham Alderton, supplied by AHEC)
The three timber species at the heart of KEEP — red oak, cherry and maple — were selected for their performance, expressive qualities and environmental credentials. According to U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data published by AHEC, American red oak grows at 60.6 million cubic metres a year against a harvest of 31.9 million, lifting net standing volume by 28.7 million cubic metres annually.
Cherry adds 5.4 million cubic metres of net volume each year, and soft maple adds 20.4 million. Each of the three species featured in the show is part of a forest resource where annual growth significantly exceeds harvest — the sustainability framing that has anchored AHEC’s design-sector messaging in Australia and globally for more than a decade.
“KEEP is a reminder that the things we choose to live with can carry meaning and memory,” said Rod Wiles, Regional Director of the American Hardwood Export Council. “These works are made to endure, not just in use, but in the stories they can hold.”
Installed at Cult Design’s Abbotsford showroom at 16–28 Duke Street, KEEP invites Melbourne Design Week audiences to slow down and consider the value of the objects they choose to live with. The Design Week programme runs from today until 23 May, with the exhibition continuing for a further two weeks at Cult until 8 June 2026.
The show’s central premise — that an object’s worth lies in how long it can be kept — finds a thematic echo in the descriptor that Melbourne practice Kennedy Nolan uses for its own architectural work: creating enduring settings for life. For more on the exhibition and the species featured, visit americanhardwood.org or follow @ahec_anz.
Jason Ross, publisher, is a 15-year professional in building and construction, connecting with more than 400 specifiers. A Gottstein Fellowship recipient, he is passionate about growing the market for wood-based information. Jason is Wood Central’s in-house emcee and is available for corporate host and MC services.