About

A 'coalition of the willing'.

Since its launch in 2023, Perth Design Week (PDW) has quickly established itself as a leading platform for showcasing design excellence and thought-provoking discussions on issues shaping Western Australia and beyond.

PDW's annual programs of exhibitions, talks, walks and more are brought together by co-founders architect Sandy Anghie and designer David Smith. The concept is based on successful Design Weeks across Australia and around the world.

Perth Design Week is a ‘coalition of the willing’ - a group of people and organisations Sandy and David are leading, working together to create this event.

The project started as a collaboration, the idea being that there is a broad array of design based organisations with budgets for their own individual annual events. If these organisations rearranged their diaries to hold events in a particular week each year, we have the start of a Perth Design Week. And that’s exactly what happened in 2023, 2024 - and again in 2025.

Putting Perth on the global design map.

PDW has been expanding its reach each year - across the Perth metropolitan area and beyond.

In 2024 PDW went global! It was a privilege to collaborate with renowned global architecture practice OMA and Italian based, international furniture brand, UniFor - presenting PRINCIPLES in a highly innovative, interactive and inclusive installation ‘Principles Square’ at Cathedral Square. Significantly, Perth Design Week was chosen as the first location after Milan, to host the installation.

Paul Jones, Australian Director, OMA said, OMA’s presentation at the Perth Design Week enabled them to exchange ideas with the design community and the public in Perth. While Carlo Molteni, Global CEO, UniFor said it was an opportunity to gain new perspectives and visions.

With the creation of Perth Design Week, Perth can now take its place among the great cities of the world where interest and value in good design is celebrated with a dedicated public festival.

Our city’s Design Week highlights and acknowledges local design leaders and the fruits of their labour. It’s an opportunity to recognise our design community is incredibly diverse and comprises people working across all disciplines – architecture, interiors, landscape, planning, fashion, graphic design, service design and product design. It’s about design at all scales but all working to a common goal - to improve how we all live and work.

2025: A uniquely Western Australian festival celebrating innovation and purpose.

Now entering its third year, PDW 2025 (March 20-27) is set to be more impactful than ever with new collaborators and over 80 events scheduled to take place within Boorloo (Perth) and beyond.

Co-founders Sandy Anghie and David Smith describe the festival as an annual celebration of design’s power to drive positive change.

Design is all around us—from the homes and suburbs we live in to the clothes we wear and the objects we use every day. Design shapes our lives in countless ways, say Sandy and David.

PDW aims to show that creativity and design are essential components of WA’s diversified economy. By highlighting our state’s creative sector, PDW underscores that design is not just an aesthetic endeavour but a crucial part of WA’s economic and social fabric.

"Perth Design Week is about bringing this awareness to the forefront and offering Western Australians the opportunity to engage with the design community in meaningful ways. Spanning a wide range of disciplines, Perth Design Week is designed to be inclusive and accessible to all. It’s a celebration of the ways in which design touches every part of our lives, and how we can collectively shape the world around us through creative collaboration", Sandy and David said.

Local focus with global connections.

While the focus is very much on local design, as PDW continues to grow, it strengthens Perth’s place in the global design conversation.

In 2024 PDW signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Consulate of Italy in Perth, and through this relationship is privileged to be working with the Consul of Italy again this year.

“We are proud to partner once again with Perth Design Week to celebrate the value of design and the Italian contribution to the art of shaping human spaces. This year is especially meaningful as we celebrate Perth's designation as the Capital of Italian Creativity in the World for 2025 by the Italian government”, Sergio Federico Nicolaci, Consul of Italy said.

As part of the collaboration, the Consulate of Italy in Perth together with Curtin University will bring an exhibition by renowned Italian architect Mario Cucinella to Perth for PDW 2025.

Perth Design Week 2025 is set to be held from Thursday 20 March through to 27 March 2025 at venues across Perth city and beyond.