“Design the world you want” was the brief for the 2025 Melbourne Design Week – a powerful theme inviting designers to explore how their work could shape a more thoughtful, sustainable and connected future.
Melbourne-based decorative lighting practice Volker Haug Studio has won the prestigious Melbourne Design Week Award 2025, which recognises significant contributions to Australia’s design community, and was proudly presented by Mercedes-Benz Australia in partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).
The award honours Volker Haug Studio’s two decades of remarkable contributions to decorative lighting design, recognising their 20th-anniversary exhibition and sustained innovation in lighting that is equal parts art, object and functional design.
The transformative power of decorative light
In the world of interior design, lighting is about more than just utility. It’s an emotional and aesthetic force. Lighting determines the mood, atmosphere and sensory experience of a space – depending on its form and tone, it can evoke serenity, intimacy, drama or joy.
As Volker Haug Studio’s work exemplifies, light has the power to elevate architecture, punctuate interiors, and redefine the spatial experience. From statement-making sculptural pieces that command attention to integrated, minimalist designs that softly shape the environment, the common thread is intentionality – a quality that Volker Haug Studio infuses into every creation.
Two decades of creative brilliance
Founded in Melbourne in 2005 by designer Volker Haug (who originally hails from Germany), the studio began with a simple but potent philosophy: to create lighting that exists somewhere between art and object. Volker’s early work – defined by its curious, playful spirit – quickly garnered attention for its inventive use of form, material and light.