An ‘impossible build’ and a lamp to calm the senses: Australia’s Good Design awards 2026 – in pictures
From a vessel for grieving parents to a seal for packaged foods, this year’s Good Design award recipients won praise for providing thoughtful solutions to extraordinary or everyday scenarios
Alice Bradley
Tue 13 Oct 2026 10.00 EDT
Last modified on Thu 15 Oct 2026 01.01 EDT
Resonance
by Whipsaw is no ordinary lamp. Taking the best in class award for medical and scientific product design, it is designed to ease stress and help with sleep. By sensing the heart’s rhythm, it emits gentle pulses of light to guide its owner towards resonant breathing, a natural rhythm clinically proven to restore calm and focus. The jury called the design ‘a rare example of advanced technology that is both invisible and deeply human’.Photograph: Good Design Australia
Hivekeepers Micro Honey Harvester
by Katapult Design took the gold award for commercial and industrial product. This cassette-based system simplifies the harvesting process of beekeeping, which minimises cleanup and labour, as well as disruption to the bees. The benchtop harvester is quick to set up, can be cleaned in minutes and extracts honey from cassettes that fit within an existing beehive structure. The judges called it an ‘outstanding example of human-centered design’ that ‘opens honey harvesting to a much broader audience’.Photograph: Good Design Australia
Ovi: Designing Dignity in Early Pregnancy Loss
by Ellyn Wong Wan Wen won the good design award for designers under 30. For families experiencing early pregnancy loss, time and space matters. Ovi is a slip-cast porcelain cooling vessel that preserves the baby for three days, allowing parents to transport, hold a funeral and grieve outside the hospital setting. Judges commended Wan Wen for her ‘deeply sensitive’ and ‘genuinely original’ project that addresses disenfranchised grief with ‘remarkable courage and empathy.’ The design, they noted, demonstrated a robust depth of research into morgues, as well as consultation with midwives, gynaecologists and therapists, resulting in a system that gives families the time, space and privacy for making memories. Photograph: Good Design Australia
Looplock
by Bound, Default Office and Purpose Design Lab won the gold award for housewares and objects design. Judges praised the simple solution to a common household problem: creating a hermetic, roll-top seal for packaged foods, saying the project addressed the daily challenge of food preservation while maintaining the original packaging information – including expiry dates and nutrition data.Photograph: Good Design Australia
Groundworks
by Terrain won the gold award for built environment installation design. This sculptural seating environment for Bizarro’s Mode music festival on Wareamah/Cockatoo Island uses grass, hay, jute and hessian and near-zero waste methodologies to create an immersive sensory space for festival goers, demonstrating ‘genuine understanding of nature’s capacity to evoke calm through its considered use of living grasses as biophilic and interactive elements,’ according to the judges. Photograph: Good Design Australia
Yoto Mini
by Heirloom won the best-in-class award for consumer electronics design. This portable mini audio player for children does away with screens, cameras, AI and automation; audio plays when a physical Yoto card, with either a playlist or story, is inserted into a slot at the top of the device and pauses when the card is removed. The jury praised Heirloom for addressing ‘screen fatigue among young people while encouraging independent, tactile interaction through storytelling’.Photograph: Good Design Australia
Quiet Studio
by Studiobird with Autex Acoustics & Universal Practice won the good design award for built environment installation design. This temporary structure, presented during Melbourne Design Week in 2025, offers a refuge from urban life on the streets of Collingwood. The jury called it ‘a beautifully resolved installation that demonstrates how sound, materiality and spatial sequencing can be combined to create measurable wellbeing outcomes’.Photograph: Good Design Australia
The Oasis Shower Chair
by Ennova Design won the best-in-class award for furniture and lighting design. Designed for people needing greater stability in the shower due to age or disability, this colourful chair bridges the gap between function and form. The judges praised the ‘thoughtful and socially impactful re-imagining of assistive furniture’ that demonstrated ‘a sound understanding of both ergonomics and the psychological dimensions of mobility aids’. The design encompasses the needs of users and carers through features such as flexible armrests, soft silicone seating and compact portability. Photograph: Eilish Parsons/Good Design Australia
Rescope
by Tony Harrison won the gold award for designers under 30 with a modular endoscope that isolates the contaminated insertion section, allowing the majority of the device to be reused. Following a shift towards single-use endoscopes, Harrison’s design addresses a major sustainability challenge in Australian healthcare.Photograph: Good Design AustraliaExplore more on these topics