Seafood Straws and Clothes That Grow: The NGV’s Making Good Redesigns Our World for the Future

“Over-consumption”, “sustainability” and “net gain” aren’t the sexiest words, or ones you’d typically associate with an art gallery, but bear with us – the objects on display at NGV Australia’s new design exhibition, Making Good: Redesigning the Everyday, will blow your mind. Or at least make you rethink a lot of what you buy, use and do.

“In the design industry, many are working to achieve net gain. There is a growing understanding that in order to repair damaged environments or systems we need to go beyond neutral, to add something positive,” Gemma Savio, the NGV’s curator of contemporary design and architecture, tells Broadsheet. Designers and architects – like those behind the 56 works on display in Making Good – are now collaborating with visionary businesses and multidisciplinary teams to solve large and complex problems, “like how to reduce the volume of clothes ending up in landfill”, says Savio, and considering “how design can help fix some of the things that have broken?”
The answers on display at Fed Square are surprising, and seriously cool. There’s paint from Singapore that purifies the air; edible coffee cups made in Melbourne from locally sourced grain; a leather alternative made from seafood waste; and clothing that grows with your kids (created by a team of aeronautical engineers, neuroscientists and fashion designers), reducing the need to buy as they get bigger. These aren’t features of a sci-fi film; they’re actual things people around the world are using.

“We make impactful choices in our lives every day,” says Savio. “More and more people are looking for new ways of doing things that work towards positive change. In this show we have a sampler of all the different ways designers and architects are offering that.” Across categories like health and wellbeing, fashion and textiles, “things we eat” and the built environment, visitors can discover seemingly small projects that will spark major curiosity – and, hopefully, inspire change.

Presented in an gallery space reminiscent of a slick lab or retail space, thereare architectural glass blocks made from old TV screens; glistening terrazzo incorporating Sydney rock oyster shell waste from local restaurants; running shoes that spread seeds with every step; a minimalist take on conventional smartphones (goodbye unnecessary and unhealthy distractions); and a microbiome-safe, water-based lubricant, enriched with prebiotics that actively support the female reproductive system.

“This exhibition offers an optimistic snapshot of today,” Savio says.
One seemingly simple but transformative product Savio will integrate into her everyday is Bare*ly Mylk powdered oat milk. “By simply taking out the water, the main ingredient in most milk alternatives, you get rid of the need to use Tetra Pak, which is hard to recycle,” she says. “You also reduce shipping emissions because you’re not moving tonnes and tonnes of water.” Another “really thoughtful innovation with an opportunity to have a lot of impact” is the 99 per cent plastic-free pregnancy test by Hoopsy. “Not only have they removed plastic from a product that doesn’t need it for efficacy, the added value is that it’s discreet, and women can test with confidence and in privacy.” she says. Plus, it’s cheaper to produce. Win, win, win.

Designs like these “might seem really simple at face value, but when theyre adopted at scale, you can see they have the potential to have great impact”, Savio says. A familiar example she gives is Australia Post’s traditional place names initiative. The simple addition of a single line for the traditional place name when addressing a package or letter “has allowed the whole of Australia to consider First Nations culture, acknowledge Country and bring First Nations languages back into regular circulation”. Huge.

When curating the exhibition, looking globally for “the most interesting stories”, Savio’s intention was to create a show that invites visitors to ask who are we now as a culture, and who do we want to be in the future? “Contemporary design and architecture is culture-making,” she says. “It’s a reflection back to our audiences of their values and their aspirations.” Unlike, say, Picasso’s Weeping Woman (1937), which you’ll find around the corner at NGV International, many of the works in Making Good are available to purchase. Not at the gallery itself, but through all the usual IRL and online portals. “The idea is for people to be inspired,to go out and try these things or simply have a renewed way of looking at the things we use and the way we do things day to day,” Savio says. Or take things one step further and jump aboard “all the exciting business and start-up opportunities in this sector”.

“Design has always been an industry that has had good intentions, and this new move towards sustainability, repair and regeneration really reflects how design is making good today.”

Making Good: Redesigning the Everyday is on display from August 29, 2025, to February 1, 2026, at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. For a deeper dive, the NGV is running a day-long symposium on Friday August 29, in partnership with RMIT, where you can hear directly from exhibitors.

Broadsheet is a proud media partner of the National Gallery of Victoria.