Melbourne Design Week

Natural Brutalism - As Part of Melbourne Design Week

You’re invited to experience Natural Brutalism.
Capra Designs and Anna Sassi explore cork’s creative potential at Melbourne Design Week 2025.

As part of Melbourne Design Week 2025, Australian design studios Capra Designs and Anna Sassi Design present Natural Brutalism: A Sustainable Collaboration—an exhibition that explores the possibilities of cork in contemporary interior design through the lens of sustainability, texture, pattern and form.

Running from 15–23 May 2025 at 101 Collins Street, Melbourne, this exhibition brings together Capra Designs' sculptural approach to product design and Anna Sassi’s expertise in surface pattern and material storytelling. The result is a new collection of bespoke interior decor that reimagines cork as both a functional and expressive design material.

At the heart of Natural Brutalism is the synergy between two distinctive practices. Bianca Lambert, co-founder of Capra Designs, has built a reputation for creating modern homewares with bold forms and refined materiality. Her practice is grounded in sustainability and an intuitive sense of balance and geometry. Anna Sassi, known for her work across surface design and brings a highly considered approach to colour and pattern. Together, the two studios translate two-dimensional concepts into sculptural, three-dimensional pieces—blurring the boundaries between art and object.

Cork, as the central material, provides the framework for this collaboration. Its sustainability, acoustic and thermal properties, and unique texture are at once practical and poetic. The exhibition invites viewers to consider how natural materials can be used with intention in design, offering a perspective that is at once raw and resolved.

15–23 May | 7 am–4 pm (Weekdays only)
Ground Floor, 101 Collins Street, Melbourne
Free Entry – No bookings required
designweek.melbourne

Melbourne Design Week is an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and is curated and delivered by the National Gallery of Victoria.

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