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Six now-defunct inner-city grain silos – not usually accessible to the public – are the setting for what might be Melbourne Design Week’s most outlandish exhibition.

Peeking above the rooftops of Burnley, the six-pack of silos, each 26 metres tall, was built in 1938 as part of Barrett Burston Maltings; they remained operational until 2018. The surrounding red-brick building was constructed in 1892 as Terry’s Burnley Brewery.

Mood Ring Light by Josee Vesely-Manning is one of the works on display at The Silo Project.Credit: Luis Ascui

Ahead of the Gibdon Street site being converted into terrace homes for Developed by Urban’s Burnley Maltings project, the real estate developer gave a crop of creatives the green light to reactivate the silos for site-specific group exhibition The Silo Project.

Leading the charge is curator Josee Vesely-Manning, a multidisciplinary artist based in Sydney, alongside co-presenters Corey Thomas and Ancher Architecture Office. But the exhibition unites 23 design innovators, whose works – everything from lighting to object design – both respond to and are exhibited throughout the historical site.

In many ways, it’s an ironic proposition in the wake of the isolated, locked-down years. “When you look at how many designers and artists have come together, there’s this sense that we’re all getting out of our silos by actually inhabiting a silo,” Thomas says.

Billy Horn and Billie Civello explore the silos where their works will be featured as part of Melbourne Design Week.Credit: Luis Ascui

Swaths of blue shade cloth, draped from storeys high by architects Anna and Garth Ancher, siphon you into the silos while obscuring the industrial graveyard around them.

From outside, their immensity is undeniable. But once inside the maze of circular, concrete walls – interconnected by a series of doorways – there’s an eerie intimacy.

You’re free to roam through the arches and alcoves (an original set of grain scales remains), as voices and footsteps reverberate through the space and the original silo hoppers make for an imposing centrepiece in each cylindrical room.

With the grain (mostly) gone, what’s left to admire is an 85-year-old industrial ruin that’s as much a design marvel as those works it’s temporarily filled with. “It’s a live space,” says Thomas. “It’s almost like an open house, but on an industrial scale.”

“So often we’re put in white boxes [as designers],” he continues. “But you can see here, people are not just dropping in a chair or a light … they’re absolutely besotted by the space and going to work with it.”

Brody Xarhakos’ Kármán line 19 on display at The Silo Project.Credit: Luis Ascui

Many of the designs have been evolving up until the last minute, incorporating found objects and letting the site determine their direction. Vesely-Manning, whose practice focuses on sculptural and lighting installation, collected discarded rock and bitumen from the rubble and enlivened each of the pieces by piercing them with tubular lights.

“I’m interested in notions of speculative design – how our design past imagines the future,” she says – but also how the two intermingle. “Even though these are very historical silos and they have all these past connotations, the interior silo spaces suggested all these futuristic propositions, almost like Stanley Kubrick sets.” In situ, her Mood Ring Light feels reminiscent of the War Room in the film icon’s Dr. Strangelove.

Among the other designers are Brody Xarhakos, with an angular abstract work; Elliot Bastianon, who grows crystals out of industrial materials; and interior designer Danielle Brustman, who was a finalist in the NGV’s Rigg Design Prize in 2018.

“As designers and artists, we’re thinking about the materials we’re using and the ways we’re producing like never before,” says Vesely-Manning. By giving new life to a liminal space set for urban renewal, she’s posing questions around “the implications of material obsolesce and industrial labour, and how we reinvent that with design strategy”.

The Silo Project is one of more than 100 events happening for Melbourne Design Week, which runs from May 18 to 28 across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria. Now in its seventh year, it celebrates innovation and excellence throughout the design world. The 11-day program runs the gamut from exhibitions and workshops to talks, tours and films, all responding to the theme “Design the World You Want”.

The Silo Project runs from May 18 to 21, 2023 as part of Melbourne Design Week. Entry is free.

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