Northside Design Ride Melbourne, Australia

Collingwood has an abundance of coffee shops — from low-key to high design, and everything in between. We love Ageyo Coffee for its great coffee, but also its homely feel — Dan and his staff welcome you like a regular from the moment you step inside.

Ageyo is named after the small Ethiopian village where founder Dan grew up in a family of coffee farmers. He and his wife Soliana opened the Collingwood space to share that culture with Melbourne, roasting their own beans in-house — sourced directly from the farmers Dan grew up around. Working with a small kitchen, the food menu has simple breakfast options alongside more substantial dishes that draw on Ethiopian home cooking. The slow-cooked meals fill the space with an enticing aroma.

Depending on what time you begin your tour, grab a coffee and pastry, or one of their delicious meals to help fuel your ride.

We’ve been visiting Jacky Winter’s exhibitions since their very first home in Fitzroy, when they were originally known as Lamington Drive. We love their roster of artists and even have several artworks from their shows hanging on our walls at home. Every visit to their gallery is a joy.

Established by The Jacky Winter Group in 2008, the gallery hosts monthly exhibitions showcasing design-led creative talent from their roster of represented artists and broader friends and collaborators — a non-traditional space that works with artists to create viewing experiences that reflect their practice. Gallery manager Shena Jamieson programs the exhibitions, drawing on both the Jacky Winter roster and the wider commercial art world.

On our visit as part of Northside Design Ride, we had a special viewing of Karan Singh’s exhibition Best Before — enlarged sculptures cast from everyday objects, giving permanence to things never meant to last. Karan is a Melbourne-based artist and illustrator whose practice, spanning print, sculpture and installation, explores how meaning gets attached to ordinary things through memory, ritual and use.

Shena and Karan take us behind Karan’s exhibition Best Before, sharing the story of his shift from commercial to fine art, and his mission to memorialise disposable objects.

We’ve long been fans of the work that Arts Project Australia (APA) does in championing neurodivergent artists and artists with intellectual disabilities. The artists’ work offers an often playful interpretation of the world around them through a range of mediums, and we look forward to each new exhibition and email newsletter showcasing new works. Pieces start from under $200 so it’s a great way to support the artists, and start (or build) your own collection!

Through their studio program, exhibition opportunities, and professional development pathways, APA empowers more than 150 artists to develop their practice and build meaningful careers in the contemporary arts sector.

On our ride, we had a special viewing of artist Fiona Longhurst's exhibition 573 Float Fall Petals 10 Trees. The exhibition celebrates Fiona’s enduring contribution to the APA studio and the broader contemporary art landscape, offering insight into an artist whose evolving practice is defined by intricate fields of mark-making, a nuanced use of colour, and a quietly compelling sense of introspection.

Arts Project Australia Marketing & Communications Manager, Betty Musgrove, shares the story behind APA’s growth from a small Westgarth collective into a thriving, accessible home, and the exhibition celebrating Fiona Longhurst’s 35 years with the studio.

We love visiting the beautiful showroom and working studio of Szilvassy (designed by Dion Hall). Each object features a distinctive glaze, influenced by the Australian landscape, with tiny orb vessels sitting alongside huge amphora and sculptural pedestals. A Szilvassy piece is high on our wish-list for home!

The Melbourne-based ceramic studio of artist Shari Lowndes sits at the intersection of function, narrative, and material inquiry. Working primarily on the wheel, Shari produces objects that quietly challenge distinctions between artefact and everyday vessel, inviting a reconsideration of what it means for an object to hold both utility and memory. Each piece emerges from a deeply considered process in which personal histories and site-responsive materials are embedded into the clay itself. These works are not only functional forms, but also carriers of story—subtle records of place, gesture, and encounter.

We fall very much into the “leisurely weekend rider” category when it comes to cycling (including avoiding lycra), but we love the design and inclusive community culture that exists around MAAP. And the Melbourne MAAP LaB is always great for a browse, a coffee, and a chat to their friendly staff.

Born in Melbourne with stores across the world, MAAP is known for its minimalist, technical designs — jerseys, bib shorts and accessories worn by everyone from professional cyclists to weekend riders.

MAAP LaB is their communal space for a life around bikes, at the intersection of contemporary creative culture and cycling. Designed by Clare Cousins, the Melbourne flagship celebrates the culture, art and progression of cycling through coffee, local brews, community events and group rides, with the MAAP crew on hand to talk through the latest collections and collaborations.

MAAP CEO, Ian Elliot, shares the brand’s evolution from a design-led Instagram discovery into a Melbourne cycling label propelling the sport forward through design and performance.

We’d seen photos of Artbank Melbourne’s space online but had never visited in person until Melbourne Design Week 2026, when we popped into the RE:BORN exhibition. We were instantly in awe — enough to make it a last-minute addition to Northside Design Ride!

Artbank is a Government initiative built on the idea that art is for everyone. For more than 45 years it has supported Australian artists, building a collection of over 11,000 artworks available for individuals and businesses to lease, with over half out on loan at any time. Their Melbourne warehouse facility (designed by Edition Office) provides a striking home for part of their collection, both as art storage and exhibition space.

On our ride, we visited RE:BORN — a collaboration between fashion label Romance Was Born and furniture repair program Cultivated. Secondhand furniture, otherwise headed for landfill, was reworked into expressive new forms using Romance Was Born’s textiles. The exhibition blended installation with fashion, art and design in a stunning, layered space.

Susie Cornish, Artbank Art Consultant, welcomes us to Artbank, before Joshua Ellis, Head of Cultivated, takes us behind the collaboration with Romance Was Born, sharing the inspiration behind the project and some of the hidden details.

We’ve visited R. L. Foote Design Studio a few times in the past, and are always in awe of the warehouse space and its incredible natural light. Not to mention the sculptural ceramics! We’re hoping to try one of their ceramic courses soon, just to spend some more time in the space, and learn from the best!

The Studio is a two-storey Clifton Hill warehouse — part ceramics factory, part showroom — where founder Ryan Foote and his team handcraft ceramic tableware, interior objects and event-based designs. Ryan trained in sculpture and spatial practice at the VCA before turning to ceramics and food design.

During Melbourne Design Week, the upstairs exhibition space hosted Bite Sized Design — Ryan’s own sculptural chocolate forms shown alongside pieces by invited architects, artists and designers, each translating their own visual language into edible, miniature-scale design.

Ryan Foote shares the meticulous process behind his dual practice in ceramics and chocolate — his in-house glazes, slip-cast tableware, and luxury chocolates inspired by Australian natives and Hong Kong landmarks.

We often go past the historical building in Clifton Hill that is home to Hotel House. When the signage first went up, we were intrigued. We were soon delighted to learn that some of our favourite artists had moved into the space, along with one of our favourite life drawing classes (Loosends Life Drawing).

Hotel House is designed as a high-end multi-use space, with its architectural, light-filled and intentionally restrained interiors providing the backdrop for exhibitions, dinners, events, and a creative showroom for its creative tenants.

Zachary Frankel’s multidisciplinary practice spans furniture, lighting, sculpture and objects, often reinterpreting historical styles through a contemporary lens. Working across hand-crafting and modern technology, his pieces sit somewhere between functional design and sculptural art.

Monde Studio, founded by Tilly Barber, makes modular seating designed to be used, not preserved. The Monde Seating System is sculpted from Green Tag certified foam into curves modelled on the human body, with no internal mechanisms or complex parts — built to be passed down rather than replaced.

Zachary and Tilly take us behind Hotel House, sharing the story of its transformation from a private furniture showroom into a shared creative space for exhibitions and community events.

WALKENS House of Film is one of our favourite film labs to get our photos developed — that, and we love their bright blue front door. Coffee and donuts are on hand too, if you’re in need of a pick-me-up while you browse.

An independent film photography store and film lab, dedicated to making shooting film easy for all, WALKENS’ goal has always been to create a welcoming, inclusive space, supplying film and camera essentials and related gear. This philosophy informed the fit-out of their Fitzroy store (designed by the WALKENS team themselves), featuring a distinct mid-century aesthetic with warm lighting, rich materials, iconic 35mm film display wall, and good old-fashioned friendly service!

WALKENS developed all of the Northside Design Ride photos, taken by our fabulous participants and us too.