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Mary Featherston is something of a rock star designer, not that she\u2019d like to hear that.<\/p>\n
Refreshingly without ego at 83, she wants her vision to be known, rather than her name.<\/p>\n
![\"Mary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/d2477813737a1b45ca462efd884cea5fa3783ea6.jpeg\")
Mary Featherston at the NGV International, where she will give a talk this week for Melbourne Design Week.Nicole Reed<\/p>\n
In the 1950s, together with her late husband Grant, Featherston created some of the most aesthetically and technically radical furniture of that era. Their chairs in particular put Melbourne on the design map globally and are highly sought after today.<\/p>\n
Featherston believes design is integral to social change. As a working mother, she was an early advocate for childcare being freely available, a radical concept in Australia at the time.<\/p>\n
Her work with educators, academics, architects and artists focuses on how good design can improve children\u2019s education.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor 60 years I have been both designer and an activist, but at this stage, it\u2019s more activist,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
![\"Grant](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/9faf2e7e38ee9e836a4bf6f27859cf1fe575233d.jpeg\")
Grant and Mary Featherston at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1968.<\/p>\n
Speaking ahead of a talk at the NGV this week, as part of Melbourne Design Week, Featherston says motivation and engagement are critical ideas in schooling. While that should be obvious, she fears it is often overlooked.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the way children naturally learn, anybody who\u2019s observed little children, you can see they\u2019re on the move. They\u2019re exploring, testing, poking, experimenting, making, and then as they develop language, they\u2019re asking lots of profound questions,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is that schools tend to put that aside and say, well, that\u2019s not relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Featherston refers to the default approach of single classrooms with desks and chairs as straitjackets, and wants to see much more flexible learning spaces. Rooms for children to come together in large groups, intimate, quieter spaces, more hybrid areas, and spaces devoted to making and play are all critical.<\/p>\n
![\"Mary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/eec0082d025bb10cd84f2e06cfcc33ee5f4325d5.jpeg\")
Mary Featherston at home in her Robin Boyd-designed Melbourne house.Sean Fennessy<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really advocating for a new culture of schooling, which means a transformation,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re have a lot of problems, as you will be very well aware. Kids don\u2019t want to go to school, teachers don\u2019t want to teach, principals don\u2019t want to be principals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Somehow we\u2019ve ended up with classrooms that privilege academic study above all else, she argues. \u201cIt said that the \u2018other stuff\u2019 \u2013 that creative, imaginative thinking \u2013 we better do a bit of that so we\u2019ll have a place, and you can go there once a week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Featherston is a firm believer that good design leads to positive education outcomes for all, and that those better outcomes, in turn, lead to better societies.<\/p>\n
![\"Stem](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/726b47c8e89bbf7df637ec70c603280a3857bbaa.jpeg\")
Stem dining chairs, 1969, by designers Grant and Mary Featherston.<\/p>\n
To her mind, the answer lies in harnessing natural tendencies: looking at the best way kids learn. Lots of great research \u2013 from Harvard, MIT, London University and more \u2013 she says, shows curiosity is the best driver.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s something she has seen first-hand through collaboration with friend and educator Dr Esme Capp, who works at Princes Hill Primary School<\/a>. Along with Featherston, Capp is big on the notion of student-led learning. She also cites research that shows all learning is emotional, that the brain really develops through complex interactions with the environment, and a lot of it involves emotion.<\/p>\n Related Article One of Featherston\u2019s proudest achievements is co-designing the original children\u2019s museum (1985-1997) for Museums Victoria.<\/p>\n Featherston grew up in England, then, in 1953, her family immigrated to Melbourne. After high school, the then Mary Currey went to RMIT to study interior design. Soon after, she met Grant and they had a family, and worked together for many decades, designing furniture and spaces, objects and more.<\/p>\n She and Grant also worked on the interiors of the NGV international building when it opened in 1966. An adjunct professor at RMIT University, in 2020 she was made a member of the Order of Australia.<\/p>\n![\"Pianist](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/a1ccb96b6af37172c4c77039fc3b5a446253d08a.jpeg\")
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