SolShare wins Australian Good Design Award of the Year
Mon, 12th Oct 2026 (Today)
Allume Energy's SolShare has won the 2026 Australian Good Design Award of the Year, along with the Australian Good Design Award for Sustainability.
The Melbourne-designed system distributes electricity from a shared rooftop solar installation between individual apartments according to demand. Good Design Australia said it addresses a longstanding barrier for apartment residents seeking access to rooftop solar.
According to the awards organiser, SolShare is already connected to more than 10,000 apartments across three continents. It has delivered 23GWh of solar energy globally and helped residents cut electricity bills by an average of 30 to 40 per cent.
The result placed an energy technology at the top of an awards program that also recognised work in healthcare, engineering, public policy, artificial intelligence, climate resilience and biodiversity. Established in 1958, the Australian Good Design Awards span 13 design disciplines and more than 30 categories.
Dr Brandon Gien, chair of Good Design Australia, said SolShare reflected the practical role design can play in solving everyday problems.
"Great design starts with deeply understanding a problem and finding a better way to solve it. SolShare does exactly that," Gien said.
"Millions of people live in apartments, and many have had limited access to the benefits of rooftop solar. SolShare is a clever Australian design innovation that addresses that problem in a practical way, and it is already delivering benefits at significant scale.
"The quality of this year's award winners is exceptional. We are seeing designers, engineers and architects working in energy, healthcare, biodiversity, artificial intelligence, climate resilience and public policy, helping address some very complex social, environmental and commercial challenges.
"The projects recognised this year demonstrate the contribution that thoughtful, well-executed design can make to industry and the wider community."
Australian winners
Several other Australian projects took Best in Discipline awards. Frost*collective won in Communication Design for the Sydney Children's Hospital placemaking and environmental graphics project, which combines wayfinding, information and storytelling for children, families, carers and staff at Sydney Children's Hospital Randwick.
Flow won the Engineering Design category for the Flow Super Lifter, a product designed to make hive inspections easier for beekeepers and less disruptive for bees. The device reduces the lifting required to open a hive and inspect its components.
In Built Environment, Greenshoot Consulting and Wurundjeri Elders were recognised for the City Square Ceremonial Gathering Space in Melbourne. The project was designed as a place to welcome visitors to Country, sustain Wurundjeri knowledge and cultural practices, make Woi-wurrung language visible, and acknowledge First Peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land.
Xavier Earls received the Best in Discipline award in the Next Gen category for Bush Cradle, a modular habitat system for vulnerable native animals. The design uses organic hempcrete and can be arranged in multiple configurations for different species.
Policy and AI
Beyond physical products and spaces, the awards highlighted work in policy and research. MAVlab at the Municipal Association of Victoria won Best in Discipline for Policy Design for Advancing Responsible AI Innovation in Local Government, a framework intended to guide AI adoption by Victorian councils.
The project includes an AI procurement coaching guide, a procurement panel, a use-case library and a cross-sector AI taskforce. Its inclusion among the major winners underlined a broader shift in design awards towards systems, governance and service models, rather than only objects or buildings.
Taiwanese designer Liu Chia-Yi won Best in Discipline for Concept Design for SoilRevive, an AI-led bioremediation station for farmland contaminated by heavy metals. The system cultivates and releases microbial strains into polluted soil.
Karla Straker took the Design Strategy award for Designing the Intellectual Edge: A Strategy for Future Defence Learning, developed for the Australian Defence College. In Design Research, ThirdStory was recognised for a project commissioned by the Paul Ramsay Foundation that brought together 31 specialist domestic and family violence services to strengthen shared learning and advocacy.
International field
International projects also featured among the top winners. The Vanuatu National Warning System: A Sovereign Digital Lifeline, designed in Australia by What Works and commissioned by SPREP, won Best in Discipline for Social Impact.
The climate resilience project serves about 314,000 people across 83 islands and combines meteorology with Indigenous knowledge to deliver national warnings and safety information. In Digital Design, New Zealand's Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui, Wellington Central Library, designed by Journey Digital for Wellington City Council, was recognised for its bilingual and accessible digital interface.
Finnish company FabPatch won the Fashion and Textiles category for a rub-on repair system aimed at extending the life of garments and reducing textile waste sent to landfill.
Rachel Wye, managing director of Good Design Australia, said the range of winners showed how design is being applied across both economic and social issues.
"Design is an important economic and social capability. It influences the products we create, the services we rely on, the policies we develop and the way organisations respond to complex problems," Wye said.
"This year's award winners are addressing energy costs, healthcare, environmental degradation, artificial intelligence, disaster preparedness, accessibility and community wellbeing.
"Australia has an extraordinary design community and an opportunity to use that capability to strengthen our economy, improve lives and build industries that can compete internationally."