Celebrating the 2015 Australian Interior Design Awards
Artichoke issue 51.
Never before at the Australian Interior Design Awards has a project taken out both the Emerging Interior Design Practice Award and the Premier Award for Australian Interior Design. But this year Dust by Sibling has done it, receiving these accolades plus the Retail Design Award. Dust is a multi-sensory Melbourne fashion store that turns retail on its head, encouraging customers to participate in the mirrored, immersive space and its atypical retail model. The project is a credit to the eight members of the young practice Sibling and provides a forecast of the future of retailing.
This year’s award recipients demonstrate the incredible interiors Australian designers are producing, but one particular award, the Award for Interior Design Impact, is worth highlighting.
The award was introduced this year and recognizes the positive social, economic, cultural and environmental impact design can have on an organization over many years. After all, isn’t this the point of design? Completed in 2011, Ravenswood School for Girls in Sydney is a worthy recipient of this inaugural award. Designing the school, BVN hoped that it would stimulate engaged learning between teachers and students. According to our esteemed jury and school staff, Ravenswood has certainly achieved this. One powerful piece of evidence comes from Ravenswood’s head of middle school, Pascale Drever. Middle school education is identified as an important but delicate time for students, who are making the often fraught transition between junior and senior school. Drever says the design, particularly the flexible learning studios, supports and motivates the middle school students, reducing the risk of their disengagement. It is compelling testimony that points to design’s power to shape behaviour.
The Award for Interior Design Impact is the first of its kind in Australia to recognize the positive long-term outcomes interior design can bring. I look forward to seeing the future results of this award.
Alongside the coverage of the awards, we take a look at hotel Pumphouse Point in Tasmania by emerging design practice Cumulus Studio, Phamily Kitchen diner in Melbourne by Mathew van Kooy, the Nordia Group Offices by PHOOEY Architects and profile young designer David Flack of Flack Studio.
