Australian Interior Design Awards | 2011 Shortlist.

Australian Interior Design Awards recognise and celebrate interior design excellence each year through their awards program, which is backed by the Design Institute of Australia (DIA), the professional body representing Australian designers. With a tagline “It’s what’s inside that counts”, their 2011 shortlist of projects was announced at the beginning of this week (7th March).

The awards time is a bit like the Oscars for the design industry, although perhaps not as glamorous and there’s definitely a lot less controversy around the winner’s outfits. Which is a bit of shame really. Alas, let’s not get off topic here, as the awards are a very serious business and a chance for the Australian design community to celebrate and reflect on their success and many achievements. The winners will be revealed at the the Awards Dinner which will be held in Melbourne on April 15th (you can purchase your tickets here).

It is quite evident that Australian designers really know how to design homes. There is a very strong selection of fantastic projects in the residential design sector, and I can only imagine how many more projects couldn’t enter these awards due to clients’ desire for discretion. Similar things could be said for hospitality design, and to some extent, retail design. Corporate design however… What is going on Australia? There is still a lot of work to be done to get this sector up to scratch. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – corporate design is where I continue to notice a real gap and lack of good design. Fine examples of good workplace design are few and far between! By the way, I am not necessarily taking about the projects which were shortlisted this year – at least not all of them. And I do realise that corporate design is far more complex and more difficult to get right, as designers are often dealing with large groups of multiple clients at once – and everybody knows that nothing good was ever designed by a committee. Anyway, I’ll stop my whinging now and get back to celebrating good design.

Congratulations to all designers and practices with shortlisted project – high-fives to you and all for the enormous effort that goes into pulling off an award-worthy project, or in quite a few cases – multiple projects. Geez, what is it with all the overachievers?

And so I leave you with a small selection of some of my favourite shortlisted projects in their respective categories.

x dana

Residential Design.

Kicking of with an absolute favourite. Hill Plain House (VIC) by Wolveridge Architects. Photography Derek Swalwell. Wow. This project gets two images just because it is so amazing. Extreme love.

Strelein Warehouse (NSW) by Ian Moore Architects. Photography Iain D MacKenzie.

Rozelle House 2 (NSW) by TFAD Pty Ltd. Photography Tom Ferguson.

Carriageworks (NSW) by Hare + Klein Interior Design. Photography Jenni Hare.

D Residence (VIC) by Shareen Joel Design. Photography Peter Bennetts.

House Shmukler (NSW) by Tribe Studio. Photography Brett Boardman.

Retail Design.

Joy Cupcakes (VIC) by Mim Design. Photography Shannon McGrath.

Sass & Bide (NSW) by Akin Creative. Photography Murray Fredericks.

Ksubi (NSW) by Akin Creative. Photography Murray Fredericks.

LifewithBird (VIC) by Wonder. Photography Ella Thomas.

SUDS Laundrette (VIC) by Plus Architecture. Photography Plus Architecture, Rob Luxford & Hamton.

Hospitality Design.

The Millswyn (VIC) by Hecker Guthrie. Photography Earl Carter. This is such a gorgeous interior, and I am a big fan of Mr Hecker + Mr Guthrie’s work. Having said that, I have mixed feelings about the fact that this interior is so heavily inspired by Ilse Crawford’s unique signature style – colour palette, material selection, furniture and accessories, some of the detailing etc. To me this project flirts with the concept of design plagiarism. Am I out of line here? Quite possibly, but I had to say it.

Stokehouse (VIC) by Pascale Gomes-Mcnabb in collaboration with Mcnabb Gomes Architects. Photography Mark Roper, Sharyn Cairns.

Avido (NSW) by Matt Woods Design. Photography Will Reichelt.

TREE Restaurant (NSW) by Koichi Takada Architects. Photography Sharrin Rees.

Installation Design.

Shells Architects of the Ocean, Myer Spring Summer Collection Launch 2010/2011 (NSW). Gloss Creative Pty Ltd & Lava (Amanda Henderson & Chris Bosse). Photography Rocket Mattler, Kyle Ford. (I blogged about this event right here.)

The DogHouse (NSW) by Foolscap Studio. Photography Maja Baska.

Fringe Furniture 2010 (VIC) by Edwards Moore. Photography Tony Gorsevski. (Previously blogged here.)

Corporate Design.

Three Drunk Monkeys (NSW) by Akin Creative. Photography Murray Fredericks.

417 St Kilda Road (VIC) by ROTHE LOWMAN. Photography Rhiannon Slatter.

Department of Environment and Resource Management (QLD) by Cox Rayner Architects. Photography Christopher Frederick Jones.

Public Design.

Puckapunyal Military Area Memorial Chapel (VIC) by BVN Architecture. Photography John Gollings.

State Theatre Centre of Western Australia (WA) by Kerry Hill Architects. Photography Robert Frith/ Adrian Lambert.