The shortlist for the 16th annual Australian Interior Design Awards has been revealed.
Delivered by the Design Institute of Australia and Architecture Media’s Artichoke magazine, the Australian Interior Design Awards are Australia’s leading awards program for design excellence.
Each year the awards aim to celebrate innovation and ingenuity in interior design across the residential, public and commercial sectors.
The 2019 Australian Interior Design Awards gathered a large volume of entries across seven categories from Australian practices, with projects featured both locally and internationally.
As the most prestigious and respected program for Australian interior design, the awards recognise exemplary projects in sectors including retail, hospitality, workplace, public design, installation and residential design.
The entries will be judged by a Jury of some of Australia’s most esteemed interior designers and architects, including Angela Biddle – Director at Scott Carver, Caroline Choker – Co-founder of ACME, Anthony Dickens – Senior associate at Hassell, Peta Heffernan – Co-founding director of Liminal Studio, Ingrid Richards – Co-director at Richards and Spence, Sonia Simpfendorfer – Creative Director at Nexus Designs, Koichi Takada – Principal of Koichi Takada Architects and Kieran Wong – Director at The Fulcrum Agency.
One project entrant vying for the Workplace Design category is GroupGSA and artillery’s work for MacPherson Kelley Lawyers head office in Dandenong, Victoria. The Company’s head office has been in operation since 1905. Spread across two levels, MK Lawyers’ strategy, developed with Calder, was to shift away from the traditional office-based workplace model to a fully open and 100 per cent agile workplace.
On the ground floor, the community is welcomed into the space through a large, open business lounge. Like the town square, this space abuts meeting rooms which are around the perimeter. Meanwhile in the upstairs area, the work floor embraces wellness and local design content.
According to GroupGSA, nature, daylight and responsible materials were all important components of the workplace’s new design.
GroupGSA further detailed that the workplace addresses ‘choice and control’ with a variety of spaces through the inclusion of individual desks, open and enclosed collaborative spaces, focus rooms, communal work tables, focus booths, social spaces, a ‘community like’ business lounge, a ping pong room and more.
Another project shortlisted in the 2019 Australian Interior Design Awards, this time for the Public Design category, is the Waltzing Matilda Centre by Cox Architecture.
Rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the original centre (following a devastating fire in 2015), the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton, Queensland was reopened on Friday April 20, 2018 and is now the first museum in the world dedicated to a song.
Design architect, Casey Vallance, said that the Waltzing Matilda Centre was designed to reflect the significance of this iconic Australian song through architecture and interpretive experience.
“The centre is a robust and expressive facility capturing the distinct nature of the landscape and people that inhabit this great land through its experimental design,” he said.
The full list of final award recipients will be announced at a gala presentation to be held at Forum Melbourne on Friday 31 May.
Links to the Australian Interior Design Awards 2019 Shortlist can be found below: