The winners of the 39th Dulux Colour Awards, one of the region’s longest-running architectural and design awards programs, were unveiled on 28 May at the National Gallery of Victoria, celebrating the most transformative uses of colour in the built environment across Australia and New Zealand.
This year’s awards showcased projects that “push the boundaries of established genres and defy previously accepted norms to astound and delight with their complexity and ambition,” according to Dulux Colour and Communications Manager Andrea Lucena-Orr.
“It never ceases to amaze us how conceptually courageous and strategically sophisticated the colour schematics are, year on year,” she said.
“Our aim with the Dulux Colour Awards is to reveal and reward the ultimate exemplars of architectural innovation using Dulux Colour as a central design device, therefore highlighting its unique potential to transform our built environment.”
The Grand Prix winners epitomised this vision, each employing a single colour as a defining design strategy.
Australia’s Grand Prix went to the Sarah & Sebastian Armadale store by Richards Stanisich, which used Dulux Delta Break — a striking green — paired with reflective surfaces to create an ethereal, underwater-inspired retail space.
“Its relevance as a highly original, timeless and transformative interior transcends its retail genre, thus embodying everything the Dulux Colour Awards strive to represent,” judges noted.
New Zealand’s Grand Prix winner, Lava Flow by Pac Studio, features a volcanic red ceiling and skylight in Dulux Silo Park, referencing Auckland’s landscape and delivering the inverse of expectations with startling impact, highlighted by a contrasting soft white.
Lucena-Orr remarked: “The project demonstrates the architect’s conviction and understanding of colour as a determinant of mood and identity.”
Other winners included:
- Residential Interior: Elonera House by Studio Doherty
- Commercial Interior: Sarah & Sebastian Armadale by Richards Stanisich
- Commercial Exterior: Lava Flow by Pac Studio
- Student Award: “Landscape of Co-existence” by Angela Xu and Georgia Reader from the University of Sydney
- Heritage: Elonera House by Studio Doherty
- Commendations: Three residential interior commendations
- Kennedy Nolan for Rosherville House
- Arent & Pyke for Wharf House
- Pac Studio for Lava Flow
Judges noted a trend toward unconventional colour in heritage projects and the softening of industrial typologies, with Lucena-Orr adding: “We have been overwhelmed with the exceptional level of innovation expressed in the range of projects this year, not only in the residential category.”
“The combination of extraordinarily original colour use and outstanding architecture across all genres makes the judges’ job difficult but, equally, it is testament to the talent, ambition and commitment of architects and their clients to design with colour.”
The 2025 Dulux Colour Awards jury included leading architects and designers from Australia and New Zealand, underscoring the program’s commitment to recognising paradigm-shifting work in colour and design.
