Standout Homes Take Interior Design Awards to the Next Level
The 2014 Australian Interior Design Excellence Awards have been announced ... and the winning projects are spectacular
After much consideration, the judges have selected 17 standout projects from almost 500 entries in this year’s Interior Design Excellence Awards – an independent design awards program run by (Inside) Interior Design Review, a professional journal for interior architects and designers in Australia. We go behind the scenes with the winning designers of the residential interior design categories and take a look around their beautiful – and eco-smart – creations.
The clients asked that the architecture reflect their time living in various parts of Asia, but the designers at Kennedy Nolan avoided being too obvious about it. “The connections are subtle and characterised by a minimal palette of colour, texture and form and an attempt to reference the qualitative aspects of Asian architecture rather than obvious visual representations,” Kennedy says.
There are “huge benefits” to the owners of this house, says Kennedy. Not only is it a flexible, beautiful living environment developed in line with how the family lives, it’s also inexpensive to heat and cool, features high quality and robust construction to minimise maintenance, and is flexible enough to ensure longevity.
Environmentally, the house uses the tried and tested precepts of passive solar design. It makes use of extensive thermal mass, cross-ventilation oriented to Melbourne’s prevailing winds, and optimal summer shading.
“In a more abstract sense, the planning and formal qualities of the building intrinsically support passive solar principles by using a dual courtyard design to facilitate maximum northern orientation and cross ventilation opportunities,” Kennedy says.
“That the house functions effectively for a family with frequent guests and supports both family life and individual privacy is a satisfying outcome for us,” Kennedy says.
Category: Residential – Decoration
Project: The Avenue, Sydney
Winning design practice: Arent&Pyke
Photographer: Anson Smart
“This 1880s terrace called for an update that would respect its grand heritage and uplift the spaces, revealing its beauty and creating new moments of joy,” says Arent&Pyke designer Juliette Arent. “Respecting the original architecture, the success of this project relied on our ability to marry a modern family life lived within old walls with a timeless style executed in a contemporary fashion.”
Project: The Avenue, Sydney
Winning design practice: Arent&Pyke
Photographer: Anson Smart
“This 1880s terrace called for an update that would respect its grand heritage and uplift the spaces, revealing its beauty and creating new moments of joy,” says Arent&Pyke designer Juliette Arent. “Respecting the original architecture, the success of this project relied on our ability to marry a modern family life lived within old walls with a timeless style executed in a contemporary fashion.”
Once a boarding house, some of the rooms in the house were stripped back, while others were repurposed to provide a study, master robe, ensuite and bathroom.
Arent&Pyke collaborated with the architect to design new openings in the kitchen extension. “In homage to the timelessness of the existing architecture, our materials palette for the built elements was intentionally restrained,” says Arent. Arent&Pyke went through a detailed curatorial design process to celebrate the grandiose architecture, to harmonise the clients’ varying aesthetic and to develop “an eclectic yet cohesive, balanced yet unexpected, collection of spaces.”
Arent&Pyke collaborated with the architect to design new openings in the kitchen extension. “In homage to the timelessness of the existing architecture, our materials palette for the built elements was intentionally restrained,” says Arent. Arent&Pyke went through a detailed curatorial design process to celebrate the grandiose architecture, to harmonise the clients’ varying aesthetic and to develop “an eclectic yet cohesive, balanced yet unexpected, collection of spaces.”
Arent says all elements – furniture, materials and details – were selected for their quality and robustness, to create a home that is practical, beautiful and timeless. “We endeavour to eliminate negative environmental impact through sensitive design,” Arent explains. “
We subscribe to the notion of ‘emotionally durable design’, and try to foster an enduring relationship between the clients and their furnishings, so that there is not a yearning to ever replace things with ‘bigger, better, shinier, newer’; we see furniture not as a disposable item, but rather one that lasts a lifetime and beyond, being passed through the family.”
We subscribe to the notion of ‘emotionally durable design’, and try to foster an enduring relationship between the clients and their furnishings, so that there is not a yearning to ever replace things with ‘bigger, better, shinier, newer’; we see furniture not as a disposable item, but rather one that lasts a lifetime and beyond, being passed through the family.”
In the formal living spaces and master bedroom, deep hues of blue and sea-green anchor the decorative schemes. Responding to the opulent scale of the bedroom, the custom-designed bed, ottoman, and antique armoire are all overly scaled elements.
Window treatments with accents of silk and decorative lighting call the eye to the vast ceiling heights.
Detailed Fornasetti wallpaper wraps through the master dressing room and ensuite, reducing the scale in these more intimate spaces with its hand-drawn appeal and whimsical cloud motif.
The rear extension kitchen approach was a timeless application of classic materials and iconic pieces, Arent says. Iconic lighting from Artek complements the white joinery, stainless steel workbench, basalt benchtop and accents of American oak, and resonates with the strong black steel-framed doors. The clients’ much-loved Enzo Mari ‘Apple’ print influenced the bold colour palette.
Environmental considerations extended from the macro design and planning decisions down to micro material selection, with every material and finish scrutinised in terms of source, VOC output and recycled content. The space is lit exclusively by LED lighting and uses passive and active solar design with eaves for shading, good cross-ventilation, external operable sun control, great thermal mass and low-e glazing.
Category: Residential – Multi-unit
Project: The Commons, Melbourne
Winning design practice: Breathe Architecture
Photographer: Andrew Wuttke
Project: The Commons, Melbourne
Winning design practice: Breathe Architecture
Photographer: Andrew Wuttke
“At its core, The Commons is about people rather than an overriding form,” says Breathe Architecture’s Jeremy McLeod. “With the architecture serving as catalyst, The Commons is a magnet for people of similar values to come together to build a community.”
Dwellings are punctured by internal and boundary light wells, adapted by occupants as intensive roof gardens, spaces for external day beds and over-the-fence discussions.
“The apartments are affordable, sustainable, generous, easy to live in, and light filled,” says McLeod. “You know your neighbours and most have pets … you can grow old here.”
Sustainability and affordability were approached via reduction wherever possible: no cars
(but parking for 72 bikes); no air-conditioning (but plenty of cross-ventilation)
, no second bathrooms
, no individual laundries/washing machines; no toxic finishes
or imported timbers, and the apartments have an average 7.5 star energy rating.
“The Commons encourages real behavioural change in its occupants and aims to inspire others to do the same,” McLeod says.
“The apartments are affordable, sustainable, generous, easy to live in, and light filled,” says McLeod. “You know your neighbours and most have pets … you can grow old here.”
Sustainability and affordability were approached via reduction wherever possible: no cars
(but parking for 72 bikes); no air-conditioning (but plenty of cross-ventilation)
, no second bathrooms
, no individual laundries/washing machines; no toxic finishes
or imported timbers, and the apartments have an average 7.5 star energy rating.
“The Commons encourages real behavioural change in its occupants and aims to inspire others to do the same,” McLeod says.
Waxed, recycled Tasmanian oak floors are constructed of soft-to-touch reclaimed timber.
The communal rooftop, with vegetable plots, shared laundry, washing line and barbecue spaces, ensures company is always at hand.
The northern apartments look out through a chain-link screen, providing a trellis for deciduous Wisteria saplings to occupy.
Exposed concrete slabs act as thermal mass and without suspended ceilings, effectively return extra height to the apartments. The services – copper plumbing, black cloth pendants and red fire services – are curated at the ceiling plane, while unlined structural concrete columns and walls provide rhythm within the otherwise white walls. Raw brass taps and copper sinks accent in situ concrete benchtops. Kitchen joinery formply cabinets with door-pull cut-outs step down to form banquette seating and an audio visual hub with drawers underneath.
The highly regarded Emerging Designer award was this year awarded to C + M Studio, for its inaugural project Manly Penthouse. C + M’s design saw a curved interior room inserted within a modernist shell with the skill and resolution of a mature practice.
Project: St Kilda West House
Winning design practice: Kennedy Nolan
Photographer: Derek Swalwell
“Our task in designing this house was to accommodate a family on a sloping site – long and narrow and incorporating an existing Victorian house,” says designer Patrick Kennedy. While the brief largely determined the formal arrangement of the house – along with the site’s shape, orientation and terrain – passive solar methods also influenced the design.