The 2016 Australian Interior Design Awards were announced on Friday 10 June at the Sofitel Wentworth in Sydney with hundreds of interior designers and architects gathered together for the awards announcement and celebration dinner. The awards have been recognizing excellence in Australian interior design innovation for 13 years.

The awards program recognizes and celebrates interior design excellence in the Stream A categories of Retail Design, Hospitality Design, Workplace Design, Public Design, Installation Design, Residential Design and Residential Decoration.

This year, an apartment in Darling Point, Sydney by by Chenchow Little received the Premier Award for Australian Interior Design as well as a Residential Design Award. “Darling Point Apartment is an inspirational piece of interior design that is both innovative and excellent,” said the jury.

For the second time, the Australian Interior Design Awards gave an award for the impact of good design (Stream B), which this year was jointly awarded to The Commons by Breathe Architecture and the Queensland Museum Refurbishment Cox Rayner Architects.

“The two projects are quite different, yet parallels exist in the impact they have generated,” said the jury. “Each project has been embraced by users; positively impacted the wider community; embraced a business model to drive a positive design outcome and generate ongoing projects; achieved sustainability on environmental, social and fiscal levels; and created engaging spaces people want to be in.”

On the 2016 jury were:

Stream A: Sonda Banney (Architectus), Mardi Doherty (Doherty Design Studio), Matt Gibson (Matt Gibson Architecture + Design), Robyn Lindsey (Geyer), Alison Page (Alison Page Design), Phillip Rossington (BVN), Nick Travers (Technè Architecture + Interior Design) and Dimmity Walker (Space Agency)

Stream B: Geraldine Maher (jury chair, Jackson Interiors), Richard Johnson (Johnson Pilton Walker) and Rosemary Kirkby (Rosemary Kirkby Associates)

Joanne Cys (LFDIA, University of South Australia) acted as jury convenor, and John Gertsakis (Infoactiv Group) acted as sustainability advisor.

The winners of the 2016 Australian Interior Design Awards are:

Premier Award for Australian Interior Design
Darling Point Apartment – Chenchow Little

Award for Interior Design Impact
The Commons – Breathe Architecture
Queensland Museum Refurbishment – Cox Rayner Architects

Sustainability Advancement Award
North Lakes Office Fitout – Nielsen Workshop and Morgan Jenkins Architecture

Retail Design
1888 Certified – TomMarkHenry

Hospitality Design
Alex Hotel – Arent&Pyke with Spaceagency

Public Design
Our Lady of Assumption – BVN

Workplace Design
North Lakes Office Fitout – Nielsen Workshop and Morgan Jenkins Architecture

Installation Design
My Zinc Red / Blood Bank – Stukel Stone

Residential Decoration
Theodore Treehouse – Studiobird

Residential Design
Fitzroy Loft – Architects EAT
Darling Point Apartment – Chenchow Little

Emerging Interior Design Practice
We Are Huntly

Best of State
Commercial Design and Residential Design

Commendations
See the commended projects here.

Australian Interior Design Awards thanks its sponsors: Forbo Flooring Systems, Dulux Australia, Business Interiors by Staples, The Laminex Group, Smeg, Space and Bespoke, with Shape Group as jury host.

For full coverage see the Australian Interior Design Awards website and Artichoke magazine issue 55.