WINNER
DOHERTY DESIGN STUDIO
COMMERCIAL INTERIORS need to work hard – they have to be as enticing and memorable as they are functional and brand-appropriate. Doherty Design Studio ticks all these boxes with ease in its beautiful Marquise flagship store in Melbourne. What director Mardi Doherty and interior designer Phoebe Lipscombe have created is a consciously calm, immersive retail space for one of Australia’s oldest and best-loved babywear businesses. “We wanted to design a store that is playful and nostalgic,” says Mardi. While playfulness is apparent in its porcelain-pink plaster and its fun, block-style sales counter, it is carefully underpinned by sophisticated elements designed to appeal to adults. Custom hanging rails that are perfectly sized and positioned to hold tiny clothes are powder-coated a gorgeous champagne colour; curved walls offer a sense of embrace and a hint of elegance; and the peekaboo windows invite shoppers to peer in. “You have to look inside, whatever age you are,” says Mardi. Materials are deftly combined in the 55sqm space, with blush ceramic tiles flowing from walls to the floor, a rendered wall finish providing a touch of texture and curved railings discreetly mapping out a browsing route. The store is a thoughtfully designed retail premises, where the space’s allure and quality is a wonderful reflection of its proprietors and the shoppers who are drawn to its charming little items of clothing.
TRAVIS WALTON ARCHITECTURE
A MAGNIFICENT RESIDENCE resplendent with sumptuous furnishings, glittering chandeliers, French-inspired mouldings and intricate stone floors has garnered the lion’s share of votes in the Best Residential Interior – Readers’ Choice category for Travis Walton Architecture. Travis’s design for a luxurious, neoclassical mansion in Melbourne’s Toorak that marries the romance of the past with a contemporary sensibility resonated with the owners and readers alike. The expansive scale of the property – 2000 square metres – called for an equally voluptuous response, and the architect pulled out all the stops to create a “gallery-like interior harnessed by decadence and eclecticism” while still adhering to sustainability principles. Travis’s bailiwick is luxury and he is celebrating 10 years of his eponymous design practice with a portfolio of acclaimed works across Australia and overseas. His aim is always to create “inspiring one-of-a-kind spaces that stand as both a physical expression of the client’s brand or identity and an enduring statement of beautiful intelligent design”.
DYLAN FARRELL DESIGN
DYLAN FARRELL BRINGS a touch of his hometown New York flair to all projects he works on alongside his wife, the equally talented Nicolette Farrell – and the Melbourne ensuite that has won them this category is no exception. The prodigiously talented design duo espouse the view that each job they take on as has its own “unique creative fingerprint”. In this case, it was all about dreaming up an ensuite awash with theatricality that would meet the owners’ broader brief for their home, which is newly constructed yet reminiscent of stately, turn-of-the-century Victorian homes (but, of course, with a contemporary stylistic twist). An abundance of mirrors and great proportions allow light to bounce around the room and it’s this sense of spaciousness that sets the scene for monumental pieces such as the over-scaled, hand-carved marble bath. At once dramatic and cocooning, it’s a bathroom fixture of such beauty that it requires its own dazzling stone plinth. The bath is perfectly paired with a glamorous antique Sciolari chandelier that took months to hunt down. Gutsy gold-veined marbles are given the space to shine, but are then balanced by softer stones and weathered-brass basins. The overall effect is deeply luxurious, faultlessly executed and, true to Dylan and Nicolette’s oeuvre, impressively individual.
WHILE BKH WAS NOT an entrant in this year’s awards, the presence of this highly influential practice could certainly be felt among the submissions. For more than 30 years it has been one of Australia’s most dynamic and acclaimed architectural and interior design studios, with director Iain Halliday netting Interior Designer of the Year in the program’s second edition along with many accolades across the Residential, Commercial and Hospitality categories. BKH has also been a remarkable incubator of creative talent, priming a generation of architects and designers that includes Tania Handelsmann and Gillian Khaw – recipients of this year’s Interior Designer of the Year, Emerging Design Star and Best Residential Kitchen Design – as well as past winners and nominees such as George Livissianis and Madeleine Blanchfield. BKH has played a significant role in the efflorescence of design in Australia, which the awards have been fortunate to reflect and foster during its first decade. In that time BKH has always remained current, moving easily from minimalist to more eclectic and decorative spaces while supporting this aesthetic overlay with a precise approach to space and sensitivity to the client’s brief. For its ongoing contribution to the Australian design landscape, BKH is the inaugural inductee to the Hall of Fame.
BKH