The winner of this year’s Designer of the Year: People’s Choice Awards was Matt Woods of emerging Sydney studio, Matt Woods Design. Despite the relative youth of this practice, Woods is fast earning himself a reputation as an adept designer, with completed projects including Sydney hospitality projects Bloodwood and Avido, as well as FBi Social – a low-cost entertainment venue pieced together using salvaged items, created for independent radio station FBi. Matt Woods was nominated by his peers in the People’s Choice Award, with votes lodged through the IDEA website in the lead-up to awards night in November.

Avido, Matt Woods Design

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This project by Wolveridge Architects makes use of passive design principles to deliver a six-star energy-rated house, completely off the grid. But while the project features plenty of clever green technology solutions – solar hot water, wood-fired hydronic heating, a multi-zone hot water tank – it was the deft and ecovative use of recycled materials that really impressed. Internal ply cladding was sourced from Pilkington window crates, the ceiling lining is made of the off-cuts from the milling of recycled hardwood beams for flooring, and the external cladding has likewise been made from recycled blackbutt. All of these contribute to lend the project a rich patina, but what is doubly remarkable is the way in which the potentially idiosyncratic qualities of these recycled materials have been crafted into a coherent whole.

The Hill Plains House, Wolveridge Architects

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A pop-up fashion store in a tiny, one-room space, the Arnsdorf Concept Store employs stretched stockings to create a whimsical, otherworldly environment from modest means. The soft hues and sculptural forms of the stretched tights perfectly complement the clothing range on sale and, while the budget and timeframe may have been tightly constrained, Edwards Moore’s design solution would have offered a surfeit of delight to those shoppers who were lucky enough to stumble through the door.

Arnsdorf Concept Store, Edwards Moore

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It was the rational considerations of function and innovation that swayed the judges in this category, something that Spore Furniture’s Flat Pack Bed has in spades. Efficiency of delivery and ease of assembly were the key design drivers, but from these utilitarian objectives, Spore has wrought an exquisite structure, all the more beautiful for its rationality. It’s fit-for-purpose, but highly finessed, and ultimately the jury nominated the Flat Pack Bed for this award because its happy marriage of form and function brings something genuinely new to the design of what is an immensely time-worn typology.

“The Flat Pack Bed has this innovative structural system – it uses plywood in a really ingenious way, making the most of its supple material characteristics to create a rigid frame.” – 2011 juror, Toby Horrocks

Flat Pack Bed, Spore Furniture + Product Design

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There are a number of constraints that apply to retail fitouts that make design in this area unique. High tenancy turnover rates, a desire for an aesthetic that is absolutely up-to-the-minute and the need to accommodate ultra-rapid construction times all contribute towards lending projects a lean quality. The challenge then becomes extracting from this leanness a design of substance and experiential richness. The extremely rational solution this year’s winner provides has an undeniable beauty. Rather than focus on frills, Facet Studio has devoted all of its attention to that most critical aspect of retail design: presentation. Turning the unitised nature of manufacture to its advantage, Sneakerology/Streetology makes a merit of repetition – recalling the taxonomic display systems of museum to striking effect. The result has undeniable magnetism: if you were after sneakers, you’d be in there with a shot – which, as the jury saw it, was perhaps the best justification of all for awarding this project the top prize.

“In a context of a mall, where there’s so much visual noise, this was a really beautiful curatorial project.. It had a lovely sense of restraint and calm, which I think is critical in these hyper-designed, hyper-branded environments.” – 2011 juror, Hannah Tribe

Sneakerology/Streetology, Facet Studio

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By its very nature, the Institutional category tends to be the most eclectic category – and this year was no exception. But it was that most glamorous and sought-after of commissions, the art gallery, that took out top honours. Kerstin Thompson Architects’ Monash University Museum of Art is both a nod to the tradition of the flexible ‘white box’ gallery space, and a counter to it. While the project does feature plenty of white exhibition space, it is far from hermetic, countering these qualities with a robustly treated circulation and services spine, exposing the structure and workings of the gallery to the public eye. It is the tectonic language here that serves as decoration, subtly by masterfully handled.

“The dark spaces play counterpoint to the white box galleries – a clever architectural palette cleaners in the gallery experience.” – 2011 juror, Hannah Tribe.

Monash University Museum of Art, Kerstin Thompson Architects

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In the Multi-Residential category, the jury was searching for designs that developed an innovative address to challenges of economy and repetition – generally the two most important considerations in the developer-driven context of multi-residential housing. In this respect, the jury was unanimous in presenting Neometro the award for Harper Lane. The project was seen to offer a very clear resolution to the challenges presented by multi-residential development, no easy task given the constraints common to the typology. Harper Lane offers a basic but well-considered and, importantly, affordable response, where the building’s architectural elements both frame and form the interior.

Harper Lane, Neometro

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Ian Moore Architects’ Strelein Warehouse most impressed the judges in this category, taking home the Single Residential award for a project that is a masterful example of adaptive reuse. A highly restrained design that exudes tranquility without becoming too sterile, the building has already attracted a swathe of accolades and attention this year, and it is easy to see why.

“Every piece is well judged – you can put nothing in or take anything away. It shows total clarity of thought.” – 2011 juror, Jeff Copolov

Strelein Warehouse, Ian Moore Architects

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This fitout by Anthony Gill Architects is an elegant response to the challenges of repurposing the tight shell of an existing warehouse for hospitality use. Using the sparest of material palettes, Berta deploys subtle transitions in space and level to create atmosphere. Supremely restrained, the intervention is testament to the fact that the creation of welcoming and memorable spaces can be as much about careful planning and the curation of experience as the application of sumptuous finishes and signature furniture.

“The designer has really thought about the psychology of space, and provided a whole range of different experiences in what is a very small scale project.” – 2011 juror, Toby Horrocks.

Berta Restaurant & Bar, Anthony Gill Architects

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Wilson Architects were this year crowned the winners in the Commercial under 1000sqm category for their own studio/office in Brisbane. An extraordinary transformation of two neighbouring residences into an office, it impressed the jury with how delicately the merging and retention of these two buildings has been handled. While preserving the history of the buildings, Wilson Architects has turned this highly complex collection of interior volumes into a coherent, and very beautiful, whole.

“This project is as much about interior design as it is interior architecture – it’s obviously all about the use of materiality, honesty, integrity and clarity within a design, as well as really clever space planning.” – 2011 juror, Jeff Copolov

Wilson Architects’ Office, Wilson Architects

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BVN dominated the Major Commercial category this year, taking out both the top honours and a commendation, perhaps unsurprisingly given its widely acknowledged mastery of workplace design. It was the AECOM project in Brisbane that took home the top prize – drawing praise for its coherence and the elegant means by which natural finishes were handled in a commercial context.

“BVN has created a unified tenancy for AECOM which has fostered a culture that is dynamic, collaborative and sustainable.” – 2011 juror, Sue Carr

AECOM Brisbane, BVN Architecture

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“Anthony Gill is both a great space maker and that rare breed – an architect devoid of ego. Having launched his practice in 2007, Gill now works with his partner Sarah McSpadden and two employees on a range of hospitality and residential architecture projects. He credits his interior prowess to three years spent working at Tim Allison Associates, an experience that emphasised spatial organisation and the joy to be found in joinery design. Gill cites the Sydney firm, Meacham Nockles McQualter, as an inspiration in the world of interiors, so much so that he’s currently living in one of its designs.

“Throughout Gill’s work, spatial organisation serves as a core principle in his design process. There is nothing radical about his careful reading of site and program, but rarely does this remain the driving force of a design… [In Berta] spaces are delineated through subtle changes in light and ceiling heights, shifting textures of concrete and timber, all combining to create a complex spatial argument that is inviting for various drinkers and diners.” 2011 Juror, Sam Spurr.

Anthony Gill Architects

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The winner of this year’s Designer of the Year award is Melbourne-based practice, Edwards Moore – established by architects Ben Edwards and Juliet Moore. Young, immensely talented and with a reputation for producing clever, low-cost installation, retail and hospitality work, this practice has been prolific in the few short years since its inception. Juliet Moore says: “From the start, we’ve had a very strong mission statement about where we wanted to go with the practice. We wanted to be a design-based practice that became known for creative solutions and a different way of thinking.”

Edwards Moore

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The IDEA Gold Medal was inaugurated in 2010 not only as a means to celebrate the most current work, but also to pay tribute to the accomplishments of those practitioners who have made a sustained and enduring contribution to Australian design culture over the course of a career. It is hard to think of a designer more amply qualified in this regard than Janne Faulkner. Faulkner established her practice Nexus Designs in 1967, and since then has gone on to mentor and nurture several generations of Australian design professionals.

From telephones to tissue paper, and domestic kitchens to corporate offices, there are very few designers who have had as wide ranging an influence on the Australian living environment as Janne Faulkner. She was responsible for the interior design policy for David Yencken’s company, Merchant Builders, in the 1960s – and was influential in establishing a uniquely Australian style. Through Nexus Designs, Faulkner’s work covers residential and commercial design, with clients including the State Savings Bank of Victoria, Country Road and the Yulara Resort – with Cox Architects – in the Northern Territory.

Visit Australian Design Review for more on IDEA 2011 Gold Medalist, Janne Faulkner.

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The overall winner is a project that, while a masterful example of adaptive re-use, is anything but gritty. A conversion of a late 19th century warehouse into a two-level residence, this project is a clear demonstration of the positive transformative impact good design can have on our built environments.

Intensely rational, Strelein Warehouse is nevertheless not without its lyrical qualities. Despite the tight site and deep floor plates, it also offers a spatially generous and light-filled interior. conserving precious floor area, a 10-millimetre thick steel plate structure flows through from the entry portals at ground level to the kitchen surround and bookcase – a sculptural black wall that knits the spaces together. The existing structure has been retained, lined and painted white, with all new elements expressed in black. Meanwhile, clerestorey glazing to the steel-clad central volume allows light to percolate into the formerly dark heart of this deep open-planned space. Most importantly, Strelein Warehouse demonstrates how carefully judged design can improve the internal qualities of a difficult, but very common inner-city typology – the long, narrow terrace house.

Strelein Warehouse, Ian Moore Architects

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