The 2015 Australian Interior Design Awards were announced on Friday 15 May at the Grand Ballroom, Sofitel on Collins in Melbourne 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 twelve years.

This year, Melbourne retail store Dust by Sibling received the Premier Award for Australian Interior Design as well as the Retail Design Award and Emerging Interior Design Practice Award. The jury praised the project for its experimental nature, commenting: “Dust is a complex and experimental retail project that sets a precedent for concept development and is evidence of concept integrity from online experience to physical experience. The designers have created a space that celebrates the experimental journey, taking the user beyond a typical retail encounter into an immersive, sensory engagement.”

For the first time, this year the Australian Interior Design Awards gave an award for the impact of good design. Recognizing the business, social, human resource, environmental and/or cultural outcomes of interior design, the inaugural Award for Interior Design Impact went to BVN for the Mabel Fidler Building at Ravenswood School for Girls in Sydney. “This project demonstrates the considerable value added … when the client and the design team have the courage to question traditional ways of designing and delivering projects, and when they devise new ways of working together, with time to test and experiment,” the jury said.

On this year’s jury were: Hamish Guthrie, Hecker Guthrie (Vic); Sarah-Jane Pyke, Arent&Pyke (NSW); Dan Cox, Carr Design (Vic); Genevieve Lilley, Genevieve Lilley Architects (Tas), Geraldine Maher, Jackson Architecture (Vic); Hamilton Wilson, Wilson Architects (Qld); Brenton Smith, Bates Smart (NSW); and Robyn Lindsey, Geyer (Vic). The jury is supported by John Gertsakis, Infoactiv Group (Vic), as Sustainability Advisor and the Design Institute of Australia jury convenor, Joanne Cys, Associate Professor in Interior Architecture, University of SA.

The winners of the 2015 Australian Interior Design Awards are:

Premier Award for Australian Interior Design
Sibling for Dust

Award for Interior Design Impact
BVN for Ravenswood School for Girls

Sustainability Advancement Award
Bates Smart for TransGrid Sydney Office
Carr Design Group for Australia Post - StarTrack House

Retail Design
Sibling for Dust

Hospitality Design
George Livissianis for Cho Cho San

Public Design
John Wardle Architects and NADAAA in collaboration for the University of Melbourne - Melbourne School of Design

Workplace Design
SJB Interiors for Kennards Self Storage

Installation Design
Museum Victoria Design Studio for Empty Coolamons: In Memoriam to the Stolen Generation

Residential Decoration
Whiting Architects for Kerferd

Residential Design
Smart Design Studio for Jersey Road

Emerging Interior Design Practice
Sibling

Best of State
Commercial Design and Residential Design

Commendations
See the commended projects here.

The Australian Interior Design Awards is presented by the Design Institute of Australia, Diversified Communications Australia and Artichoke magazine, with the generous help of corporate supporters: Forbo Flooring Systems, Dulux, Business Interiors by Staples, Laminex, Smeg, Space, Bespoke and ISIS.

For full coverage see the Australian Interior Design Awards website and Artichoke magazine issue 51.