The Australian Interior Design Awards recognize excellence in interior design across seven key categories: Retail, Hospitality, Workplace, Public, Installation, Residential Design and Residential Decoration. Entries for the 2013 awards close 1 March – register and enter here.

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Australian Interior Design Awards, we asked three former judges to reflect on what these awards do for the profession.

Jeff Copolov (Bates Smart interior design director): “Interior designers craft from the outside in and the inside out with a deliberate, seamless approach. At the end of the day an interior is about holistic design that must look beautiful to the outside world, but fundamentally it’s a place for the people who occupy it.”

Robert Backhouse (Hassell managing director): “Australian interior designers used to work in Australia on local projects, but technology and globalization has changed that. Today Australian designers work on projects anywhere. The Australian Interior Design Awards has helped elevate the quality of the work we do by sharing and critiquing it as a profession to a world class level.”

Sue Carr (Carr Design Group): “Ten years in design is a balancing act: technology v materiality, transient v timeless, heritage v future, connectivity v sanctuary. The designer’s role is to navigate these opposites to provide cohesion and clarity, and spaces that are engaging at a human and tangible level.”

Ten years of AIDA Public project winners

2012 

The Royal Children’s Hospital
Parkville, Melbourne
Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart

The jury said

This project set a new benchmark in this restrictive building typology … It is a project that will transform the public healthcare sector. The designers have achieved a cohesive design and a softness within a vast interior … The fresh colour palette, joinery detailing and lighting all combine to create inter spaces that have a positive impact on those within.

2011

Puckapunyal Military Area, Memorial Chapel
Puckapunyal, Victoria
BVN Architecture 

The jury said 

The chapel sits humbly within its site. The courtyards are exquisitely integrated, providing tranquil spaces from which to view the surrounding landscape. Although the spaces are interconnected, the three-dimensional form provides intimate scale and places for private contemplation. It displays a sensitivity to nature – both human and environmental – that is appropriate for a multi-denominational chapel.

2010

Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
Melbourne
Woods Bagot

The jury said

An interior that is beautifully integrated with its enclosing architecture. The expansive spaces have been expertly detailed to create interest and texture at human scale within a large, dominating volume. Strong colour gives life to the space, rendered to great effect with a sophisticated lighting design that uses both artificial and natural sources.

2009

Melbourne Grammar School, Nigel Peck Centre for Learning & Leadership
Melbourne
John Wardle Architects

The jury said

A consistent design philosophy is in evidence throughout in the use of simple materials and fine detailing to produce harmonious and vibrant spaces. Students and teachers … are enveloped within a series of beautifully sculptured environments that encourage the play of natural light and shadow.

2008

Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland
St Lucia, Brisbane
John Wardle Architects

The jury said

A project of international standing where the interior resolution is a beautiful extension (or intention) of its architecture … The resulting interior is a confidently designed environment that does not attempt to conceal its laboratory spaces, but celebrates their presence as powerful and energising demonstrative elements by displaying them proudly.

2007

Building G, Chisholm Institute of TAFE
Dandenong, Melbourne
Cox Architects and Planners

The jury said

A bold and confident space that demonstrates unified composition and sculptural form. … The interior reveals an intelligent play of minimal materials interspersed with fine, jewellery-like elements that sit within an otherwise brutal environment.

2006

The Mint
Macquarie St, Sydney
Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp

The jury said

A very sensitive restoration within a contemporary addition. The jury was impressed by the seamless connection between the architecture and the interior and described the result as a stunning restoration with fabulous interior volumes.

Customs House Library
Circular Quay, Sydney
Lacoste + Stevenson

The jury said

A modern intervention within a magnificent framework. The jury admired the warm, playful effect that was created, resulting in a decidedly non-institutional feel. There appears to be no conflict between the architecture and the interior design.

2005

Champions Australian Racing Museum and Hall of Fame
Federation Square, Melbourne
Spowers

The jury said

An excellent example of a collaborative design process incorporating exhibition and interior design. The overall result is far greater than the sum of its parts and demonstrates extension of both disciplines.

2004

Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
Federation Square, Melbourne
Lab architecture studio in association with Bates Smart

The jury said

A dynamic, highly articulated space where the services were cleverly integrated into a holistic solution. The use of recycled materials was impressive and the detailing disciplined and rigorous throughout…