Meet the 2021 Interior Awards judges: Rufus Knight
Rufus Knight, of interior architecture and design studio Knight Associates, joins the 2021 Interior Awards jury. He is photographed at Commercial Bay.
The interiors of The Mercer Hotel, on the corner of Prince and Mercer in New York City’s Soho district, were designed by the late French interior designer Christian Liaigre.
Joining the jury this year is Rufus Knight of Knight Associates. Rufus was awarded the Designers Institute of New Zealand’s highest achievement for Spatial Design, the Purple Pin, in 2015. His studio curated part of the New Zealand pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale and recently completed work on prestigious Auckland multi-residential project, The International.
What will you be looking forward to while judging the Interior Awards 2021?
(RK): Enduring and considered design responses, refined solutions to complex briefs, design outcomes that respect but challenge convention, celebration of Tikanga Māori and cultural narratives, and sophisticated materiality. I want to see interior design in Aotearoa performing on an international level and equal to that of the most distinguished architectural expressions from this country.
What’s your favourite interior space (one that’s inspired you or your design thinking) from the past decade? It can be either here in New Zealand or overseas.
Rufus Knight (RK): Not quite of the last decade, however, The Mercer Hotel in New York, with interiors designed by the late Christian Liaigre, is perhaps the most important and inspirational interior space I have ever had the privilege to visit. From a design perspective, it is a gesamtkunstwerk, a total work, comprising of Liaigre’s signature exquisite French-influenced furnishings at counterpoint with the robustness of industrial downtown SoHo. The seamless interplay between commercial vigour and residential deftness never ceases to amaze me.
If you could design an interior project for anyone, who would it be and why?
(RK): I would like to design a rehabilitation clinic for those suffering from psychiatric conditions and people with learning disabilities. My mother was a leading educator for young people with special needs and I would like to contribute to this field but introduce the Seven Lamps of Architecture and contemporary, design-led thinking to bolster resilience and improve wellbeing and quality of life.
Click here to submit your projects to the 2021 Interior Awards before 28 April.
