While we draw 2021 to close and take time to recoup after a challenging past two years, ADR is reflecting back at the year’s best interviews with Australian designers and architects that brought colour, dialogue and innovation to the design industry.

“We don’t want to be just business owners having lunches. We want to design” – Richards Stanisich

The designers behind the IDEA 2020 overall project winner and Residential Single award winner opened up to ADR about their design process, their creative vulnerabilities and their future as one of Australia’s best loved studios.

Kirsten Stanisich and Jonathan Richards are a tour de force of creativity and wit, resulting in a playful yet insightful inside look into their design sensibilities.

Read our full interview with Richards Stanisich.

We’re so passionate about “bringing the soul back” to Perth – State of Kin

State of Kin directors Alessandra French and Ara Salomone love Perth but recognises the “big education gap” when it comes to design choices present in the city.

French and Salamone’s tenacious commitment to Perth’s design industry is infectious, and the tyranny of distance is no excuse to why it can’t be experienced and enjoyed by all.

Read our full interview with State of Kin.

“I think it’s time to experiment” – 2021 DIA Graduate of the Year Isabelle Kleijn

Design Institute of Australia (DIA) Graduate of the Year Isabelle Kleijn is a dynamic young designer ready to tackle and reinvigorate the Australian design industry.

It’s always highly refreshing to chat with emerging designers and the 22-year-old Sydney native was no exception. Kleijn is confident emerging designers like her will be stewards of change and bring new sustainable values to Australian design.

Read our full interview with Isabelle Kleijn.

“Within the current world, politics has become a dirty word”, but it’s not – David Flack

IDEA 2020 Designer of the Year David Flack spoke to ADR how many studios, including his own, don’t feel like it’s their place to express their opinions or share any contributions they might be making to their local community.

Yet to Flack, politics should not be viewed as a tool for conflict but rather for our local communities, “politics is about voicing what’s important within our communities. Politics should not be seen as a team sport that you pick sides on. We must be able to make mistakes and change our opinions.”

Read our full interview with David Flack.

“Indigenous architecture is not a style, but a culturally appropriate process” – Alison Page

All architecture in Australia should be an act of co-creation with Indigenous Australians and Indigenous design principles, says interior designer and Walbanga and Wadi Wadi woman Alison Page.

In her new book, Design: Building on Country, cowritten with Paul Memmott, Page outlines how all buildings, no matter their use, should be an extension of Country.

She spoke to ADR how design and architecture plays a vital and tangible role in the healing process of Australia’s “deep and mature” historical identity.

Architects collectively can lead the conversation on sustainability, says Robert Goodliffe

If Australian architects collectively can get a name for not just creating beautiful objects, but for creating them with a view to sustainability, there will be a greater appreciation of design as being integral to the solutions of the 21st century, according to Robert Goodliffe.

After more than three decades as a partner at ClarkeHopkinsClarke, the Melbourne architect retired earlier this year and reflects upon his desire to advocate – not observe – change in the Australian design industry.

“Great design shouldn’t just be accessible to the one per cent” – Studio Tate’s Carley Nicholls

Great design is often available for the privileged few but why should this be so? When we fail to make design impactful for the broader population then holistically the design industry suffers.

Studio Tate Carley Nicholls and Alex Hopkins say the failure to make good design accessible to the wider community is a “missed opportunity for architects and designers in Australia to enhance people’s lives.”

Read our full interview with Studio Tate.

“Design reflects society” – Ros Moriarty on how Indigenous narrative equals better placemaking

Balarinji managing director Ros Moriarty, with her husband Yanyuwa man John Moriarty, have fostered countless opportunities to give a voice to Australia’s rich Aboriginal narrative.

Balarinji’s co-design methodology with local Aboriginal shareholders is a functional and cultural framework that creates urban places connected to Place and Country.

Read our full interview with Ros Moriarty.

“Unpaid overtime is not part and parcel of being an architect” – Maytree Studios’ Rebecca Caldwell

With the ethos ‘humans first and architects second’, Maytree Studios’ director Rebecca Caldwell is schooling the industry on how to run a transparent and accessible practice, no high horse necessary. 

The Queensland architect makes it clear she will not participate in ‘burnout’ culture of the architecture industry, especially for emerging designers. Instead Caldwell tells ADR how she finally decided to set out on her own and ‘manage up’.

Read our full interview with Rebecca Caldwell.

“I was not interested in adhering to the designer as an agent of consumption model” – Megan Norgate

Melbourne interior designer Megan Norgate was ahead of the game when it came to sustainable design.

As the founding director of BRAVE NEW ECO, Norgate says sustainable interior design was never a strategic business choice but rather an opportunity to find work in the world that responded to her “circle of concern.”

Read our full interview with Megan Norgate.