It’s official! We’ll be announcing the winners for IDEA 2021 in Sydney on 24 February 2022. Buy your tickets now. From the almost 300 projects shortlisted, there can only be one winner across each of our 15 categories, but there are also five special awards. Of those, the most hotly contested has to be the 2021 Designer […]
Architects and designers are increasingly being forced to choose compliance over creativity to the detriment of their craft, says Japan-born, Sydney-based architect Koichi Takada. “The whole world has become compliant,” Takada tells ADR. “We used to have an element in which we, as architects and designers, would challenge and push the boundaries. For me, that […]
Elvin Tan loves to design and loves talking about it even more. Since launching his own multi-disciplinary design studio in 2018, Tan has developed a portfolio rich in hospitality and commercial projects. He also happens to be shortlisted for the IDEA 2021 Emerging Designer of the Year, with two projects also up for the Retail […]
The spread of COVID-19 and subsequent lockdowns exacerbated the inequities already present in Melbourne, according to Heinz von Eckartsberg. Appointed to Woods Bagot to lead urban design in Australia and New Zealand in July 2021, von Eckartsberg says the pandemic exposed weaknesses in how the city was both planned and developed. “I equate it with […]
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. “I can’t go and run a business that’s super profitable and drive my new car, but have my staff still tapping away on $65 grand a year with […]
Designing across Australia and Japan, architect Luke Hayward is an example of transcultural design dexterity. Co-founder of his studio atelier Luke, with his partner interior designer Junko Nakatsuka, Hayward speaks to ADR about his design philosophy and career journey. The past year for Luke Hayward has been a roller coaster of COVID-related innovation and opportunities. […]
The Sydney director at CplusC Architectural Workshop takes us inside his Darlington home, which he describes as a “direct response to the climate emergency facing our country and our planet”. How long have you lived here and what drew you to the property? We’ve been living here now for two years. We purchased the home […]
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. Last month, Kleijn took home the overall Madeline Lester prize at this year’s DIA Graduate of the Year Awards (GOTYA). From 173 nominations and 27 state winners, seven designers were […]
The first monograph on the Japanese-born, Sydney-based architect Koichi Takada is a love letter to organic architecture, humanistic values and holistic design. Form follows nature in the projects that grace its pages – a smattering of the many Takada has completed to date, scattered across Australia, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East. Projects like […]
“In 2021, someone who’s nonverbal still can’t order a coffee independently because design doesn’t facilitate for that,” Ilianna Ginnis tells me recently. The interior architectural designer, disability advocate and PhD candidate at Monash University is researching how designers can interact with nonverbal communicators to make more inclusive processes. She says this form of participatory design […]
Since launching their practice in 2008, Foomann founding directors Jamie Sormann and Jo Foong have approached each project with considered simplicity and warmth to create homes primed for their client’s lifestyle. Created only two years after graduating from Melbourne University, Foong and Sormann explain that their small architecture practice “wasn’t really a planned thing”. “It […]
