The wait to find out which projects have been shortlisted for IDEA 2021 is almost over!

The 2021 shortlist reveal will kick off on Monday 20 September with largest category – Residential Single.

On Tuesday 21 September, we’ll be sharing our Institutional, Public Space, and Event finalists, followed by our Object – Furniture and Lighting contenders on Wednesday 22 September.

On Thursday 23 September, you’ll find out who made the shortlist in the Sustainability, Retail and Workplace categories.

On Friday 24 September, it’ll be the turn of the Colour, Hospitality and International categories.

The following week, Monday 27 September, we’ll reveal the final residential categories – Residential Interior Curation and Residential Multi .

And finally, on Tuesday 28 September, we’ll reveal the, drum roll please, Emerging Designers of the Year, Designers of the Year and the finalists in our newest category – Community Services.

All shortlisted projects will be listed on ADR, each with a link to a dedicated page on the IDEA website where you can find more images and information about each one.

In the next stage of the 2021 IDEA awards, our judges – Jean-Paul Ghougassian, Meryl Hare, David Flack, Chelsea Hing, Domino Risch and Brahman Perera – will come together to select the winners for each categories as well this year’s Gold Medallist.

As one of the country’s first award programs, we see ourselves as more than just an outlet for celebrating and honouring the year’s best architecture and interior design, but also a tool for connecting the community and a platform for promoting studios and practices both big and small, in our capital cities and rural and regional areas. 

A huge part of this is our annual gala.

Our gala is an opportunity for architects and designers to come together to celebrate their peers, to network, catch up, connect, collaborate and just unwind as we head into the summer holidays.

It’s also a really important way for us, as editors and publishers, and for our sponsors, to give back to the industry, say thank you and honour all the shortlisted, highly commended and winning projects in the best way possible.

Last year, we discussed having a digital awards ceremony, but we decided it just wouldn’t be right for us.

We feel the same way this year.

However, in 2021 we have something that we didn’t have access to in 2020 – the COVID-19 vaccine.

It is our sincerest hope that the IDEA gala will go ahead as planned at the end of November. However, we know the opportunity to not only host, but also attend, large scale events depends on vaccination numbers.

We believe only those who are vaccinated will be able to attend the IDEA 2021 gala in November.

With this in mind, if you can vaccinate, get vaccinated. If it is safe for you to do so, don’t wait. Get out there and make that appointment as soon as possible.

We are not issuing this call to action purely so you can join us at the IDEA 2021 gala, but we’re also doing it for all those in the design community who are doing it tough in lockdown.

For all those studios and practices, hospitality venues and small businesses that are struggling to make ends meet.

For all those healthcare, frontline and essential workers who are risking their lives to care for us. And, of course, for all those who cannot get vaccinated because of compromised immune systems or other health problems.

The way out of lockdown is via the vaccine clinic, so we hope you will join us in taking this first step towards a ‘new normal’.

We look forward to raising a glass to the very best in Australian architecture and design with all of you later this year.

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