Interior Architecture

Projects in this category must be interior spaces and environments within a new building or the refurbishment of an existing building.

Jury chair report

2023 was a big year for the interior architecture category with 38 submissions presented over two days, leaving all other juries in their wake. Interior architecture is an interesting jury to sit on as it covers a very wide array of projects. Every building has an interior and as such is eligible – universities, schools, science labs, residences, galleries, wineries, law courts… did l miss anyone?

We are the smorgasbord category.

The jury took a generous approach, leaning towards embracing the opportunity to visit projects as it’s the act of seeing a building in the flesh that makes the architectural awards so relevant. In total twelve projects were visited, which saw us criss-crossing Melbourne and driving for hours into the Victorian countryside. On these journeys interesting discussions were held.

Subjects ranged from the architect’s approach, the resolution, nuances, failings and successes, relationships between architect, builder, client, supplier, and trades were thrown around as we headed to the next town and project.

What is interior architecture as opposed to interior design or interior decoration? What is it we are looking for, looking at, taking, or not taking into consideration? Should the exterior be an influence on an interior jury? Well then, you’ll have to put your hand up for next year’s awards, get on to a jury and wait until you are driving around the countryside with a group of your peers.

Ultimately, we had the privilege of visiting projects that had been beautifully conceived, considered and detailed.

Category sponsor

Colours available in Australia through

The inspired colours in this swatch were sourced from the Natural Colour System (NCS). Access to this colour range is available in Australia through Taubmans.

Taubmans does not claim that the colours or paints used in this award-winning project were produced by Taubmans.

The Marion Mahony Award for Interior Architecture

Three Springs Architectural Interiors by KGA Architecture

Bunurong Country

Great projects step up to the mark. This project steps up, over and keeps marching. A breadth of detail is constant while reimagining itself at every turn. A variation on a theme, à la Bach’s Goldberg variation. Everything returns, reassembles and splinters back to a central theme within all its splendour, all its audacity, a clear and coherent language is maintained.

What appears at first as distinctly voracious space is quickly followed by the underlying awareness that each space is responding to and communicating with the next. A hidden storyline communicated through vein of stone, repletion of tile, detail, the play of light and shadow, colour and form. This is not a piece of architecture that wraps its intentions into its interior, this is interior architecture that leaches out to engulf the exterior.

Time nor taste shall weary it. It is not fashionable now, nor will it be in fifty years. The sheer devotion to this project, by this architect, transcends all of this. In a hundred years, it will still ring as true as it does right now. It is the work of a single practitioner drawing upon a wealth of collected thoughts and responses to form and space. It talks of place, of making, and of the joy of this rich tapestry of life and celebration worthy of the named award.

Practice team: Kristin Green (Project Architect), Kristin Green (Design Architect), Roxanne Esagunde (Architect Assistant), Tony Green (Senior Consultant), Louis Nuccitelli (Graduate of Architecture), Amy Evans (Graduate of Architecture)

Consultant / Construction team: Quatrefoil Consulting Pty Ltd (Structural and Civil Engineer), Connor Pincus Group (Services and Mechanical Engineer), BDC Building Design Compliance Pty Ltd (Building Surveyor), Bluebottle (Lighting Consultant), Kinetic Sets (Metal Consultant)

Builder: Frank Victoria Pty Ltd

Photographer: John Gollings

Award for Interior Architecture

Bass Coast Farmhouse by Wardle Bunurong Country

Bass Coast Farmhouse is an example of contemporary Australian architecture that deftly balances innovative design with poetic craftsmanship. As you enter, the ground plane deconstructs and moulds to contours of the shifting land, dissolving interior and exterior thresholds. This is referenced internally through a change in material underfoot, continually linking the occupant to their surrounding context.

Characterised by a sequence of repetitive elements, the interior takes on a monastic quality – dark timbers are paired with a series of low-hanging wall lights which infuse the space with an unhurried characteristic; views of the sweeping coastal landscape are carefully framed, while shuttered windows overlooking the central courtyard invite a sense of introspection.

The ingenuity of these windows lies in their operation – each shutter is operated by turning a handheld wheel some 80 cycles, harnessing the kinetic energy of the user to generate electricity in order to open and close, marrying the agricultural with the innovative.

It is a deliberate shift from the automated to the sensory – serving as a reminder to slow down, and take it in. This, along with a restricted use of detailing to cohesive elements, evokes simplicity inherent to the farmhouse.

Practice team: John Wardle (Design Architect), Diego Bekinschtein (Project Architect), Megan Fraser (Project Architect), Andrew Wong (Design Architect), Luca Vezzosi (Project Architect), Adrian Bonaventura (Graduate of Architecture), Maya Borjesson (Project Architect), Chloë Lanser (Project Architect)

Consultant / Construction team: OPS Engineers (Structural Engineer), OPS Engineers (Civil Consultant), Griepink & Ward Air Conditioning (Building Services), Nissl Eichert Heating (Building Services), Burra Electrical (Electrical Consultant), Greensphere (ESD Consultant), Ark Angel Pty Ltd. (Geotechnical and Bushfire Consultant), SWA (Building Surveyor), Prowse Quantity Surveyors (Quality Surveyor), Jo Henry Landscape Design

Award for Interior Architecture

(Landscape Consultant), The Sustainable Landscape Company (Landscape Contractor), Beveridge Williams (Land surveyor)

Builder: Overend Construction

Photographer: Trevor Mein

Science Gallery Melbourne by Smart Design Studio

Wurundjeri Country

Science Gallery by Smart Design Studio provides an integrated and dynamic solution to the exhibition and gallery design typology. Impeccably detailed and exceptionally adaptable, the interior merge function and form seamlessly allowing for the re-use of custom designed exhibition panels and recycling of used exhibition materials. A unique galvanised steel-clad access floor anchors the project, surrounded by a gridded exhibition system echoing the descriptions found in fluid dynamics.

Human-centric elements emerge within this interior, explored in the simplest of detail from a handrail stanchion or a subtle shift in texture. The rooms or spaces merge from one to the next with storage elements embedded throughout being both functional and sculptural. It is a gallery that delights upon visitation and skilfully showcases an eclectic series of events and exhibitions in constant evolution.

As an interior, it extends an invitation to come back and explore some more. Joyful, colourful and effortless in its execution yet complex and precise in its operation, the Science Gallery achieves what the gallery aims to showcase, an exploration in the collision of science, art and innovation.

Practice team: William Smart (Creative Director), Nicole Leuning (Project Architect), Inacio Cardona (Designer), Clayton Doueihi (Graduate of Architecture), Donatus Gurnito (Architect), Natalie Hardbattle (Designer), Angus Hardwick (Designer), Jason Haworth (Designer), Maggie Lum (Designer), Jarrod Van Veen (Graduate of Architecture), Alena Smith (Interior Designer), Aaron (Interior Designer), Q Tran (CGI Artist)

Consultant / Construction team: Aecom (Acoustic Consultant), Morris Goding (Access Consultant), Arup (AV Consultant), Steve Watson & Partners (Building Surveyor), Arup (Electrical Consultant), Arup (Fire Engineer), Arup (Hydraulic Consultant), Steensen Varmiong (Lighting Consultant), Arup (Engineer), Root Partnership (Project Manager), WT Partnership (Quality Surveyor), Woods Bagot Melbourne Connect (Base Building Architect), Arup (Structural Engineer), Arup (Services Consultant)

Builder: Lend Lease Build

Photographer: Trevor Mein

Hermon by WOWOWA Architecture

Commendation for Interior Architecture

Somers House by Kennedy Nolan

Country: Wurundjeri

WOWOWA Architecture’s Hermon presents a nuanced play of colour, texture, and materiality, creating a soft extension to the back of a generous Federation house. Gently blurring the lines between old and new, even small and subtle insertions of joinery into the existing rooms play an important role in providing an elegant occupation of the spaces. Soft light dances, bounces even. The interior is also drawn outside through a series of small pavilions that compliment and blur the lines between interior and exterior.

Builder: Basis Builders

Photographer: Martina Gemmola

The Mental Health Beds Expansion Program at McKellar Centre by NTC Architects with BG Architecture

Country: Bunurong

This home embraces ideas of ageing in place and universal accessibility. To do so requires design rigour, the architects clear in their exploration of spatial zoning and flexibility while creating a colourful and textural home for an evolving family. The house feels like a warm embrace as you enter through a central bridge, with the interiors complementing the rich tonal landscape beyond. Finishes are intended to age and wear as the family itself grows, ages and evolves.

Builder: Bartlett Architectural Construction

Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Country: Wadawurrung

Responding to the Royal Commission into the mental healthcare system, this project not only addresses the physical constraints of such a demanding building type, but whole heartedly embraces its greater intent, providing a place that cares, nurtures and protects. With the resultant building wrapping around a series of landscaped and accessible courtyards, warm, textural, light-filled, understandable in its layout while robust and protective in its built form. It is domestic in scale and feel as opposed to institutional.

Builder: Lendlease

Photographer: Dianna Snape