The est Best | Australian Designers

The Best of est 2020 series recognises 10 leading architects and designers spanning continent, approach and aesthetic in both Australia and around the globe. Criteria selection is based on design, editorial engagement, insights and analytics.

Proudly supported by Rogerseller WORDS Lidia Boniwell

See our Top 10 Australian designers feature on estliving.com

JOLSON

Stephen Jolson

STUDIO BRIGHT

Mel Bright

YSG STUDIO

Yasmine Saleh Ghoniem

MIM DESIGN

Miriam Fanning

EDITION OFFICE

Aaron Roberts & Kim Bridgland

TEMPLETON ARCHITECTURE

Emma Templeton

KENNEDY NOLAN

Patrick Kennedy & Rachel Nolan

TRIBE STUDIO

Hannah Tribe

LEETON POINTON ARCHITECTS + INTERIORS

Leeton Pointon

POLLY HARBISON DESIGN

Polly Harbison

Templeton Architecture

Director Emma Templeton

Project Sussex House | Design Templeton Architecture

Photography Rory Gardiner

Melbourne architect Emma Templeton brings timeless restraint, a sensitive understanding of place and deep respect for history to her residential projects. As in her own East Melbourne home, Emma sees the importance of solving the puzzle a small footprint presents. “We seek to quietly remove unnecessary detail allowing the focus to be on the essential form and the feeling it evokes,” she says. Most recently, the architect took this vision to the Sussex House, exploring a home’s heritage in a considerate, contemporary context.

Art and design are more relevant than ever. We have become more aware of our intellectual and emotional requirements and have relied on art, music and performance (albeit not live) to provide us with joy and purpose.

- Emma Templeton

Leeton Pointon Architects + Interiors

Director Michael Leeton

Project Twig House | Architecture Leeton Pointon | Interior Design Allison Pye Interiors

Photography Lisa Cohen

Melbourne architect Michael Leeton has earned international recognition for his projects’ poetic forms and fluid curves, most notably with both Twig House and Canopy House. Laser-focused on exceptional residential architecture, Michael sees design in 2021 as the ability to “imagine and create better ways to live, work and play”, offering the opportunity to reimagine and initiate new ways of thinking.

2020 forced us to change our ways. Hopefully, as we emerge out of this we will be able to create a new framework one where we can design a new type of world. In a way, it’s like being given a second chance: an opportunity to pause, reevaluate and reimagine. I take it as a gift.

- Michael Leeton

Mim Design

Principal Miriam Fanning

Project Seal Rock | Design Mim Design

Photography Peter Clarke

Melbourne designer Miriam Fanning has set a precedent for sophisticated modern Australian interiors. Celebrating 21 years of her namesake design practice Mim Design, Miriam defines her approach as being ‘driven by curiosity’ revealed through a diverse portfolio of high-end residential, retail, hospitality, corporate and five-star hotels. For Miriam, design is about “purposeful decision making, responding to the needs of clients and designing with form, function and reason”.

We see design as an opportunity to explore uncharted territories. Our approach is driven by curiosity, with an element of risk-taking ensuring we remain creatively inspired and progressive.

- Miriam Fanning

YSG Studio

Principal Yasmine Ghoniem

Project Budge Over Dover | Design YSG Studio

Photography Prue Ruscoe

Yasmine Ghoniem’s recently formed solo studio YSG took out almost every Australian design award in 2020 with their Budge Over Dover project. Formerly one half of Amber Road, the Sydneybased designer credits a career in music and growing up in the desert as formative in shaping her courageous and unconventional approach to hospitality and residential design. This year, Yasmine is set to launch a bespoke furniture range.

Design in 2021 means exercising patience, faith and stillness - qualities I’ve really had to practice cultivating this year.

- Yasmine Ghoniem

Polly Harbison Design

Director Polly Harbison

Project Lindfield | Architecture Polly Harbison Design | Interior Design Arent & Pyke

Photography Brett Boardman and Anson Smart

Sydney architect Polly Harbison concerns herself with sustainable residential design and its inherent connection to landscape. Demonstrated in Polly’s most recent residential projects Castlecrag and Lindfield, she considers the “physical experience of a space” where “careful consideration during design of the daily ritual of life, can really bring joy”. The architect sees the past year as a lesson in the “importance of design creating nuanced delight where we live”.

Our studio has always embraced tactile materials and focused on the physical experience of spaces. In the past year we have intensified our understanding of just how vital this emphasis on liveability and experiential qualities is.

- Polly Harbison