Polo

When considering the designs for his own family home in the Sydney suburb of Leichhardt, Mathew Mariani (of Studio Haptic) turned to Japanese machiya townhouses for inspiration.

‘Traditionally, machiya houses had a public, working shopfront to the house with a private rear living quarters behind,’ he explains owner-architect. The gable-fronted structure on the existing plot resembled the cross-section of a barn, a silhouette the architects chose to retain while adding horizontal timber slats to the facade. These additions functioned like Japanese kōshi screens, opening the front of the house out onto the street and transforming the front room into a semi-public work space.

A passage garden sits just beyond the timber screens leading to a traditional dark hallway entry, where inhabitants are guided into the open-plan layout by natural light. ‘The heart of the house is the tsubo niwa (courtyard), which is experienced as a double height, open-air garden

Micka Lesinskis has been a carpenter specialising in high-end residential construction for the last ten years, and he’s also a music producer. Now, he can add stonemason and furniture designer to his creative title! But before launching his own furniture business was on the cards, Micka experimented with all the versatile forms concrete could assume. Once he started adding pigment, oxides and decorative stone to his traditional cement mix he was led, inevitably, to terrazzo.

Owing its name to the striking resemblance a rounded slab of pink terrazzo bears to the speckled cross-section of a cured Italian meat, Mortadello Terrazzo is a one-man-show with Micka at the helm (and the help of his partner Karen!).

‘It’s real concrete terrazzo, not resin or reconstituted stone,’ he explains of the difference between his aggregate and its other typical forms. ‘It’s full of natural imperfections.’ It’s these inconsistencies that Micka likes the most

The owners of this mid-century home in Elsternwick loved the original architecture of the home, but were in need of more space and a more contemporary layout to suit their growing family. 

Modular building and design company Modscape were brought on to extend the home with two key criteria in mind: retain the feel of the existing home throughout the interiors, and open up the floor plan. The plan was to renovate the front of the home to form a large master suite, add an upstairs children’s area, and replace the existing living room with an open-plan domain. 

The extension takes the form of a simple open-plan structure, with materials that reference the existing home. Prue Lavery, design manager at Modscape, explains, ‘We wanted to take the heart and soul of the existing home and update it with a collection of high impact and raw finishes that complement the

From bold decadence to understated sophistication, the creativity and innovation of Australian interiors continue to marvel and delight design communities around the world. We are constantly in awe of the projects we see each and every year from local design studios!

The Australian Interior Design Awards rewards these boundary-pushing projects. Alongside outstanding residential projects, the program showcases distinguished designs across private and commercial sectors including projects in hospitality, workplaces, retail and public design. In addition to these diverse, functional spaces, the jury awards accolades for sustainability, design impact and rising stars. It really is the Golden Globes of interior design!

This year’s entries represented a focus on everyday experiences within design, with careful attention paid to functionality and exceptional craftsmanship. On Friday night via live stream (!) the winners were announced… and projects that did away with conventionality and brought boundary-pushing design to the table won big!

YSG (formerly Amber