House and Garden room of the year – The Interiors Addict

Australia’s 2021 ‘Room of the Year’ doubles as kitchen too

Always anticipated, Australian House & Garden’s 2021 Top 50 Room Awards have just been unveiled revealing some of Australia’s best residential architecture and interiors of the year. An annual event, the award celebrates the breadth and creativity found in the Australian residential interiors scene today.

The prestigious ‘Room of the Year’ award went to Sydney architect Jeremy Bull of Alexander & Co. for his glorious kitchen design that features a monolithic cast-concrete island in pale pink which can double as a colossal dining table.

Jeremy Bull won ‘Room of the Year’ and ‘Best Kitchen’ for this gorgeous, multi-purpose space

The room features compartmentalised work areas that could be mistaken for shelving units in a living room, but form functional cooking zones. The kitchen features a Calacatta Viola splashback as well as American Oak joinery that conceals an integrated fridge and pantry. Unsurprisingly, the project won the ‘Best Kitchen’ award too.

“I am deeply grateful to be able to receive this award on behalf of our team and of course I am also so proud of the work we have done. We intended for this house and all its spaces to inspire both our team and clientele to think beyond the traditional. More so, after another year of lockdowns perhaps even to challenge the conceptions we may have about how our homes can be used at large,” says Jeremy.

This year saw more than 200 rooms submitted across eight categories and Interiors Addict favourite Greg Natale took out the ‘Best Bedroom’ award for his beautiful project that features the stunning Gucci Heron print wallpaper in green.

Other celebrated beauties including a clifftop bathroom, a cohesive indoor/outdoor living space, contemporary living room, luxurious outdoor retreat, lovely yet functional laundry and a glowing living room with surprising use of colour.

Australian House & Garden’s Top 50 Rooms Awards winners include:

Room of the Year: Jeremy Bull, Alexander & Co

Best Kitchen: Jeremy Bull, Alexander & Co

Best Bathroom: Rob Mills, Rob Mills Architecture & Interiors

Best Laundry: Lauren Mahoney, Studio Trio

Best Indoor-Outdoor Connection: Petra Pantano, Studio Petra & Ben Robertson, Tecture

This project won the ‘Best Indoor Outdoor Connection’ award

Best Bedroom: Greg Natale, Greg Natale Design

Best Outdoor Room: Darin Bradbury, Mint Pool and Landscape Design & Mike Cannington, MIL construction.

Best use of soft furnishings: Kate McCluskey, McCluskey Studio & Matt Hainsworth, Cera Stribley

Best use of colour: Brooke Aitken, Brooke Aitken Design

The 'Best use of colour' award went to this beautiful space by Brook Aitken — The ‘Best use of colour’ award went to this beautiful space by Brook Aitken

You can check out all the rooms and the full list of winners in the January issue of Australian House & Garden, on sale today (Monday 20 December).

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Madeleine Blanchfield on doing what you love for yourself

When Madeleine Blanchfield won a competition to design a large home in 2009, she decided to leave the comfort of her job at BKH and go out on her own. With luck and skill on her side, what may have been a big jump into the deep end proved a great success, with Madeleine taking out the Australian Institute of Architects Award for The Gordons Bay House.

“The Gordons Bay House was a perfect storm of builder, client and site. It was well received by everyone and the calmness of the process seemed to show through in the end result. Winning for that house and getting the acknowledgment of industry peers was very special, particularly when other projects in the competition were by more established architects.”

7nG1qWWZ67ovQf4iNO9d8DnSIUWQEcdAz84Q-Vn7D4A — The Gordons Bay House

Five years on, Madeleine Blanchfield Architects now has three full-time staff and a handful of contractors. She prefers to take on less work and instead be very involved in each project. “I like to do all aspects of a project myself, particularly when it is a house. The cohesion of landscape, furniture and space is critical and we have the client to spice up the result each time.”

Ci280dXbhfSSBK0OMdhXm3X6GyQhlRlwPmoBdPzHZPw — The Gordons Bay House – Winner of the House & Garden Room of the Year 2013

Working primarily in residential, with some small commercial fit-out projects in between, Madeleine’s aesthetic is timeless, elegant and pared-back. Rather than her projects making a purely architectural statement, her main focus is working with each individual site and trying to make the best use of the space, its light, outlook and other characteristics.

This design style is very clear throughout her work, especially in her initial project, The Gordons Bay House, with the bathroom winning the House & Garden Room of the Year 2013. “Winning Room of the Year was amazing. The ladies at the magazine saw the room in a builder’s brochure and put it in, so winning was very unexpected!”

_lS_qFStj6eFd2CwzgquSOfggzY02joL6KbVHAdjcmc — The Bronte House

o4vkD3-gYQhsfokS10Whnr5RO8gdD21SUJrTef22YFA — The Bronte House

With several new houses, a couple of renovations, a small office building and some interiors projects on the cards, Madeleine and the team are very busy. But she’s certainly not complaining! “Being a designer is not without its challenges but we should be thankful that we love what we do and we have lots of it. That is the real luxury.”