Visiting Sydney for the Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award, Dutch designer Maarten Baas (pictured) has a nothing but praise for our designs and designers.

The recently named Designer of the Year at Design Miami 09, Baas grew to fame within the design community for his two leading design works, Smoke and Clay.

“I like the top ten nominees, their designs and them personally, but also the work was very professional - I was really impressed by how well it was executed and thought through,” Baas said.

As it's his first visit to Sydney, Baas took some time to visit the Sydney Opera House and Museum of Contemporary Art.

"I went to the Opera House; it was really interesting to see it from the inside - learn its history. I was really impressed and I'm not easily impressed by architecture. Normally I think a lot of architecture is just very expensive without too much reason - its just decedent."

He added: “The design was built in the 1950s and if you were to come up with a design like that now days - it would still be a very contemporary building, so that’s a great achievement.”

Baas, who studied at Design Academy Eindhoven, said he was also impressed by the finish on the roof of the Opera House.

"The roof of the building is finished with a particular type of tile - that looks like a fish. It's very smart the way it reflects in the sun - it's just a structure of white and beige tiles. But from a distance it looks metallic - but it's much simpler than it looks. I like that kind of creative way of using materials and possibilities — rather than just using more expensive tiles."

With his original series, Smoke, later reproduced by Marcel Wanders’s international design company MOOOI, since 2005 Baas has been collaborating with Bas den Herder, who is now responsible for the production of all of Maarten Baas's works.

His newest collection, Sculpt, was launched in 2007 at the Salone del Mobile Milan (Design Expo), and consists of oversized chairs, cupboards, tables and chests-of-drawers. Each piece begins as a rough, hand-carved miniature model, which Baas scales to life-size deliberately producing well-finished furniture, and each new work comes in a limited edition of eight.

"I'm very glad to see that there is a growing amount of limited design," said Baas.

"So instead of designing a production piece, which is made to be as cheap as possible for as many people, I like the fact that there are more limited designs, where you can really put a lot more energy into one piece, and know there is a market of collectors and other people who will appreciate that piece being made, with a lot of work hours."