Celebrating and showcasing the brilliance and ingenuity of Australian design, the 65th rendition of the Australian Good Design Awards saw a number of locally imagined projects and products rightly acclaimed for their contribution to wider society.
Hosted last week at Melbourne Park’s Grand Ballroom, the architectural winner’s list saw a suite of projects rewarded for their commitment to sustainability, community and architectural excellence.
The design superteam of Architecture Architecture, Austin Maynard Architects, Breathe, Clare Cousins Architects Hayball and Kennedy Nolan took home the Architectural Design category for Nightingale Village (pictured top).
The reigning Inde.Awards Best of the Best winner, Nightingale Village comprises 203 homes across six buildings, which sets a new standard for sustainable, community-centred design amidst the housing woes faced by the nation at present.
The Angsila Fishing Village (pictured above), Thailand, designed by Chat Architects alongside The Angsila Fishermen Community and INDA Chulalongkorn University was named Best in Class for Place Design. Devised as scaffolding pavilions, the fishing villages have transformed Angsila’s struggling fishing/seafood via their ingenious design, which draws on and “bastardises” the widely deployed bamboo oyster scaffolding.
Located at the foothills of the Victorian Alps in the heart of Taungurung Country, Lucy Clemeger Architects along with landscape architect Tommy Gordon received the Best in Class award for their efforts in crafting the Delatite Cellar Door (pictured below). Providing a distinct wine tasting and wine experience, sustainable design principles and the hallmarks of the Delatite owners create a truly sensational contemporary setting.
“Every year we are blown away by the calibre and sophistication of design ingenuity among our entrants and Award winners,” says CEO Good Design Australia, Brandon Gien.
This year is no exception with impressive innovations across a broad range of categories including agriculture, environment, technology and product design - all centred around using design to solve meaningful problems.
“This year’s Australian Good Design Award of the Year recipient is the perfect example of ground breaking innovation that will completely change the way an entire industry - farming - detects and manages crop diseases.”
The Good Design Award of the Year recipient Gien speaks of is BioScout (pictured below), a world-first automated agricultural disease detection device. The BioScout system employs patented sensor technology and AI to offer real-time disease monitoring for farmers, transforming their crop management practices. This innovative technology allows for early disease detection weeks before crop damage, operates autonomously for extended periods, and eliminates the issue of over-spraying.
Veena Sahajwalla, Talking Architecture & Design podcast guest and Founding Director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology at UNSW, was named the recipient of the 2023 Women in Design Award, for her work in producing a new generation of green materials, products and resources made entirely, or primarily, from waste.
Reef Design Lab’s Erosion Mitigation Units (EMU) were bestowed the Good Design Award for Sustainability. The artificial reef modules create a barrier for oysters, seagrass, fish, and marine invertebrates habitats against waves and subsequent coastal erosion. Adopted by the City of Greater Geelong, EMU will assist in mitigating coastal erosion worldwide.
SYSTM (pictured below), a joint project between Lifecare Furniture and CLANDESTINE DESIGN GROUP took out the Good Design Award Best in Class - Product Design, Furniture and Lighting. More furniture tool kit than chair, the product is designed to be easily dismantled and user assembled for thorough and hygienic cleaning, aimed to be implemented within aged care facilities nationwide.
For the entire winner’s list, click here.
