The winners of this year’s Australian Interior Design Awards were announced last night at a gala awards presentation. The awards were attended by established practitioners and the rising stars of Australia’s interior design industry and took place at Doltone House, Jones Bay Wharf, Sydney.

Among the winners were a children’s hospital, a Japanese food truck in Melbourne and a food emporium in Canada.

The ninth annual Australian Interior Design Awards were co-presented by the Design Institute of Australia, designEX and Artichoke magazine, and the winners of this year’s fifteen awards categories represented the diversity and skill of Australian interior design practice - from practices large and small, working with a variety of briefs and budgets.

This year’s Premier Award for Interior Design Excellence and Innovation was presented to Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart for The Royal Children’s Hospital, an innovative project that explored the concept of therapeutic benefits of natural healing processes. In recognising the project, the jury commented, “will extend the experience of the power of interiors into the public realm further than any other project this year.”

This year’s Sustainability Advancement Award was presented to Elenberg Fraser for Vue de monde in Melbourne integrated a range of sustainable features to deal with energy, water, materiality and products.

The jury was impressed with how the project by the strategies employed to deal with food waste and the use of locally produced furniture and commented, “The project redefines sustainable interior design.”

This year’s awards saw a thirty per cent increase in entries when compared when last year suggesting that the local design industry is truly thriving provides a unique insight into the ability and quality output of Australian designers, said event manager Jacinta Reedy. “The work this year had the judging panel continually commenting on how, across the board, Australian designers are now influencing trends and standards globally.”

The winning projects in the 2012 Australian Interior Design Awards are:

Premier Award for Interior Design Excellence and Innovation             
Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart for The Royal Children’s Hospital, Vic

Sustainability Advancement Award
Elenberg Fraser for Vue de monde, Vic

Hospitality Design Award
Elenberg Fraser for Vue de monde, Vic

Installation Design Award
HASSELL for Chasing Kitsune, Vic

Public Interior Design Award
Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart for The Royal Children’s Hospital, Vic

Residential Design Award
Anthony Gill Architects for Potts Point Apartment, NSW
Smart Design Studio for Tusculum St, NSW  

Residential Decoration Award
Atticus & Milo for Huntingtower, Vic  

Retail Design Award
Landini Associates for Loblaws Maple Leaf Gardens, Canada  

Colour in Residential Design Award
Smart Design Studio for Tusculum Street, NSW  

Colour in Commercial Design Award
Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart for The Royal Children’s Hospital, Vic  

Emerging Interior Design Practice Award
Anthony Gill Architects, NSW

Detailed information on the winning projects is available from the Australian Interior Design Awards website.