This year’s Dulux Colour Awards winners, announced last week in Melbourne, uniquely demonstrate the capacity for colour to transform our built environment through innovative design, ambitious scope and masterful execution.
Chosen from 113 finalists across New Zealand and Australia the winning projects were applauded for their exceptional use of colour across a vast range of scales and typologies.
“Colour is universal but it means different things to different people,” said Dulux Colour Specialist Davina Harper. “This year’s suite of award winners epitomises the capacity for colour to transform spaces and elicit emotion in everybody.
“The level of ambition in each brief and the sophistication in the palettes designed to realise those architectural aims increases every year,” said Davina. “From a tiny apartment to a multi-storey community hub or a modest storage shed to a heritage theatre, the originality and brave employment of colour is outstanding.”
Congratulations go to the New Zealand Grand Prix winner, Shand Shelton, for the St James Theatre restoration in Wellington (Main Image – Photo Credit: Paul McCredie). A celebration of craftsmanship and collaboration, the project was a testament to the power of colour to enrich and enliven.
Dedicated to the production and enjoyment of theatre performance, and taking cues from descriptions of the auditorium in 1912, saw the revitalisation of the century-old building.
Epitomising everything that the Dulux Colour Awards programme stands for is the Australian Grand Prix winner and recipient of the Commercial Interior – Public and Hospitality award, Sibling Architecture with Darebin Intercultural Centre. An immediate stand out for its ambitious brief and contribution to its locale, the colour usage in this project brilliantly realises its aim to welcome a diverse community and to foster inclusive, non-discriminatory human interaction.
“Both Grand Prix winners demonstrated surprising colour combinations and palette choices, with outstanding success,” said the judges.”
One of the standout judges on the panel was Sarah Carney, a project director at CNRL Space and the only female Kiwi judge. With extensive experience on projects such as Dior Macau, the LVMH Head Office in Sydney, and DFS Galleria developments, Sarah’s expertise helped to make tough calls on the winning recipients.
As far as noteworthy directions, sage and blush hues emerged as a strong colourway in a range of projects and there were also numerous outstanding examples of commitment to a single colour, from a demountable bookstore to a basement apartment.
Full results can be found HERE.
