Imagery: Studio Gram by Timothy Kaye
An Adelaide design studio has stepped into the spotlight at the 2025 Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) in Sydney, taking home the prestigious title of Designer of the Year. In its 23rd year, the country’s leading independent design awards program brought together the spaces shaping how Australians live, while also celebrating the studios pushing the boundaries of contemporary design.
This year’s awards featured a mix of new and established talent, with Brisbane studio J.AR Office leading the winners. Just three years since its founding, the business took home Overall Project of the Year for its subterranean restaurant Central, which also won the Hospitality category. J.AR Office capped off its breakout night by being named Emerging Designer of the Year.
Most excitingly, South Australia’s own Studio Gram was named Designer of the Year. Known for crafting some of Adelaide’s most memorable hospitality spaces, the studio impressed the IDEA jury with a body of work that spans restaurants, workplaces and institutional design. This year, Studio Gram was highly commended in Hospitality for Coopers Brand Home, won the Institutional category for Pembroke Middle School’s John Moody Centre and took out Workplace Under 1000sqm with its own character-filled Brompton studio.
“Offering a refreshing blend of studious exploration and relaxed application, Studio Gram makes disciplined design seem not only effortless, but intriguing and always engaging, across multiple typologies and scales,” said judge Conrad Lowry. “Combined with playful yet disciplined form and materiality, the body of work produced in only a decade is both humble in approach and sophisticated in resolution.”
Studio Gram was founded in 2014 by directors Dave Bickmore and Graham Charbonneau and quickly gained acclaim as an architecture and interior design practice.
Another major accolade went to Melbourne designer Miriam Fanning, this year’s IDEA Gold Medal recipient. Celebrated for her long-standing contribution to Australian design through her studio Mim Design, Miriam was recognised both for her body of work and role as a mentor and industry leader. The judges praised her ability to produce interiors that are refined and original, helping set the benchmark for excellence across the country.
The 2025 IDEA trophies themselves were a design statement, created by Axolotl and imagined by last year’s Designer of the Year, Bates Smart. Modelled on a glass brick, each trophy symbolised the weight and clarity of great design.
With more than 20 categories celebrating everything from workplace innovation to outdoor environments, IDEA 2025 showcased the diversity of Australia’s design culture. From boundary-pushing newcomers to industry icons, this year’s winners reflect a nation of designers shaping spaces with creativity and a clear vision for the future.
See the Winners:
Object Furniture & Lighting – Rising Basalt Shelf, Dalton Stewart
WINNER: Arc Dual Light, Lacy Nguyen
Institutional
WINNER: Pembroke Middle School John Moody Centre, Studio Gram
Project 1 – Lifestyle Communities Riverfield, DKO
Project 2 – Auburn High School Senior Centre, Wowowa
Event
WINNER: Home Truth, Breathe Architecture
Project 1 – Cultivated x Mark Tuckey Circular Retail Space, Foolscap Studio
Project 2– French Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, NGV
Outdoor Design
WINNER: Clubhouse, NTF Architecture with Nathan Bukett Landscape Architecture
Workplace Over 1000sqm
WINNER: Northern Memorial Park Depot, Searle x Waldron Architecture
Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Hassell
Workplace Under 1000sqm
WINNER: Studio Gram, Studio Gram
Ark Capital HQ, Cera Stribley
Colour
WINNER: Bar Julius, SJB
Project 1 – The EVE Hotel Sydney, SJB
Project 2 – Tombo Den, DKO
Sustainability
WINNER: Recycled Paper Lantern for Readings, Edward Linacre
Project 1 – Cultivated x
Mark Tuckey Circular Retail Space, Foolscap Studio
Project 2 – TERRAIN, Terrain
Object Furniture & Lighting – Professional
WINNER: Relic, Ross Gardam
Me and You collection, Volker Haug Studio with Flack Studio
Retail
WINNER: July Chadstone, In Addition
Sarah & Sebastian Armadale, Richard Stanisich
Residential Interior
WINNER: Curation Gruyere Farm, Simone Haag House of Sand, Esoteriko
Residential Multi
WINNER: Como Terraces, Carr
Newburgh Light House, Splinter Society
Public Space
WINNER: Boot Factory and Mill Hill Centre Precinct, Archer Office
Residential Single
WINNER: Gruyere Farm, Studio Manifold
Project 1 – Anglesea House, Eckersley Architects
Project 2 – Rosherville House, Kennedy Nolan
Project 3 – The Treehouse, Lorne, Keep Studio
Hospitality
WINNER: Central, J.AR Office
Project 1 – Bar Julius, SJB
Project 2 – Billy’s, Ayrburn, Alexander &CO. with SA Studio and Claire Delmar
Project 3 – Coopers Brand Home, Studio Gram
Mark Robinson Community Award
WINNER: Parramatta Bike Hub, Scale Architecture
Emerging Designer
WINNER: J.AR Office
Designer of the Year
WINNER: Studio Gthe country’s leading independent design awards programram
Enduring
WINNER: The Commons, Breathe Architecture
Seal Rock Estate, Mim Design
Overall Project of the Year
WINNER: Central, J.AR Office
Gold Medal
WINNER: Miriam Fanning
For more information, click here.
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