Eat Drink Design Award winners

The 2017 Eat Drink Design Awards were held in Melbourne on Tuesday this week.

And fittingly enough, projects from New South Wales dominated the list of winners celebrating innovation and excellence in the design of hospitality venues.

The winners were:

Best Bar Design

The Dolphin Hotel – George Livissianis

Best Restaurant Design

Viet Next Door – Genesin Studio

Best Cafe Design

Morris and Heath – Ritz and Ghougassian

Best Retail Design

Campos Barangaroo – Woods Bagot

Best Identity Design

Jackalope Hotel – Fabio Ongarato Design

Best Installation Design

Noma Australia – Foolscap Studio

Fratelli Paradiso by Mike Murphy with additions by Mike Hanna and Don Cameron was given a place in the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame award goes to venues deemed to be of enduring cultural and design value.

Significantly, four of these – Campos Barangaroo, Noma Australia, The Dolphin Hotel and Fratelli Paradiso – are in New South Wales.

The judging panel, comprising Ingrid Richards, co-founder of Richards and Spence Architects; Nat Cheshire, director of Cheshire Architects; Vanessa Crichton, general manager of Rockpool Group; Ross Lusted, chef and owner of The Bridge Room; and Cassie Hansen, editor of Artichoke, had to pick selections from a short list of 94 Australian and New Zealand projects with six coming out on top of their respective categories.

The judging panel was impressed.

“What did unite the entries was a sweeping sense of ambition across all categories, albeit one focused on detail at the expense of ‘big moves,’” the jury said.

“Another interesting observation made from the trenches of this year’s judging is that designers, and indeed operators, seem to be designing to and from a base of intrinsic practicality, whether that be the durability of materials and joinery, or the distinct lack of superfluous multi-million-dollar budgets.

“It is as if things have been taken down a notch in one way, and yet intensified in another.

“The projects with the smallest budgets this year showed the most attention to such detail and created the most thoughtful design moments.”

by Leon Gettler, November 15^th 2017

image: Tom Ferguson