Indesign Australia

The moment we have all waited for has finally arrived, the 2026 INDE.Awards shortlist is now unveiled! Our expert jury has deliberated and the top entries in each category have now been decided. With only 12 entries in each project category, this really is a shortlist and congratulations to everyone named below. To be included on the shortlist is an honour and we celebrate your incredible work.

The modern workplace is changing, with workstations becoming increasingly complex. Screens are larger, technology is denser and the boundaries between focused work, collaboration and mobility continue to blur. Yet within many workplaces, the tools intended to support this evolution remain visually intrusive and mechanically over-engineered — objects that occupy space without effectively responding to the human body.

Somewhere in the rush toward efficiency, we lost something beautiful. For generations, the warm glow of incandescent light made timber feel richer, stone feel deeper, and people look like themselves. Then LED arrived — and while the gains were real, light quality became an afterthought. Quietly, the world started to look a little duller. Walk into a beautifully designed home after dark and you can see it: marble reads as grey, timber loses its warmth, artwork falls flat, skin tones turn sallow.

Tags: Brooke Hogan, natural stone, porcelain sheets, Porcelain Tiles, Signorino, terrazzo, Wildcoast Home, Woodcut For design-lover Brooke Hogan, the materials were a natural choice for her stunning new Wildcoast Home. The wish was for a modern home with subtle hints of coastal influences to ensure it felt warm and lived in.

Woven Image has been collaborating with Australian creatives – from Mambo to Dinosaur Designs, Akira Isogawa, and Minnie Pwerle – to transform the brand’s award-winning EchoPanel® into a canvas for large-scale, expressive storytelling since 1990. As Woven Image approaches its 40th anniversary this year, it’s continuing this collaborative journey with a new collection in partnership with Australian artist Ben Goss.

Tags: Adam Goodrum, Alessi and Cappellini, Billo Bold, Billo sofa collection, Design Institute of Australia Hall of Fame, NAU’s Billo collection, Veuve Clicquot, Vogue Living Product Designer of the Year When the original Billo sofa collection, by Adam Goodrum for NAU, was launched at Cult during Melbourne in Design 2024, it was a nod to the elegance and soft, generous forms of vintage Italian sofas.

Tags: acoustic, Autex Acoustics, Emma Hayes, Mirage™, Vicinity Mirage ™, Vicinity Workstation Clamps, workstation In contemporary open plan and agile working spaces, interior architecture needs to shape a balance between the energy of collaboration and the facility for focused concentration. Where mixed-mode working means some team members may have lengthy video meetings or regular calls, ensuring a degree of privacy and minimising disruption for colleagues is also key.

Whether it is a desk, a dining table, a bar, a reception area or a break-out space in an office, seating is fundamental to the quality of a space. We are at our best when our bodies feel comfortable, and our senses are engaged pleasantly. This understanding of the interaction between human, object and function is at the heart of the Zenith Design Studio approach to creating and crafting exemplary furniture.

At Indi Footscray, the conversation around build-to-rent extends beyond apartments. Designed by SJB, the new mixed-use development regenerates a long-vacant railway reserve into a 702-dwelling community that also strengthens the public realm around one of western Melbourne‘s busiest transport interchanges.

“That a building could become anything tangible — be it remarkable or despicable, banal or glorious, revolutionary or preposterous — despite not being built is a testament to the fact that buildings are much more than simply concrete, stone, timber and glass.” Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin’s introduction to ‘Atlas of Never Built Architecture’ sets the book’s tone with this kind of insight.