National Gallery of Victoria has revealed a major presentation that celebrates contemporary Australian interior design, featuring ten bespoke, purpose-built rooms by ten shortlisted Australian interior designers and decorators.

For the Rigg Design Prize exhibition, each studio has been invited to design a purpose-built interior that responds to the 2018 theme of ‘Domestic Living’. NGV has asked each design studio to produce an interior that demonstrates how designers create interiors as forms of communication embedded with values, ideas and stories that directly engage with the cultural, historical, material and technological aspects of society.

The ten participating designers and practices are: Amber Road (NSW), Arent & Pyke (NSW), Danielle Brustman (VIC), Flack Studio (VIC), David Hicks (VIC), Hecker Guthrie (VIC), Martyn Thompson Studio (VIC), Richards Stanisich (NSW), Scott Weston Architecture Design (NSW) and The Society Inc by Sibella Court (NSW).

Melbourne design practice Hecker Guthrie has been awarded the prestigious Rigg Design Prize for 2018, the highest accolade for Australian contemporary design. Lead designers Paul Hecker and Hamish Guthrie created an interior ‘The table is the base’, which celebrates the table as a modest yet powerful object, often pulling and binding people together as they gather around it. Huge congratulations to Hecker Guthrie on their deserving win, and also to all participating Australian designers on a seriously stellar effort.

Before we take a closer look at each of the installations below, I couldn’t resist sharing a quote from Kirsten Stanisich, co-director of the newly launched Sydney-based studio Richards Stanisich, who says – “The Rigg Design Prize is an incredible platform that represents the diversity of Australian interior designers, and helps the general public to understand just how much interior design can affect the way we feel in a space.” Word.

Go Australian Interior Design – GO!

The Rigg Design Prize 2018 exhibition is open until 24 February 2019 at Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square. Entry is FREE.