Winners of the 34th Dulux Colour Awards announced

Australia’s most colour-forward design projects have been feted at the annual Dulux Colour Awards, announced on the company’s website today.

Showcasing innovation, ingenuity, and cutting-edge application of colour, over 450 entries were judged by a panel of industry leaders, including Foolscap Studio’s Adele Winteridge and Jean-Pierre Biasol of Biasol Design.

“The high degree of creativity encapsulated in such a vast breadth of architectural genres makes this year’s award winners really stand out,” says Dulux colour and communications manager  Andrea Lucena-Orr. “It goes to the heart of our awards program to recognise such vision.” 

Celebrating their 34th year, the Dulux Colour Awards honour the most outstanding projects over six categories of design and architecture, hailing from Australia and New Zealand.

“Architects and designers are becoming increasingly bold and adept at employing paint as an integral element in the design of both internal and external spaces and this is evident across all the winning projects,” she says. “The level of sophistication, creativity and masterful use of colour continues to rise each year.”

Winning best Residential Project was Perfect Storm in Sydney’s Camperdown.

Created by Killing Matt Woods, Green Anvil Co and Set For Art, the Brutalist-inspired bunker-like apartment features a refined interior of soft tapering curves in a concrete-like finish. Cocooning and hauntingly beautiful, it won accolades from the panel “for its simplicity and singularity” and “minimalism and clean, clutter-free aesthetic”. 

Ruckers Hill House by Studio Bright, a period-home refurbishment in Melbourne, was commended for its exquisite use of colour that reveals traces of the old Edwardian building in its new iteration.

Each bedroom is painted a unique and playful palette, from yellow and powder blue to greens and pinks, designed to reflect its occupant’s taste and personality, as well as differentiate between the old and the new architectural elements.

Leading Brisbane-based practice Vokes & Peters took out best Residential Exterior for Casuarina House, a family home on the NSW coast.

Bold in design, it encompasses sandy brickwork, masonry elements, and capsicum red-painted external timbers that are designed to change colour from day to night. When hit by direct sun, the red shines bright and vibrant, and turns more subdued when shaded, making for a truly innovative and transformative home. 

Pac Studio’s Split House, a heritage Auckland abode, was commended by the panel for “its well-executed play of bold and neutral colour that surprises and delights.” A rich red front door, windows, shading screens and vertical timbers contribute to an eye-catching home with a cutting-edge approach to colour application. 

Hump House by Ying Ho was awarded a commendation in Student Design.  Described by the panel as “strong and serene”, the sustainable home carves its own unique vernacular. 

Finding harmony in nature via rammed-earth walls and bleached finishes, its desert-inspired palette features pops of copper and Marrakesh Red that beautifully echo its surrounding landscape. 

The Social Housing Development Rangiora in New Zealand by Rohan Collett Architects was commended for its well-executed application of colour, and for transforming a building type that is “often ordinary into something extraordinary”. 

Selecting colours and materials that provide each home its own identity ensured “they are not part of a housing mass but rather a community, at a human scale.” 

Full list of winners

STUDENT CATEGORY  (YEARS 1 -6)

Winner

ASCEND, by Louise Mackay, Sydney Design School

Commendations

HUMP HOUSE by Ying Ho Shiu (Hiro), RMIT

QUEEN VICTORIA PAVILION by Michael Ren, University of Melbourne

COMMERCIAL INTERIOR – WORKPLACE & RETAIL

Winner

ARMITAGE JONES by Bergman &Co.

Commendation

ADAM KANE ARCHITECTS OFFICE by Adam Kane Architects

COMMERCIAL INTERIOR – PUBLIC & HOSPITALITY

Winner

ARTS EPICENTRE by Branch Studio Architects

Commendation

DAREBIN ARTS CENTRE by Sibling Architecture

RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR

Winner

PERFECT STORM by Green Anvil Co + Killing Matt Woods + Set For Art

Commendation

RUCKERS HILL HOUSE by Studio Bright

SINGLE RESIDENTIAL EXTERIOR

Winner 

CASUARINA HOUSE by Vokes & Peters

Commendation

SPLIT HOUSE By Pac Studio

COMMERCIAL & MULTI RESIDENTIAL EXTERIOR

Winner

UOM Southbank – End of Trip by Searle x Waldron Architecture

Commendation

Social Housing Development Rangiora by Rohan Collett Architects | New Zealand

GRAND PRIX WINNERS

AUSTRALIA

UOM Southbank – End of Trip by Searle x Waldron Architecture

NEW ZEALAND

Social Housing Development Rangiora By Rohan Collett Architects