Everyone wants to stay young, right? It’s no big secret that everyone desires youth – there are entire industries banking on – perpetuating perhaps – the fact of it. But generally speaking, the appeal is in looking young not acting young. However, in the context of the Australasian architecture and interior design community, I’d argue the opposite.
In this midst of a Mid-Century revival-cum-obsession – again, this is particularly pertinent to our Australasian regional focus – it seems even more important to feed the seed of innovation and new ideas. Let’s move beyond nostalgia for the past in order to reinvigorate the future.
But the crux is this: emerging concepts, designs, materials and techniques need not come exclusively from emerging designers. If you take just one thing from this article be it that a youthful curiosity in existing designers can be central to maintaining your influence in the industry.
To pick just one industry example, Cosentino is constantly pushing themselves in new and unknown directions. Two of their most recent ambassadors have in fact been outside the A+D community: a tennis star and a supermodel.
As perfect examples of what this award recognises, they brings us The Prodigy Award at this years’ inaugural INDE.Awrds. To refresh your memory, the nominees are:
Vince Alafaci and Caroline Choker
Lorene Faure and Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui
Read more about them here or here.
The winner will be announced this Friday 30th June at the Awards Gala held at Carriageworks.
Words by Holly Cunneen
Hero image courtesy of Daniel Emma: HOME at the National Gallery of Victoria, 2015.