Award of Merit:
Bates Smart for Embassy of Australia, Washington D.C.
Bates Smart is a multidisciplinary design firm delivering interior design, architecture, urban design and strategic services across Australia.
With a team of over 300 professionals across our Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane studios, we bring projects and ideas to life through a rigorous, astute and highly collaborative design approach.
Our approach is not simply about making big gestures. We nurture and develop every size of project and all its elements, until the details complement and enhance the whole. Our teams embrace the challenge of each project, questioning assumptions and testing solutions until we find bespoke optimal outcome.
About the Project
The design for the Embassy of Australia in Washington was inspired by Australia’s iconic landscape and embodies the essence of our vast continent. The building’s transparency manifests the inherent Australian values of welcomeness and trust, while the interior’s expansive atmosphere is representative of the vastness of the Australian landscape.
The Embassy is wholly represented by Australian design ranging from architecture, interiors, furniture, art, textiles and lighting.
The design process was challenging and heavily regulated DC planning authorities, budgetary constraints from fluctuating exchange rates, COVID restricting travel, but ultimately aided by a close relationship with DFAT and their experienced project team.
Category: Place
Designers and Project Team:
Simon Swaney, Project Director
Kristen Whittle, Design Director Architecture
Mark Healey, Design Director Interiors
Steve Jones, Project Leader (Delivery)
Timothy Leslie, Project Leader (Design)
Cian Davis, Design Leader
Ray Feile, Project Architect
Eamon Harrington, Project Architect (Delivery)
Brendan Grayson, Project Architect (Design)
Rachael McCarthy, Workplace Leader
Wai Fong Chin, Interior Designer
Chris Prince, Architect
Christian Grossi, Interior Designer
Emma Serraglio, Interior Designer
Andrada Olteanu, Architect
Amy Banfield, Interior Designer
Ali Bolandnazar, Documentation
Lai Yee Chan, Interior Designer