5 Mins With… Andrew Parr
Published

As founder of SJB Interiors, Andrew Parr has played a vital role in shaping Australia’s interior design identity. We took five minutes to see what makes the Melbourne-based designer tick.
Your top 3 influences:
- Modernism architecture 1960’s
- Art and sculpture of the 1960s
- Music videos and cinema
The moment you knew you wanted to work in design/architecture/planning industry:
- As a child playing and experimenting with my Lego
- American television, i.e. Brady Bunch House
- Instinctively drawn to publications of modern architecture at a young age
Favourite local landmark/building:
Herde Museum of Modern Art – 1963 house by McGlashan and Everist
Favourite material:
Terrazzo
Favourite international landmark/building:
Guggenheim Museum NYC
Biggest career moment:
Winning Victorian design awards for Grey Advertising
Dream project to work on (real or imaginary):
Designing a holiday resort
Dream person to collaborate with:
Christian Liaigre
Favourite decade of design:
1960’s modernism
Favourite chair:
Zanotta Ardea Chair – designed by Carlo Mollino
#1 concern for the design industry in the coming decade:
Is to maintain its credibility, not being heavily influenced by magazine and media trends, but leading the trends via research and development and experimentation
Which items in the workplace can you not live without?:
My pen, my paper and my imagination
The most unusual/interesting thing about the way you work:
My encyclopaedic memory allows me to remember the oddest items and experiences which informs and enriches my work
SJB
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