Celebrating the Indo-Pacific’s
Best of the Decade in 2020

Every studio has at least one. It’s that project that retains its position in your portfolio, lovingly presented to new clients year after year. It’s that project that you’re always proud of and ready to discuss, because its impact and relevance lasts. It’s a project that speaks equal volumes about what defines your practice and what defines the ways we live.

Dust off your jpgs because team INDE wants to know all about it!

Room Without Roof (Singapore) by HYLA Architects. Winner, The Living Space, INDE.Awards 2018. Photo by Derek Swalwell.

In 2020, the INDE.Awards take INDEs gold to a whole new level with an era-defining accolade that honours the lasting impact of a single, influential piece of residential architecture or interior design in the Indo-Pacific region.

Best of the Decade | The Living Space marks the start of a new decade – and the twentieth anniversary of Indesign Media Asia Pacific – by celebrating a decade’s worth of outstanding work by our region’s architects and designers.

Sandy Point House (Australia) by Kennedy Nolan. Shortlisted, The Living Space, INDE.Awards 2019. Photo by Derek Swalwell.

Single residential or apartment, a living space has the power to connect us or closet us. Best of the Decade | The Living Space will award a home that has, through its concept, design and execution, redefined how we design for living in response to the stimuli of our times.

This special 2020 accolade, alongside its companion award Best of the Decade | The Work Space, gives us reason to collectively look back on how we’ve progressed in our region, and to consider where we’ll go from here.

PROJECT #13 (Singapore) by STUDIO WILLS + Architects. Winner, The Living Space, INDE.Awards 2019. Photo by Finbarr Fallon.

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Over the span of the past decade, much has remained constant in terms of what we seek from our living spaces. “The basic requirements of a living environment are protection, comfort and privacy,” suggests INDE.Awards Jury member Eleena Jamil (Principal, Eleena Jamil Architects, Malaysia). But as times change, so do our demands and expectations. So what are the stimuli of our times?

“I think our expectations for living spaces in this new decade have expanded quite dramatically,” says Jamil. “There is now a conscious need for spaces to be more inclusive of different ethoses, moralities and lifestyles. For example, criteria such as carbon neutrality, resistance against the effects of climate change, and new household compositions and human relationships will provide new stimuli for designing living spaces.”

Family Holiday Structure, Imaduwa (Sri Lanka) by Palinda Kannangara Architects. Honourable Mention, The Living Space, INDE.Awards 2019. Photo by Luka Alagiyawanna / Mahesh Mendis.

For fellow Jury member Paul McGillick (McGillick Consulting, Australia), today’s demands are somewhat conflicting. He says, “Certain things remain constant in what we want of our living space – cosy, comfortable and private. What’s changed in ten years? Well, we want all of the above and its seeming opposite – connection, stimulation and location, location, location.”

But in the entries to Best of the Decade | The Living Space, he’ll be looking – above all – for the intelligent use of space. “What I would like to see are ideas about how to optimise limited space when, throughout the region, space is at a premium in terms of affordability and availability.”

Mixed Use House (Australia) by Matt Gibson Architecture + Design with DDB Design Australia. Shortlisted, The Living Space, INDE.Awards 2019. Photo by Shannon McGrath.

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Could your portfolio contain the INDE.Awards 2020’s best living space of the decade? How does your project demonstrate your deep understanding of lifestyle and how it’s evolving? How does it encapsulate best practice is residential design? How does it show inspirational sensitivity to context? And how does it embody the progressive spirit celebrated by the INDE.Awards?

View the category criteria, dig out those images and enter now!

To be eligible for this category your project and your studio must be located in the Indo-Pacific region. Your project must have been completed between 1 January 2010 and 21 February 2020.

Best of the Decade | The Living Space will be Jury decided as well as being open to a people’s choice vote. It’s the ideal platform for generating a region-wide discussion about what matters to how we live in the Indo-Pacific. Be part of the conversation and make your best work count!

St Andrews Beach House (Australia) by Austin Maynard Architects. Shortlisted, The Living Space, INDE.Awards 2019. Photo by Derek Swalwell.

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Raj Nandan, Founder & CEO, Indesign Media Asia Pacific, on creating INDE.Awards’
Best of the Decade:

“When we established Indesign Media Asia Pacific in 2000, our ambition was to create publications and experiences that the industry could use as vehicles to examine, document and celebrate the very best of our region. Over the last few years, the INDE.Awards have brought that ambition full circle, representing our industry not from afar, but from within.”

“Now, with our ‘Best of the Decade’ award categories, we mark this milestone year by honouring projects with lasting impact. These two special award categories for 2020 will show just how influential our region’s designers and architects have been over an extended period. The ‘Best of the Decade’ adds even more weight to our message that the world must take note of our region.”

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A Home of Study (China) by Atelier TAO+C. Shortlisted, The Living Space, INDE.Awards 2018. Photo by Shen Zhong Hai.

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Enter now! You have until 21 February 2020 to make your mark.

Best of the Decade | The Living Space is proudly presented by INDE.Awards Partner Living Edge.