Months after the originally scheduled date of November 2020, the IDEA 2020 Gala party finally went ahead on Friday 19th February 2021.

The event was in doubt only days before when a 5-day snap lockdown for Melbourne threatened to force yet another delay. However, thankfully Melbourne was emancipated just in time for the party to go ahead and for the Australian design community to let their hair down.

Flack Studio, Esoteriko, COX, Alexander & CO., Hassell and GOLDEN were among the project category winners that picked up a sought after IDEA trophy, designed and handcrafted by Axolotl, on the night.

Jeremy Bull of Alexander & Co., Simone Haag and Andrew Parr of SJB were all on the panel of industry-leading professionals that judged this year’s IDEA and were in attendance, along with Axolotl’s co-founder Kris Torma.

Sydney-based Anna Trefely of Esoteriko was named the best emerging practice of the year.

inside editor Elisa Scarton awarded COX this year’s Editors’ Medal for Tedesca while the winning hospitality category was awarded to Alexander & CO. for Glorietta.

The overall winner was Private Residence by Richards Stanisich. This classic mid-century residence, originally designed by Harry Seidler and built in 1958 is a tribute to ’50s modernism in Sydney, also won the night’s Residential Single award. Richards Stanisich were understandably unable to attend in person. Thanks to the ingenuity of the organisers, and in keeping with the zeitgeist, they were able to accept their awards via video link.

Melbourne-based Flack Studio took home Designer of the Year, while long time friend of Axolotl’s, Hare + Klein’s Meryl Hare was named the Gold Medal.

Congratulations to all the winners, highly commended and shortlisted designers.

Axolotl has been supporting the IDEA awards for over 10 years and we are once again proud and honoured to produce the handcrafted trophies for this important celebration of Australian design. We look forward to many years of collaboration in the future. Watch the story behind the process and production of the IDEA 2020 trophies in this short clip we’ve put together.