2025 Dulux Colour Awards winners announced

The winners of the 39th Dulux Colour Awards, which recognise transformative examples of colour use in the built environment across Australia and New Zealand, have been selected from a shortlist of 88 projects. According to a communique from Dulux, this year's prized projects "push the boundaries of established genres and defy previously accepted norms to astound and delight with their complexity and ambition."

"Our aim with the Dulux Colour Awards is to reveal and reward the ultimate exemplars of architectural innovation using Dulux Colour as a central design device," said Dulux colour and communications manager Andrea Lucena-Orr.

Dulux noted that this year's Grand Prix winners "represent somewhat of a pattern emerging, namely the use of a single colour as the pivotal and defining design strategy." This strategy is evident in Australia's Grand Prix-winning project, the Sarah and Sebastian Armadale retail store by Richards Stanisich, which takes a striking green and juxtaposes it with reflective surfaces within faceted spaces.

Across the categories, Dulux noted that "rule-breaking and genre-defying colour usage is evident," including the unconventional application of contemporary colour on heritage projects, or to soften traditionally 'hard' building typologies. The multi-tone green facade of Commercial and Multi-residential Exterior winner, Northern Park Memorial Depot by Searle x Waldron Architecture, is an example of the latter. "This treatment represents a design decision to approach an industrial program with sensitivity, and to achieve that through specific colour choices appropriate to the context and natural surrounds," said Lucena-Orr.

The most hotly contested category this year, that of residential interiors, drew intense dialogue among the judges as they weighed up the finalists. The winning project, Elonera House by Studio Doherty, and the three commendation award winners present vastly different colour strategies and schemes.

The 2025 jury comprised director of SJB Andrew Parr; co-founder of At.Space Alex McLeod; co-founder of Luchetti Krelle Rachel Luchetti; co-founder and director of Edition Office Kim Bridgland; principal at Kerstin Thompson Architects and adjunct professor at RMIT and Monash Universities Kerstin Thompson, and Lucena-Orr.

Lucena-Orr reflected, "We are consistently astounded by the calibre of paradigm-shifting projects, and the architects and designers behind them who break boundaries, challenge conventions and defy expectations with their profound appreciation of the potential of colour."

The winning projects are:

Sarah and Sebastian Armadale - Richards Stanisich

Lava Flow - Pac Studio

Melbourne Place - Kennedy Nolan

Auburn High School Senior Centre - Wowowa Architecture

Burly Bar - Studio Plenty

Sarah and Sebastian Armadale - Richards Stanisich

Buon Gusto - Studio Shand

Comma - Byron Bay - Duet

Northern Memorial Park Depot - Searle x Waldron Architecture

Windale Hub - Adriano Pupilli Architects

Elonera House - Studio Doherty

Lava Flow - Pac Studio

Rosherville House - Kennedy Nolan

Wharf House - Arent and Pyke

Dunstan - SSdH

Carol Jerrems: Portraits - Youssofzay Hart

Landscape of Co-existence - Angela Xu and Georgia Reader, the University of Sydney