Coogee House III has come out on top in two categories at this year’s Australian Interior Design Awards, with judges singling out the way the project balances bold architectural moves with a warm, lived-in feel.
Designed by interior designer Genevieve Hromas in collaboration with Tribe Studio Architects, the house won the Residential Design award and was also named Best of State for Residential in New South Wales at the awards’ gala dinner, held at the Sofitel Sydney on Friday 12 June. The full list of winners was made public on Saturday 13 June.
Now in its 23rd year, the Australian Interior Design Awards is run jointly by the Design Institute of Australia and Architecture Media’s InteriorsAu, and is regarded as one of the country’s leading honours for the interior design profession. This year’s program drew 228 shortlisted entries across categories spanning residential, retail, hospitality, public, workplace and installation design, alongside special recognition for sustainability and emerging practice.
For Coogee House III, the judging panel praised how the home managed to feel established and full of character despite being newly built — a quality the jury noted is genuinely hard to pull off in a brand-new home. They pointed in particular to the way natural light moves through the interior, lending the spaces what they described as an almost magical quality while still feeling distinctly Australian.
The project’s structural design also played a key role in achieving its standout feature: a stepped brick arched tunnel that reads as a single, continuous piece of masonry. According to structural engineering firm Partridge, which worked alongside Tribe Studio Architects and builder P+S Design and Construction on the project, the tunnel relies on a concealed framework of steel beams and custom-cut plates to stay upright, with a reinforced screed layer added over the top to tie the staggered brick arches together into one stable structure. The result is a home where the engineering disappears from view, leaving the architecture to take centre stage.
The brief for the home called for a robust, family-friendly coastal residence — an interior that could keep daily life ticking along while leaving room for memories to build up over time. Judges noted the finished home strikes a careful balance, describing it as quietly confident rather than showy, with plenty of detail to discover at every turn without ever feeling overdone.
The project’s design team included Tribe Studio principal architect Hannah Tribe, interior designer Genevieve Hromas and associate Maria Gutierrez Vargas, with photography by David Chatfield.
Coogee House III was one of several New South Wales projects to feature prominently in this year’s results. Sydney-based YSG Studio took out Residential Decoration for The Gentleman, while Pattern Studio’s fit-out for clothing store Deiji won Retail Design and was also named Best of State Commercial for New South Wales.
The night’s top honour, the Premier Award for Australian Interior Design, went to Tasmania’s The Forest by Woods Bagot — the University of Tasmania’s Hobart campus redevelopment, which judges praised for knitting together existing buildings and new additions into a connected, publicly accessible precinct.
Speaking ahead of the announcement, jury chairs Mardi Doherty of Studio Doherty and Paul Foskett of Populous APAC said this year’s entries showed a shift away from designers chasing a signature look, with judges instead noting projects that responded more directly to their brief, context and client needs. Doherty said the strongest entries this year tended to favour restraint and considered use of materials over extravagance, a trend she said was reflected across several of the winning hospitality and residential projects.
Tribe Studio Architects is based in Surry Hills and has built a reputation for residential work across Sydney’s eastern suburbs, including other recent projects in Bronte and Coogee.
Published 13-June-2026
