Amanda Harkness is the interior editor at Architecture NZ, former editor of Houses magazine and brings years of design writing and editing with her. The 2021 Interior Awards will be her inaugural year as convenor of the jury. We caught up with her to hear what inspires her and what she’s expecting from this year’s programme.

Do you have a favourite interior space, or one that’s inspired you or your design thinking, from the past decade?

Amanda Harkness (AH): I was on an Auckland Architectural Association tour about a decade ago when I visited Marshall Cook’s home on Franklin Road. He had me at the footpath. Perhaps due to the intriguing marble box cantilevered overhead or maybe because of the draw of the courtyard within. The house pivots around a central kitchen and dining space, as all great family homes do, with a book-lined study to one side and master above well separated from almost-communal sleeping and living for family and guests to the other side. Light poured into some spaces and was kept at bay in others. The exterior materials (largely cedar and terracotta) coupled with the interiors made for a part-Californian, part-Japanese vibe, and I remember the home felt incredibly calm and relaxed… despite the throng of architectural enthusiasts making their way through it.

If you could design an interior project for anyone, who would it be and why?

AH: I’m not sure what the term ‘retirement’ really means but I’d love to design ‘retirement’ living for a group of friends. One of the group is an architect, so we’d count on him to design an encampment-like project of 5-6 small dwellings in the bush somewhere, preferably close to the sea. The interiors would be largely timber-lined with raw materials, soft lighting, generous sofas, a large dining table, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and oversized windows and doors bringing the outside natural surroundings in – like Ray Kappe’s Pacific Palisades home. It would be great if retirement living providers could do something similar at a large scale - to introduce some soul to the concept.

What will you be looking forward to while judging the Interior Awards 2021?

AH: I can’t wait to see the creative thinking that has come about as a result of the challenges we’re facing – climatic, social and ecological – coupled with the positive impact many of these projects will no doubt have had. I’m also really looking forward to learning from what I see as a ‘dream team’ of jurors, all of whom I admire for both their portfolio of work and their way of thinking.

Enter the Interior Awards before 10 March and get 10 per cent off the entry fee with the code EARLYBIRD.