SJB's 19 Waterloo Street offers a 'quiet oasis in the city' as the 2023 INSIDE World Interior of the Year

As the World Architecture Festival comes to a close, the final awards for best interior were announced in Singapore. After reviewing an exciting shortlist of projects, the INSIDE Festival of Interiors has named 19 Waterloo Street by Australian-based practice SJB as the World Interior of the Year. 

According to the Festival and jury, this year's winning interior "utilizes expanded connections creatively within a limited footprint to create an open and quiet oasis in the city."

Read more about the project as well as this year's Future Project of the Year and Landscape Project of the Year.

The 69 sqm (742.7 square feet) multi-story residential home in Sydney offers a bespoke exterior with pleasing window openings and a facade made from reclaimed bricks. According to SJB, the home's exterior is "playful and textured," with a custom-designed cast bronze sculpture by Mika Utzon-Popov.

As you made your way into the home's interior, the judges applauded the space for its spatial design and ample light source. "These generated a satisfying alignment and play of light," adding that it's "not only a building or an interior, but a pocket-sized tour de force." 

The interiors of the home come with distinct furniture pieces, a commissioned art piece, and a pinwheel staircase. Completed in 2023, SJB explained their aim was "to deliver a mixed-use house, breaking up the site to deliver more. Our ambition: a shop, a self-contained flat, and a home. Three uses out of one."

FUTURE PROJECT OF THE YEAR WINNER

The Probiotic Tower by Design and More International 

Project details: "The Probiotic Tower’s central proposition is to repurpose obsolete water towers to positively address climate change as an adaptive system for cities, particularly in the developing world. At the core of the Probiotic Tower is a large algae bioreactor tank that absorbs CO2 from local sources. The building is expanded by establishing a bamboo plantation on-site and creating a bamboo Cross Laminated Timber Production facility that grows modular components to build a supportive scaffold around the tower. Other features to promote the absorption of CO2 include facade algae panels, reed beds for treating wastewater and photovoltaic panels."

LANDSCAPE OF THE YEAR WINNER

Benjakitti Forest Park: Transforming a Brownfield into an Urban Ecological Sanctuary by TURENSCAPE, Arsomsilp Community and Environmental Architect

Project Details: "The winning Landscape project transforms a former tobacco factory into a resilient living ecosystem, which is now the largest public recreational space in downtown Bangkok. The project reduces the destructive force of stormwater, filters contaminated water, and provides much-needed wildlife habitat in a region experiencing monsoon climates with an average yearly precipitation of about 1500mm."