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These Are Officially The Most Beautiful Venues in Adelaide
From gelato counters to civic pools, Adelaide has the interior design world’s attention.
Adelaide’s hospitality and retail design scene has landed more than a quiet national moment, with six local projects shortlisted — and two taking home wins — at the 2026 Australian Interior Design Awards.
Now in its 23rd year, the awards are widely regarded as the industry’s benchmark for creativity and innovation. Uniquely 100 per cent peer-judged, the program offers a considered snapshot of where Australian interior design is heading right now — across residential, commercial and public realms shaped by experience, narrative and craft.
South Australian Winners
OMADA Bar & Grill
OMADA Bar & Grill by Studio Gram took out a joint award in the Hospitality Interior Design category. Defined by symmetry, proportion and elemental materiality, the space is grounded in ritual and permanence, drawing on Epicurean philosophy to shape a restrained yet expressive hospitality interior — a dining environment where architecture leads the experience, creating a sense of gathering that feels intentional, structured and enduring. The jury noted the space “exudes a sense of nostalgia in its thoughtfully nuanced design, with subtle references to a Greek aesthetic.”
Adelaide Aquatic Centre
The Adelaide Aquatic Centre redevelopment by JPE Design Studio with Warren and Mahoney and Karl Winda Telfer took out the Best of State category for SA. Framed as a “landscape within a landscape,” the design integrates water, movement and Country-led narrative into a calm, intuitive environment that prioritises accessibility, connection and everyday use across generations.
South Australian Shortlist
In Glenelg, Sans-Arc Studio’s Gelato Messina was shortlisted in the Retail Design category. Drawing from the visual language of southern Italian gelato bars, the fit-out leans into nostalgia and sensory richness — saturated colour, reflective surfaces and layered light working together to create something intentionally transportive. It’s energetic and immersive, designed less as a place to pause and more as a space in motion, where memory, atmosphere and product blur.
Also in Retail Design, In Addition’s Sheet Society store at Burnside Village takes a softer, more domestic register. Built around the brand’s ‘Open Home’ concept, the space is composed as a sequence of lived-in environments — timber warmth, curved thresholds and tactile materials guiding customers through sleep, bath and living zones. It’s retail reframed through the language of home: slow, intuitive and quietly immersive.
In the Hospitality Interior Design category, Claire Markwick-Smith’s Honeydripper is a dual-level vinyl listening lounge in Adelaide’s CBD, reflecting a broader shift toward slower, more atmospheric hospitality. Low-lit and immersive, the space is shaped around sound, mood and lingering.
Originally an empty concrete shell, a mezzanine introduces two distinct experiences — a relaxed lounge below and a more intimate, club-like level above — with acoustic performance integrated as a core design driver. Layered with custom pieces by local makers, repurposed elements and sustainable materials, the venue balances craft, adaptability and atmosphere in a fully considered experiential setting.
Reno’s Bistro was also named a finalist in the Hospitality Interior Design category, continuing its strong run following a commendation at the 2025 Eat Drink Design Awards. The Pirie Street venue takes a layered, cinematic approach to hospitality, unpacking family narratives, cultural references and global influences into a richly atmospheric interior.
The design by RADS Studio brings these elements together through considered materiality and spatial sequencing, creating a venue that shifts in tone across the day — from early service to long, expressive nights. It’s an interior shaped around rhythm and storytelling, balancing energy with intimacy in a way that feels both expressive and grounded.
