The winners of the 2021 House & Garden awards revealed
The full list of House & Garden's Top 100 Interior Designers and Architects, as well as the Top 50 Garden Designers, is available exclusively in the November issue of the magazine. Pick it up at your local newsstand, download House & Garden on your iPhone, iPad or Android device now or subscribe today.
1/9Interior Designer of the Year: Sophie Ashby
Sponsored by Farrow & Ball
Over the past seven years, we have marvelled at how Sophie Ashby has grown from a one-woman band to a studio of 12, turning her hand to everything from a contemporary house in south London to a Grade II*-listed Regency villa. Since we visited her first major project in 2016 – a glamorous apartment in Chelsea – she has become well known for her dynamic interiors that make excellent use of 20th-century furniture and art. In part informed by the designer’s time spent in Cape Town as a child, a Studio Ashby room is refined yet playful, balancing clean lines and strong colours. No doubt this – and the fact that Sophie is delightful – is what draws clients to her. She also recently launched homeware collection Sister and co-founded United in Design, which is on a mission to address the lack of diversity in the interiors industry. Bring on the next seven years.
studioashby.com
Paul Massey2/9Rising Star: Brandon Schubert
Sponsored by Zoffany
This London-based American designer was up a mountain in Colorado when we told him he had been named House & Garden’s Rising Star for 2021. The news – perhaps combined with the dizzying altitude – rendered him speechless. This is a rarity for the charming former corporate lawyer, who switched to interior design in 2015 and who has been impressing us ever since, having emerged from the tutelage of Ben Pentreath’s studio three years ago. We have visited two projects of Brandon’s so far, most recently a family house in south London, which shows off his confident use of colour as well as his affinity for mixing ideas and furniture from different periods, whether mid-20th century, Arts and Crafts or Georgian. Keep an eye out for the project and hopefully many more of his in forthcoming issues.
brandonschubert.com
3/9Garden Designer of the Year: Jinny Blom
Sponsored by The Heveningham Collection
One of the country’s foremost designers, Jinny has an international reputation for gardens both in the public and private realms, and has created more than 500 gardens since the launch of her business in 2000. Pushing the boundaries of creative design, she collaborates with architects, artists and craftspeople. She is also passionate about ecology. ‘We are creating landscapes that will grow far beyond the course of our own lives,’ she says. ‘We see this work as a gift to our collective futures.’ Jinny is the Artist in Residence at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where she has built two gardens, including the recently opened Sky Garden for the hospital’s intensive care unit. Her book, The Thoughtful Gardener: An Intelligent Approach to Garden Design (Jacqui Small, £35), is one of the bestselling gardening books in the UK.
jinnyblom.com
4/9Lifetime Achievement Award: Nicky Haslam
Sponsored by Jamb
It would be hard to overstate the influence that Nicky Haslam has had on the interior design world over the past 60 years. Several of our Top 100 designers have trained under him, and most others will have taken inspiration from his imaginatively conceived interiors, which brim with wit and dramatic details. Like the 82-year-old man himself – who is singing cabaret when not penning another book – his rooms have a certain liveliness and joie de vivre. More special than his ability to create grand, dramatic interiors is the fact that he is not shackled by doing what is deemed proper: an upturned Ikea fruit bowl can be a stylish light and a roll of brown paper can make for a marvellous wallcovering. His aesthetic has its roots in quintessential English decoration, but it continues to be the new and the exciting that make Nicky tick. Long may it last.
nh-design.co.uk
5/9The Pineapple Award for Hotel Design: Nicola Harding
Sponsored by Vispring
Over the past few years, one name has begun to crop up regularly in connection with interior design and hotels – Nicola Harding. We are not talking big-brand, corporate hotel design, but quirky, under-the-radar boutique design – the type, in fact, from which so many of us take inspiration for our own homes. Nicola’s work at the Garden House at Beaverbrook in Surrey, one of the UK’s finest country house hotels, propelled her into the limelight. Since then, she has worked on several other hotel projects, most notably The Mitre on the banks of the River Thames at Hampton Court. How timely it seems, as she is announced as this year’s winner of The Pineapple Award, that her latest venture, the 14-room Beaverbrook Town House, which draws inspiration from a ‘Great Gatsby Art Deco vibe’, has just opened its doors on London’s Sloane Street, SW1.
nicolaharding.com
Aaron Leitz6/9Project of the Year: The Rock, Whistler
Sponsored by Carpe Diem Beds
When House & Garden visited this project in the mountains on Canada’s west coast, the challenges of the site were obvious, not least because the rocky outcrop rose several metres from street level through a scattering of pine trees. The solution that architectural practice Gort Scott came up with – creating a journey through the house as you climb to the top storey – was as ingenious as it was elegant. With its acres of board-formed concrete and unabashed modernity, The Rock completely subverts the idea of a ski chalet, but it does so without fighting the mountain setting. In fact, the design was painstakingly
thought through to make the most of the panoramic views, and the woods used throughout are indigenous to the area. Jay Gort and Fiona Scott are not best known for their private houses in the UK, but we suspect that this project may change that. gortscott.com
7/9Special Contribution to the Design Industry: United in Design
Sponsored by Julian Chicester
It is a tragedy that it took the murder of the Black American George Floyd last May to start the first serious and far-reaching discussions about diversity within the British interior design community. But it was shortly after this that Alexandria Dauley (left) and Sophie Ashby connected through Instagram, eventually forming United in Design, a charity that does far more than just talk and which is already proving to be a powerful force for change,cnot least through its apprenticeshipcscheme. So far, five people have beguncstints with design studios, which includecTurner Pocock and Peter Mikic, and businessescsuch as Porta Romana. It alsocoffers mentoring and a resource hub.cOver 150 individuals and organisations, including House & Garden, have signed up to support United in Design in various ways, a sign that the initiative has already had an impact.
unitedindesign.com
8/9The List Award for Design Excellence: Olivine Design
Sponsored by Poliform
Founded by Taline Findlater and Victoria Gray in 2012, Olivine Design joined The List in 2018 and is known for its beautifully executed and pattern-rich interiors. Victoria cut her teeth working for Nina Campbell, while Taline trained as a print and textiles specialist at Wimbledon College of Arts. These professional experiences go hand in hand and have, of course, shaped the pair’s approach to their projects, which can range from a Georgian house in Wiltshire to a game lodge in Namibia. Their look is layered, colourful and inviting, with comfort at the heart of the design. ‘We work closely with clients on building their interiors up into rooms that fit their ideas, and we pay special attention to the detail,’ says Victoria. Two of their recent projects are due to appear in future issues of House & Garden and we shall be keeping an eye out for what they do next.
olivinedesign.com
9/9Responsible Design Award: The Land Gardeners
Sponsored by Porta Romana
Bridget Elworthy and Henrietta Courtauld joined forces as The Land Gardeners in 2012. They have become known for their romantic cut flowers and their beautiful and productive garden designs. But underpinning everything they do is their pioneering ecological research into soil health and compost. Working tirelessly over the past few years, they have built up a network of specialists and have made it their mission to educate people about the importance of soil health. They have also been making and trialling compost themselves, at first on a domestic scale at their base in Oxfordshire and latterly collaborating with farms such as Erth Barton in Cornwall. ‘We want to make our “Climate Compost” accessible to everyone,’ says Henrietta. ‘And we want to empower and educate people to do it themselves.’ Their microbial-rich compost is available to buy on their website.
thelandgardeners.com
