Hames Sharley chat with interior designer Rebecca Antos, who has recently relocated from Perth to the Melbourne studio and is about to celebrate four years working with Hames Sharley.
Originally from Brisbane, Bec leads the Retail & Town Centres interiors team and is highly accomplished with some seriously impressive portfolio projects to her name.
You might recognise some of Bec’s latest work nominated in the Australian Institute of Architects Awards - Northern Territory Program. Casuarina Shopping Centre embodies a fresh approach to gender neutrality, inclusivity, and wellness, resulting in an interior design that involves and engages with the local community.
Today, the creative shares her career trajectory, offers insights into Hames Sharley’s highly collaborative retail and town centre design approach and reveals what enticed her to move to Melbourne!
As a kid, I remember looking at my grandad while working on house designs and drawing on the spare plans he had lying around. So, since a young age, I wanted to be in the creative industry.
I loved arts and graphics throughout high school, and with further study at TAFE, I was lucky to get a job with a small design firm.
I have worked on a wide range of projects from small to large retail, hospitality, workplace, and multi-residential. Brisbane to Darwin, Perth and now Melbourne, I am so excited to see where this new journey takes me!
I have recently worked on some favourites, including One Subiaco and the Kardinya Park Shopping Centre redevelopment.
Both these projects demand a high degree of design intelligence and expectation for the finest spatial experiences.
On the one hand, we are crafting personal bespoke homes and, on the other, a best-in-class modern retail offering.
I am always impressed at the passion and dedication within our highly collaborative team to drive these outcomes together. I can’t wait to see the final build for both these projects.
The GPT brief was clear from the beginning of the project; our job was to take that small idea and make it come alive inside a retails space.
Each space had a specific experiential objective. We needed to creatively sculpt and craft existing “vanilla” mall spaces into beautiful, intimate places that encouraged customer curiosity, engagement, and ultimately, increased dwell.
The successful delivery of these public spaces followed additional projects like amenity enhancements and entry upgrades.
The inspiration for the larges node was inspired by the idea of bringing a feeling of luxury resorts into an otherwise ordinary mall space. The concept itself and overall design have not been done before on such a large scale, which was incredibly exciting.
Retail is a space where you can let your imagination run free, experiment and play with things that have never been seen or done before, with a fundamental formula of how people move, behave and use a space. In an ever-changing environment, you can’t follow trends; you need to be setting them.
At the end of a project, I love seeing people’s faces within the spaces we have created and the wonder in their eyes.
“Rebecca brings to Melbourne and the east coast a finely-tuned balance of experience and design expertise. Retail interiors are a vital component of the whole composition of a town centre, district centre, regional centre, or the local neighbourhood centre.
Unlike other interior spaces, retail is a public interface; it is on display and openly exposed to the public. There is no room to hide or be too conservative with interior design in a retail setting – too restrained and it may not be engaging enough, too gimmicky, and it may miss the mark completely and will age very quickly.
We have an essential role in crafting interiors that are unique, engaging, telling a story, and encouraging people to linger within.” - Harold Perks, Retail & Town Centres Portfolio Leader.
comments