The results are finally in. This year's Dulux Colour Awards winners were announced on 28 May at the Gala event in Melbourne. It’s now time to meet the winners...

Winner of the New Zealand Grand Prix Award:
PAC Studio — Lava Flow

Also, received a Commendation in the Residential Interior Category

Uniquely sited within Auckland’s volcanic landscape, Lava Flow is a home designed around the hues of its geographical context and boldly underpinning the entire scheme is Dulux Silo Park, a deep earthy crimson. It firmly reinforces the project’s connection to the site, playing a dominant role in the interior’s identity. 

Judges' Comments

Lava Flow displays remarkable chromatic restraint, spatial understanding and precise execution. The architect's commitment to the strategy exemplifies the power of a single colour to define a built work. The judges applaud the purity of vision of such a daring scheme and the architect’s understanding of colour as an essential determinant of mood, atmosphere and identity.

New Zealand Student Winner: Lalitpat Chomchoei — The University of Auckland

Pātaka Kōrero/ Fale o Tala: A Storehouse of Narratives in Samoa

This project consists of four structures, each with its distinctive role in the community. The colours used ensure a deeper cultural connection, seamlessly integrating architecture with Samoa’s natural and social landscape. The soft colour palette reflects the natural elements of earth, ocean, and sky, while reinforcing each structure’s unique purpose and identity.

Judges' Comments

The designer’s unique proposition has been well navigated in this concept that equally considers traditional and modern elements. The carefully considered palette adds to the allure. It conveys a deep sense of place and cultural connection.

Congratulations to all 12 New Zealand finalists who impressed the judges with their innovative use of colour. As one of the region’s most prestigious awards programmes, recognising the exceptional and innovative use of colour in the built environment, the Dulux Colour Awards attract an array of extraordinary projects.

Five of New Zealand and Australia’s most prolific architects and designers, who have been recognised and awarded for their own work, judged the 2025 awards entrants based on innovation, expression and execution of colour.

The judges were impressed by the deeply considered, intelligent design from this year’s finalists: exceptional colour use that exemplifies the pivotal role colour plays in spatial understanding, placemaking and mood setting.

Colour-blocking and murals impress judges

The prestigious and highly respected 39th Dulux Colour Awards has received the highest calibre of entries as one of the longest-running design awards programs in the region.

The level of sophistication and ambition was demonstrated in colour specification by design professionals broadly across all architectural typologies with palettes and applications of colour in each category consistently challenging stereotypes irrespective of scale, scope or program, such as a sporting complex with a luxe suite of colours more usually seen in high-end hospitality; a community hub finely clad in joyous hues resulting in an intelligent show of place-making; and, a depot that turns expectations on their head via nuanced colour graduations, while still respecting its industrial origins.

"Year after year, we are presented with an extraordinary array of exceptional colour use that exemplifies the pivotal role colour plays in spatial understanding, placemaking and mood setting," says Davina Harper, Dulux Colour Specialist.

Stylistically, coloured ceilings and distinctive wall treatments star in projects from Australia and New Zealand alike. “The judges remarked upon the strength of colour-blocking interior surfaces, as well as the bold use of murals in retail and studio environments.

Hues of burgundy, gold-yellows and sage greens lead the bolder palettes in private residential domains, but warm whites maintain a consistent presence, this year married with ‘greiges’, mist greens and soft blues.

"Student and professional entries in all building types are universally employing colour with extraordinary skill, impact and effect, and it is our great honour to recognise the best of the best each year.”