John Wardle Architect’s Perspectives on a Flat Surface was the winner of the inaugural 2015 Tapestry Design Prize for Architects (TDPA). Funded by Judith Neilson AM, Perspectives on a Flat Surface was the first TDPA design to be translated into tapestry.

John Wardle Architect’s (JWA) were awarded joint first prize for the TDPA in 2015, along with a design by Kristen Green (director of KGA Architecture) with Michelle Hamer, entitled Long Term Parking. The designs were produced for the hypothetical site of the Australian Pavilion in the Giardini in Venice, designed by Denton Corker Marshall.

Having drawn inspiration from The Teatro Olimpico, JWA state:

"The Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza designed by Palladio, houses Vincenzo Scamozzi’s trompe l’oeil street scenes. The design is renowned for creating the exaggerated perspective from each of Palladio’s grand portals. Our design refers to our own exchange between Italy and Australia. A series of imagined sets have been created that reverse Scamozzi’s inverted perspectives, forming a series of picture planes drawn toward the audience. Each multiplies shifting perspectives across one wall whilst allowing another to exaggerate the proportions of the space. The partial views and variant transmissions of light within each inverted chamber suggest a place that is ‘elsewhere’."

JWA have designed a new art gallery, performance space and garden for Neilson, founder of White Rabbit Gallery, with Durbach Block Jaggers, artist Janet Laurence and timber craftsman Khai Liew.

John Wardle Architects are based in Melbourne, Victoria.