On 22 October 2025, The (Emerging) Designer Awards held its third annual Awards Ceremony at the Artedomus Galleria in Melbourne. The exclusive industry event welcomed more than 200 of Australia’s most esteemed architects, designers and industry stakeholders, who joined Artedomus and The Local Project to celebrate the architects and designers shaping Australia’s creative future.

Manifold was announced the Winner of the Commercial Interior category, for their Melbourne retail project, MANE by Stable. “Manifold’s design for MANE by Stable rethinks traditional retail formats and delivers this in a genuine and engaging way – within a heritage context, too,” says Alice Blackwood, editorial director for Artedomus and a returning juror in 2025. “The result is a retail environment that moves beyond the transactional to deliver an experience of culture and community in an inclusive way; and invites customers to linger and discover at their own leisure,” she says.

“We thought about how retail is evolving … we wanted to turn that on its head,” says Manifold co-director Lachlan Cooper. “It’s super rewarding to see the space used as intended … for community events, also being used the local community as a retail space [and] as a place for discovery,” says Manifold co-director Morgan Novy.

Hear more from Alice as well as Lachlan and Morgan as they walk you through MANE by Stable and discuss what made it a winning Commercial Interior in this year’s (Emerging) Designer Awards.

Explore more winning projects.