Kennedy Nolan
Founding partners Patrick Kennedy & Rachel Nolan
The esteemed 10 recognises 10 Australians for their excellence in residential architecture and design in 2026. Each recipient has their own legacy-building approach to homes that enrich and sustain the lives within them, centre those who create them, and magnify design’s indelible impact on the landscape and community.
Proudly supported by Armadillo & Space Furniture
My design work is best summed up in the phrase:
Patrick Kennedy: We design for people; people should feel something, even when they’re not looking.
What aspect of your work are people most curious about?
Rachel Nolan: People are curious about how it makes them feel—they sense the engagement with collective memory, they enjoy the colour, they feel reassured by the craft and care, and they are intrigued by the shapes and forms.
What has recently challenged the way you think about design?
Patrick Kennedy: We are facing an ongoing challenge to design in ways that reduce our impact on our planet. Ultimately, we would like our work to give back rather than take.
What person, building, product, or art piece has had a lasting impact on your work?
Rachel Nolan: We are a practice inspired by everything in the world around us, which is infinite and infinitely inspiring. Increasingly, we draw on a nascent understanding of the ancient and beautiful First Nations Peoples of Australia and their inextricable and magisterial links to Country.
The three words I would most like people to attribute to my work are:
Patrick Kennedy: Human, memorable and welcoming.
What is the one piece of advice you would share with an emerging designer?
Rachel Nolan: Don’t look sideways; spend time getting to know your instincts, tastes and eccentricities, and develop your own voice; listen, wait and find your time.
Where do you go to appreciate exceptional design?
Patrick Kennedy: Australia is a very sophisticated design environ- ment—there is so much nuance, edge and cultivation. As a design community, our eyes are trained to see it, read it and take it into our collective sensibility. One corollary is that the freshness of vernacular and traditional crafts is often arresting and provides real excitement.
What’s one thing you’d like to see more of in design? Less?
Rachel Nolan: We would like to see more endurance and less churn.
This piece originally appeared in our special print edition of est magazine, issue 60: ‘Design Instinct’.
“People are curious about how it makes them feel—they sense the engagement with collective memory, they enjoy the colour, they feel reassured by the craft and care, and they are intrigued by the shapes and forms.”
– Founding partners Patrick Kennedy & Rachel Nolan
