Queensland’s coastal regions should not be treated as one style. Noosa, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast contain different landscapes, buildings and patterns of occupation.

Brisbane’s Art Deco residences are defined by proportion and construction as much as ornament. Contemporary work should begin with those qualities.

Brisbane’s principal apartment precincts share river and city views, but their sites, buildings and patterns of occupation create different interior-design briefs.

Fortitude Valley’s residential character comes from adaptation. Commercial buildings, warehouses, interwar flats and new apartments create interiors with very different demands.

In Brisbane’s inner east, original timber rooms often meet contemporary additions. The success of the interior depends on how those periods are joined.

Large sites create freedom, but scale alone does not produce comfortable rooms. The western suburbs require a clear relationship between house, household and land.

St Lucia and Chelmer share a relationship with the river, but their architecture, topography and patterns of occupation give each a distinct residential character.

Brisbane’s inner west is shaped by timber houses, steep streets and a close relationship between topography and domestic life.

New Farm and Teneriffe contain several distinct versions of inner-city Brisbane, from timber cottages and interwar flats to converted woolstores and riverfront homes.

Ascot, Hamilton and Clayfield share an established residential history, but their houses and settings ask different things of an interior.

Brisbane’s housing is unusually varied. Understanding how each period planned rooms, light and daily life is the first step towards designing an interior that belongs in it.

A material can be beautiful and still be wrong for its exact position. Daniel Kostiuc explains how exposure, maintenance and repair should shape a Brisbane specification.

By the time this is read, the countdown to Milan will be underway. Design Week runs from the 20th to the 26th of April, and across Brisbane studios, flights are being booked and diaries cleared.

Heritage is sometimes framed as a choice between preservation and progress.

A beautiful material is only beautiful for as long as it behaves beautifully. That distinction matters in Brisbane.

The dining room is not always where dinner happens. In Brisbane, that seems especially true. A table may be set beautifully, with candles lit and everything prepared for the evening, yet guests often gather elsewhere first.

Some cities arrive with a visual language already attached to them. Mention Paris, Milan, London or Los Angeles, and a collection of architectural and design references appears almost immediately.

Walk through many new houses in Brisbane, and you can still see the Queenslander in outline: the pitched roof, the timber battens, and sometimes a nod to a verandah.

Ask what a luxury client wants, and most people picture the same thing: a formal room, kept for special occasions, furnished to impress rather than to live in. That image describes very few of the clients I design for in Brisbane.