Current Issue #488

Meet Your Maker: Enoki's Intelligent Design

Meet Your Maker: Enoki's Intelligent Design

For interior and furniture designer Susanna Bilardo, naming her firm after the mushroom Enoki was symbolic of good things coming from the dark.

Forming Enoki in 2000 with her husband, graphic designer Judd Crush, Bilardo prefers to work quietly in the background to create delicate and beautiful environments. This dedication to form and detail has established Enoki as a leading design firm working across residential and commercial interiors.

Bilardo is passionate about her team, which includes senior designers in interior architecture, industrial design and graphic design. “Our main focus is that every job we do is better than the last, all of our team has international experience and everyone brings so much to the table,” Bilardo says.

Creating a residential interior is a very different process from a commercial space. The relationship with a home owner is much more personalised and Bilardo likes to expose clients to ideas and concepts they might never think about. “I like to push the client a little and see their excitement when they realise the choice that is out there,” she says. “I love to give them a tactile experience, letting them feel the marble, rock or timber before they make final decisions on materials.”

enoki-adelaide-apartment-1-evolved-images-adelaide-reviewAdelaide Apartment 1, Enoki (photo: Evolved Images)

Sustainability, quality and local design are key values for Enoki, who champion local designers such as Agostino & Brown and Tom Mirams. Clients are excited by South Australian designers and are increasingly looking to commission unique objects from local materials.

The process for a commercial fit-out is much more business-like, with stricter briefs and budgets. “We have to think very differently for a café, restaurant or shop and take into account how staff, diners or consumers move around a space.”

There are many regulations and parameters to work within such as ergonomics, lighting, heating, access and egress. “Our team has to be across all of this and combine a design sensibility with commercial and legal regulations.”

enoki-pt-willunga-beach-house-evolved-images-adelaide-review
Port Willunga Beach House, Enoki (photo: Evolved Images)

Bilardo’s enthusiasm about her team and range of projects is infectious and she finds her inspiration from her family, hiking in the hills, from jewellery to fashion to music. Her dream project is to fit-out an entire boutique hotel or rural retreat, to design every room, the furniture and fittings, even down to the taps, lights, cutlery and table cloths.

“I want to showcase our amazing talented team and their abilities and to work with South Australian designers on every element,” she says.

Working from the renovated 1946 Heysen meat store in Adelaide’s CBD, Bilardo prefers to keep Enoki relatively small.

“We are not a big firm, we’re not flashy, we love mushrooms and we ‘beaver’ away and do great work that we are immensely proud of.”

Enoki is a part of the Well Made community and featured on the platform. Well Made is an initiative of Guildhouse.

Explore and connect with the best South Australian visual artists, craftspeople, designers and creative spaces on wellmade.com.au

The Adelaide Review is a proud media partner of Well Made.

Header image: Port Willunga Beach House, Enoki (photo: Evolved Images)

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