WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Australian native Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, now referred to as First Nations people, are the oldest continuous civilisation on earth, with over 60,000 years of known history.

The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a mythological Aboriginal period of time that had a beginning but no foreseeable end, during which the natural environment was shaped and humanised by the actions of mythic beings. In the absence of a written language, the recitation of The Dreaming was how one generation passed down history from one generation to the next.

This represents for Australian First Nations people the time when the ancestral spirits progressed over the land and created life and important physical formations, remarkably understanding the inter-relation of all people and all things. Man is regarded as part of nature, not fundamentally dissimilar to the mythic beings or to the animal species, all of which share a common life force – something the remainder of civilization is only now coming to terms with.

Although Dreamtime Australia Design was founded by a Miami, Florida-born American-Australian designer, Michael McCann, he nevertheless wanted to honour and promote his adopted new country of Australia and its unique history to projects the Studio designs around the world, as well as what he found to be one of the most advanced, and accomplished design communities worldwide which has provided a deep base of knowledge and of which he and his Studio is proud to form a part.

We acknowledge the Cadigal people of the Eora Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the land where Dreamtime Australia Design was founded - modern-day Sydney. We recognise their continuing connection and unique cultural and spiritual relationship to the land, water and community and pay our respects to them and their culture and Elders, past, present and emerging.

FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL MICHAEL MCCANN

Winner of the prestigious I.D.E.A. Australian Designer of the Year, 2008-09 - the first time the Australian design industry was asked to vote for the nation’s top design practice, Hospitality Designer of the Year for Sydney’s internationally-acclaimed Flying Fish restaurant and named by the UK’s Wallpaper magazine, the world’s most influential design and lifestyle publication, as Sydney’s “designer du jour” and selected as one of SDQ / Indesign Magazine’s ten most influential people in the Australian design industry, Founder and Principal Michael McCann brings an almost unique wealth of international hotel / resort, restaurant, bar, club and F&B retail design, development and operational experience to his wide variety of trend-setting projects.

Michael also won the Belle Magazine / Georg Jensen national design award in 2009 for bringing Dreamtime’s unique brand of exciting hospitality design to an equally unique retail development for a Harley Davidson, Ducati and BMW motorcycle superstore, Fraser Motorcycles and later won Interior Design Magazine’s Best of Year (BOY) Award in New York for the Best Retail Design world-wide 2010 along with the Australian Interior Design Awards National Interior Design Excellence and Innovation award and National Retail Design Award in April of 2010, all for a truly ground-breaking butcher shop in Sydney: Victor Churchill Fine Family Butcher.

In the US, Michael was the runner-up to Philippe Starck in the international IHMA Gold Key awards in 2008 for the best new bar worldwide (Argyle Bar, Sydney), runner-up and in 2009 for the Best Fine Dining Restaurant (Steel Restaurant, Sydney) as well as winner of Interior Design Magazine’s Best of Year (BOY) awards (NYC) in 2009 for Best Bathroom for the firm’s unique Argyle Bar. More recently the Studio’s design for The Woods at the Four Seasons Hotel Sydney won the award for Best New All Day Dining Restaurant in the Asia Pacific area at the Asia Hotel Design Awards 2015, and the firm’s Grain Bar, also at the Four Seasons Sydney, was runner-up for the Best New Bar 2015 while Dreamtime’s design of the DoubleTree Hotel Melbourne won the prestigious Best New Hotel Award Worldwide in London’s World Interior News (WIN) Awards 2015. Most recently, Dreamtime designed the Food & Beverage venues at The Tasman Hotel, in Hobart, Australia which was recently named to the World’s 50 Best Hotels for 2024.

Before establishing himself as a renowned designer, Miami, Florida native Michael created, opened and operated more than 80 restaurants, bars and night-clubs in 12 countries and territories on 4 continents worldwide and operated over 120 more already in operation in a 20-year 5-star international hotel management and development career with such companies as Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and Hyatt International until his creation in 1998 of his unique hospitality design studio - DREAMTIME AUSTRALIA DESIGN.