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The winners of The Great Indoors Award 2007 (photo: Bert Janssen)
The Great Indoors 2007
Branded by Space
The interior seems to be the only place in which people still dream of a better future; it’s the ultimate sanctuary of utopian thinking. Catering to the desire for an intense experience, the interiors of hotels, shops and restaurants have evolved into the new epicentres of human imagination. Then, too, we see the language of fashion and ‘the image’ increasingly gaining the upper hand. Every interior has to make an immediate impact, reflecting the identity of the organization it represents. In doing so, interiors are having a stronger and stronger influence on discussions involving public space. Seen in this light, interior architecture is assuming an increasingly dominant position within the realm of design.
The theme of The Great Indoors 2007 was Branded by Space. What kinds of tools does the interior designer use to communicate? What role is played by surfaces, by the skin of an object or an architectural element? What is the media’s approach to interiors and their designers? These and other issues were addressed by an international team of key speakers and nominees during The Great Indoors Conference and The Great Indoors Workshops.
The Great Indoors 2007 explored the growing influence of interior design on the private and public domain. It offered both designers and their clients a unique opportunity to share the visions and experience of some of the world’s more talented designers.
A catalogue with the nominees and winners and a report of The Great Indoors weekend was published in FRAME #60, JAN/FEB 2008. You can dowload it here. (Graphic design by Koehorst in 't Veld)
The Great Indoors Conference
The aim of the Great Indoors Conference was to contribute to the international debate on the growing importance of interior design.
Moderators Robert Thiemann and Guus Beumer invited speakers tot give a lecture on the theme 'Branded by Space'.
The Great Indoors Conference offered both designers and their clients a unique opportunity to share the visions and experience of some of the world's talented designers.
Speakers included: Mark Wigley (Dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation); Jürgen Mayer H. (Architect); Hella Jongerius (Designer); Fabio Novembre (Architect/Designer) and Li Edelkoort (Trend Forecaster).
See below for an impression of the conference.
The Great Indoors Conference 2007 (photo: Bert Janssen)
Guus Beumer (moderator) in conversation with Hella Jongerius (photo: Bert Janssen)
Fabio Novembre and Robert Thiemann (moderator) (photo: Bert Janssen)
Jürgen Mayer H. (photo: Bert Janssen)
Li Edelkoort (photo: Bert Janssen)
The Great Indoors Award
Nominees
The nominating committee, which convened in mid-September 2007, consisted of Paul Rinkens (director of design hotel La Bergère, Maastricht), Irma Goedemondt (editor in chief of Eigen Huis & Interieur and MTC), Richard Hutten (designer), Kiki Niesten (Maastricht-based fashion retailer), Gerrit Schilder Jr (chairman of interior design organization BNI), Huub Smeets (director of Vesteda) and Rob Wagemans (architect/Concrete Architectural Associates, Amsterdam).
After a day of deliberation, they came up with a maximum of five nominees in each of the following categories:
Relax & Consume (leisure): The Clinic (bar/club/restaurant, Concrete Architectural Associates, NL), The Voyeuristic Wall (yoga/wellness centre, Neri & Hu Design, China), Dusk (bar, Diretribe, Australia), R. Lopez de Heredia (visitors/wine-tasting centre, Zaha Hadid, UK) and East Beach Café (café, Heatherwick Studios, UK).
Show & Sell (retail): Sur Place (exhibition, Studio van Eijk van der Lubbe, NL), Sunao Kuwahara (flagship store, Steve Lidbury Design, Japan), Jin's Global Standard Nagareyama (eyewear store, Ryui Nakamura Architects, Japan), Istanbul (exhibition, Kossmann.De Jong, NL), and Bernhard Willhelm (flagship store, Item Idem, Japan).
Concentrate & Collaborate (office): Nexon (showroom/office, VOID Planning, Korea), Maguire (office, Clive Wilkinson Architects, USA), Xue Xue Institute (design academy, E15 Design und Distributions, Taiwan), BBH (office, Ministry of Design, Singapore) and TBWA-Hakuhodo (office, Klein Dytham architecture, Japan)
Serve & Facilitate (public): Viikki Church (church, JKMM Architects, Finland), Interior Parkrand Building (semi-public space, Richard Hutten Studio, NL), Fleet Library (library, Office dA, USA) and Moltke Refectory (university refectory, Jürgen Mayer H. Architects, Germany).
Interior Design Firm of the Year
Wonderwall (Japan), Concrete Architectural Associates, NL), Maurice Mentjens Design (NL) and Neri & Hu Design (China).
Members of the International Jury
In 2007, the jury was chaired by Rolf Fehlbaum (CEO of Vitra, D). Members of the jury were Renny Ramakers (co-founder and director of Droog Design, NL), Claus Sendlinger (CEO of Design Hotels AG, D) and Andrej Kupetz (member of German Design Council, D) and Wiel Arets (architect, NL).
Winners
Saturday evening 17 November five awards of The Great Indoors 2007 were distributed in the NAi Maastricht, the Netherlands. In stead of sticking to the five categories Show & Sell (retail), Relax & Consume (leisure), Concentrate & Collaborate (work), Serve & Facilitate (public) and Interior Design Firm of the Year, the jury proposed to approach the first selection of nominees as a whole, judging each nominee with each other, beyond the boundaries of the categories, and create a true hierarchy amongst all nominees. After careful consideration the organisation accepted this proposal, recognizing the jury’s willingness to embrace the whole field of interior as intricate and connected and respected their proposal to come up with four winners amongst all nominated projects. One category, based on its specific perspective namely a personal oeuvre, was kept in tact; the price for ‘The Office of the Year’.
The jury voted unanimously for the five selected entries. Wonderwall was honoured with the award for Interior Design Firm of the Year, Zaha Hadid, Heatherwick Studios, Ryui Nakamura Architects and Item Idem carried away the other four of The Great Indoors Awards.
See below for an impression of award ceremony.
Masamichi Katayama, founding director of Wonderwall (photo: Bert Janssen)
(photo: Bert Janssen)
(photo: Bert Janssen)
Wiel Arets announcing the winners (photo: Bert Janssen)
Download the Jury Report here. (Graphic design by Koehorst in 't Veld)
Winning projects
client: Brownfield Catering
project: East Beach Café (Littlehampton, UK)
client: Bus Stop Co
project: Bernard Wilhem flagship store (Shibuya, Tokyo, JP)
client: Jin Co
project: Jin's Global Standard (Chiba, JP)
client: Vinatodina
project: Pavilion for the R. López de Heredia Viña Todonia winery (Haro la Rioja, ES)
Design Firm of the Year
Tokyo, JP
The Great Indoors Workshops
On Sunday, 18 November, a think-tank of nominees gathered at the Academy of Fine Art Maastricht for The Great Indoors Award ceremony. Together with students and clients, this group will tackle current policy issues in various workshops, masterclasses, discussions and debates.
Students from the Design Academy Eindhoven, the Academy of Fine Art Maastricht and the Academy for Architecture Maastricht attended the workshops given by award-nominees Richard Hutten, Neri & Hu Design, Jürgen Mayer H. Architects, Office dA and item idem.
The workshops were linked to the Great Indoors 2007 theme: Branded by Space.
With the Great Indoors Workshops we want to encourage top talent in the profession to take an active part in boosting the quality of interior design within education. Also, we intend to give a positive impulse to the positions of both designers and clients within interior design.
See below for an impression of the workshops.
Jürgen Mayer H. and Nader Tehrani (Office dA) (photo: Bert Janssen)
Richard Hutten (photo: Bert Janssen)
Neri & Hu Design (photo: Bert Janssen)
Cyril Duval (item idem) (photo: Bert Janssen)
Cyril Duval (item idem) (photo: Bert Janssen)
