World Interior of the Year Finalists Announced

Posted on August 14, 2017 by Bud Morris
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World Interior of the Year Finalists Announced

Posted on August 14, 2017 by Bud Morris
 

The spotlight at this year’s World Interior of the Year contest—the theme for which is “performance”—is on colour, acoustics and volume, and the impact these elements can have on a professional interior space.

The shortlist for this prestigious competition—featuring the efforts of practices in the States, Canada, Japan, China, Australia, Mexico, India and Europe—was announced a month ago, and it’s crowded with innovation. We just can’t get enough of these entries.

Among the highlights, find: a spectacular floating bar at the St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort, a jade green spa in the basement of a Shanghai hotel, and the extraordinary new contemporary headquarters for Airbnb in Dublin, set inside a disused warehouse and designed from scratch.

Amsterdam studio UXUS is shortlisted in the retail category for the stunning shop it designed for the Herzog & de Meuron extension to the Tate Modern Gallery in London, heralded as Britain’s most important new cultural building in almost 20 years.

And a design studio in Shanghai called Neri&Hu converted a former missile factory in Beijing into a car repair garage with offices and an on-site café by way of an industrial-style metal staircase, mesh cages and painted brickwork.

The two World Interior of the Year Canadian contenders are: the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, in Montreal, in the Health and Education Category; and McCarthy Tetrault’s Vancouver office, in the Office category.

In all, 78 projects were shortlisted for this competition, a focal point of the prestigious World Festival of Interiors show, which takes place in Berlin in November.

There, the entries will compete in eight different categories: Bars and Restaurants; Civic, Culture and Transport; Creative Re-Use; Display; Health and Education; Hotels; Offices, Residential and Retail.

Last year’s World Interior of the Year winner was a clothing boutique in Hangzhou, China, that was remarkable for its strikingly monochromatic matte-black interior. China dominates again this year, with more than a third of the finalists based there, including 19 from the mainland, five from Hong Kong and four from Taiwan.

The overall World Interior of the Year winner for 2017 will be crowned on November 17.

OHLAB concept store MiamiUSA