The 43rd Annual Interior Design Competition celebrates outstanding, innovative Interior Design/Interior Architecture that encourages new ideas and techniques in the design and furnishings of interior spaces. IIDA is grateful to publishing partner Interior Design magazine.

The competition unveils new designs and furnishings of interior spaces and this year the great news remains in the fact that the winners weren’t selected by the project type. However, the Will Ching Design Competition continues to recognize originality and excellence in commercial design from firms with five or fewer employees.

Submissions were judged by a jury based in the U.S.: Hyatt Hotels vice president of design Mari Balestrazzi, NBBJ principal Anne Cunningham, and Nelson design director Scott Hierlinger. The trio made their selections based on considerations of suitability and originality. Interior Design editors had identified those qualities as well—previously publishing two of the IIDA winners. The first is Gensler’s New York regional headquarters for Capital One. It’s followed by Newell Rubbermaid in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the last major project from Hall of Fame member Eva Maddox, retired principal at Perkins + Will.

On June 12, this seven winners will be honored at the IIDA’s black-tie Cool gala, in Chicago.

Maison Valentina presents you the list of winners at the 2016’s Competition:

1 – Gensler, Capital One

Capital One throws curves at its New York regional headquarters, enlivening an otherwise stolid tower from 1967. The transformation involves the lobby, which offered generous square footage, 2,500, and a 24-foot ceiling but little else. “Man, is this stiff,” Gensler design principal Laurent Lisimachio said on first entering. “We saw an opportunity to give back to the neighborhood by creating something visually strong when viewed from outside.” That something turned out to entail two dynamic forms in contrasting materials—romancing the box and improving the vibe for corporate receptions and community events.

2 – Perkins + Will, Newell Rubbermaid

The 40-year career of Interior Design Hall of Fame member Eva Maddox began back when an office aspired to be nothing more than desks lined up in neat rows. “Now we create experiences to make people like to come to work, to be productive,” Maddox says. Her last major project as design principal, preceding her retirement, underscores the point. When a public-private partnership brought together Western Michigan University, the state government, and the city of Kalamazoo with a manufacturer, Newell Rubbermaid, to launch a design incubator, Maddox was handed a 40,000-square-foot building, constructed warehouse-style, and asked to turn it into a branded environment suitable for 130 international designers.

3 – CCD/Cheng Chung Design, Westin Chongqing Liberation Square

In a metropolis of 8.5 million people, the focal point of a Chinese municipal region with a population of 30 million, it may be difficult to focus on the enchanted geography. However, Chongqing, spectacularly sited on the banks of the Yangtze River, was known through the millennia for its abundance of water, in countless forms, as well as lush trees and mountain peaks forever cloaked in a primordial mist. And that’s what CCD/Cheng Chung Design channeled for this destination hotel, built to a notable standard of international luxury.

4 – Bart Shaw Architect, Pax&Sharper

As a one-man show, Bart Shaw Architect qualified—by the widest possible margin—to win the IIDA’s annual
Will Ching competition for commercial interiors by firms of five or fewer. Which isn’t to say that a sole practitioner doesn’t rely on many like-minded collaborators. Bart Shaw could never have realized this Fort Worth fashion boutique, Pax & Parker, without the help of a summer intern. Or take the fabricator for the display fixtures: A welding instructor at Tarrant County College, she happened to be the neighbor of a member of Shaw’s construction team.

5 – Triad, Hanergy Renewable Energy Exhibition Center

Earth revolves around the sun, and so may our energy future. That’s the promise that Hanergy Holding Group, a manufacturer of solar cells and other eco-friendly power equipment, holds out at the Hanergy Renewable Energy Exhibition Center. Considering the company’s financial problems, making headlines internationally, this museum in a former office building in Beijing’s Olympic Forest Park is almost certain to be the best news to come out of Hanergy this year, and that’s due to the sophisticated interior architecture and installations by Triad project manager Lu Yijing.

6 – Studio Munge, Lago by Julian Serrano

How do you mix the cool of Milanese futurism with the razzle-dazzle of Las Vegas? Just ask Alessandro Munge, who designed this Italian restaurant and bar at the Bellagio Resort & Casino. Lago by Julian Serrano, the James Beard Foundation Award–winning chef’s second Bellagio establishment, boasts shiny chrome details, energized colors, and a rakish angularity, all pitched to today’s breed of hyper-caffeinated traveler. (Quite a contrast with the Louis XVI opulence of his first Bellagio restaurant, the French-accented Picasso.)

7 – Commercial Design, East by YOD Design

Asian cuisines share ingredients, but overall flavor profiles differ. Similarly, Asian design is regionally seasoned with national and ethnic influences. So YOD Studio of Commercial Design needed to prepare an all-encompassing look for East, a pan-Asian restaurant in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. “Eastern philosophy unites the various countries,” YOD founder Volodymyr Nepyivoda explains. He also referenced the Asian cultural reverence for nature by featuring wood, stone, metal, water, and fire.

Source: Interior Design