Winning an SBID International Design Award is truly a high achievement as all 14 categories are assessed by a technical panel, the public vote and a panel of leading industry experts who look for outstanding examples of technical content and aesthetic creativity. Here, Inex takes a look at 2016’s winners.

Overall Winner: Adolfsson & Partners

Project: King – Sveavägen 44
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Gaming company, King, approached Adolfsson & Partners to develop its workplace concept. Adolfsson & Partners procured and delivered all interior design including the A/V solutions and created an extraordinary experience-based office. Inspired by King’s catalogue of 200 games, the design team created an environment where everyone can move and work in a world of games known as ‘The Kingdom’. Adolfsson & Partners created a colourful, energy-filled office featuring both humorous and intelligent solutions.

Club & Bar Design: Stonehill & Taylor

Project: The NoMad Bar
Location: New York, United States

Stonehill & Taylor’s design team created visual references to the luxurious French aesthetic of this hotel, while also creating a welcoming ‘English pub’ atmosphere at the bar. On the ground floor, the focal point is a 20ft bar that features a large arch, backed by an antique mirror and flanked by custom millwork. A serpentine drink rail, illuminated with signature light sconces, faces expansive windows. On the mezzanine level, Persian rugs cover the herringbone wood flooring, adding warmth and texture to the room.

Healthcare Design: NBBJ

Project: University Medical Center New Orleans (UMC)
Location: New Orleans, United States

UMC’s architecture expresses elegant linear forms that achieve proportion to scale, while resiliency strategies ensure it can withstand and continue delivering treatment amidst natural disaster. Inside, custom graphics and interior design foster a warm setting that distinctly reflects New Orleans. Though it offers critical services for uninsured patients, UMC’s plush surfaces belie those of a typical hospital. Throughout the facility, meditation rooms and five courtyards, adorned with lush vegetation, artwork and reflecting pools promote healing and heighten wellbeing.

Hotel Design: Coop Creative

Project: Elements of Byron
Location: Byron Bay, Australia

Elements of Byron is a five-star resort located in the famous surfing town of Byron Bay. The interior brief demanded a world-class resort for international visitors seeking an authentic Australian beach experience. The upbeat and eclectic interior, designed by Rowena Cornwell, draws inspiration from water, fauna and human desire.

Innovative Product Design: OIKOS GROUP

Product: Vintage Metals
Practice Location: Forlì-Cesena, Italy

This surface material has been created to respond to performance, budget and flexibility. The excellence in craftsmanship makes it possible to create new custom surfaces not just for walls, but also for art installations in public spaces for interior architecture. The Vintage Metal has been used in the renovation of the Hilton Milan lobby as a demonstration of Italian craftsmanship and innovation in the heart of Milan.

Intelligent Design: British Council

Project: Learning Time with Shaun & Timmy – Pop-up Learning Centres
Locations: Mexico City, Santiago, Cairo, Manama, Kyiv, Madrid, Rabat, Abu Dhabi and Mexico

This award-winning partnership sees the British Council combine English-language-teaching expertise with the creative flair of Aardman Animations to launch learning centres around the world for 2-6-year-olds. Pilot centres in Singapore, Mexico and Chile were successful, but the time and investment required to establish each one proved a challenge.

The programme team therefore commissioned the British Council’s in-house property professionals, Global Estates, to adapt the design of these bespoke learning centres to produce a low-cost, pop-up product that can be easily installed in partner schools, British Council adult teaching centres and even shopping centres.

KBB Design: Diane Berry Kitchens

Project: Gold & Black Kitchen
Location: Sussex, United Kingdom

This luxurious kitchen is a family space that is also ideal for entertaining. The L-shaped island is made of golden glass and granite. It takes centre stage against a stunning backdrop of black glass units that blend perfectly with appliances and Sub-Zero fridges, which have been bespoke sprayed to harmonise beautifully, framed with golden glass. Stepped down on one end of the island is a table in the same granite that gives great views to the garden; the support for the granite is angled subtly to match the detail on the island ends.

Office Design: Beyond Design Architects

Project: GLOBANT
Location: Pune, India

For this project the inspiration was nature. Since the organisation works in a very collaborative way, the theme was then woven with elements that support and encourage coworking. The design style is modern, but has the theme of nature interwoven seamlessly. This extends from the moss found in the reception, the ‘walk in the woods’ towards the cafeteria and the ‘learning tree’ collaborative space, to the acrylic birds in the ceiling and the grass floor in the cafe.

Public Space Design: ICHIBANSEN

Project: Echigo Tokimeki Resort Setsugekka
Location: Niigata Prefecture, Japan

Japan-based ICHIBANSEN has unveiled a local sightseeing train, the Echigo Tokimeki Resort Setsugekka. The train consists of just two carriages and has 45 seats in its stylish interior. On board, the walls have been replaced with huge windows that give passengers great views of the ocean and mountains as they travel. Continuing the regional theme, all the furniture and walls have been constructed from local natural wood.

Residential Design Over £1m: David Chang Design Associates International

Project: Runze Palace Villa
Location: Beijing, China

The design concept for the Beijing Runze Palace introduces the spatial concept of ‘le grand château extraordinaire’ with empire-style vertical wall panelling and jamb details. The result is a vast architectural structure which displays elements of magnificent grandeur and recalls the power and glory of the empire.

Residential Design Under £1m: Landau + Kindelbacher Architekten - Innenarchitekten

Project: Chalet near Kitzbühel
Location: Kitzbühel, Austria

The interior design of the spacious chalet ensemble near Kitzbühel continues the tradition of Alpine building style in combination with modern elements. Large-scale claddings of recovered timber for floors, walls and ceilings create a consistent visual appearance, which is augmented by selected furniture and materials. Glossy surfaces and deliberately-placed colour accents contrast with matt black steel and elegant, dark natural stone. A particular highlight is the spa area, where the contemplative atmosphere is reinforced by the conservative materiality and lighting.

Restaurant Design: LW

Project: Bussola Restaurant
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

LW’s brief was to update and rejuvenate an already well-renowned, established restaurant, famous for its superb food but not its decor. With the focus always being the terrace, overlooking the hotel pool and the sea, it was important that the interior blended with the exterior, bringing the outside in; with the same finishes flowing from inside out to the terrace where possible. Natural materials and soft lighting were used to create an atmospheric setting, while rustic, reclaimed timbers contrast with luxurious Italian statuario marble, highlighted with a brushed bronze metal finish adding a layer of understated elegance.

Retail Design: Bishop Design

Project: Fauchon Paris Cafe & Retail
Location: Kuwait City, Kuwait

Bishop Design’s brief was to establish and create a new, exciting direction and natural evolution of the existing identified brand, it was also a requirement to develop a new gourmet food offering to be incorporated into the interior. The venue was to have a variation in seating types incorporating both a dining and lounge dining experience. Tables were required to be adaptable to a multitude of differing configurations and versatile to the customers’ needs. The venue was to be visually sumptuous and sympathetic to the product, therefore the new concept design direction was to be a natural evolution of the Fauchon brand and an addition to the Fauchon family, a natural multi-faceted extension that would be suited in a mall, a standalone or hotel scenario.

Show Flats & Developments: II BY IV DESIGN

Project: The Residences of 488 University Avenue
Location: Toronto, Canada

At The Residences of 488 University Avenue, the art of living has been raised to new heights. The Presentation Centre designed by II BY IV DESIGN features inspired kitchen, bath and lifestyle vignettes, as well as a sales area and scaled model of the final building which embody the project’s lofty brand promise ‘where extraordinary living becomes everyday life’. Key purchaser touch points include the stylised wall panelling (a motif found in the final building), which combines geometric shapes finished in lacquer, upholstery, chromed mirror and marble.

Visualisation: Hoare Lea

Project: The Cumberland Art Gallery – Hampton Court Palace
Location: London, United Kingdom

Hoare Lea developed a scheme to illuminate The Cumberland Art Gallery’s paintings while minimising impact on the sensitive building fabric. Hoare Lea’s CGI combined its expertise in the niche area of accurate lighting visualisation with a mastery of 3D-modelling and physically-based rendering tools.