Winners. The Great Indoors Award 2013: The Nature of Things

01/12/2013. Competition
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA

The Great Indoors 2013 recently announced the winners for this year's competition. The 2013 theme focused on The Nature of Things — in regards to the increasing global trend of incorporating repurpose, sustainability, and reconnecting with natural elements in interior design. Congratulations!!

Read what the jury said.- Five ‘precious boxes’, housing various functions, are the real gems in OHLab’s Mallorcan jewellery store. These stainless steel-clad volumes with golden mirror finishes add a sense of tangible luxury to the space, which the jury cites as a ‘very daring and well-proportioned project’ while complimenting the designers for ‘convincing the client that the architecture of a shop is at least as important as the merchandise’.

Read what the jury said.- Five ‘precious boxes’, housing various functions, are the real gems in OHLab’s Mallorcan jewellery store. These stainless steel-clad volumes with golden mirror finishes add a sense of tangible luxury to the space, which the jury cites as a ‘very daring and well-proportioned project’ while complimenting the designers for ‘convincing the client that the architecture of a shop is at least as important as the merchandise’.

Show & Sell winner: Relojeria Alemana Boutique by OHLab. Photography © José Hevia. Courtesy of OHLAB.

Read what the jury said.- Traditional Peruvian weaving looms create the tactile, colourful walls of a Barcelona eatery. On the looms are intersecting rows of cord, which give the place its name: in Quechua, pakta means ‘union’, a term that also reflects a blend of cultures. Faced with the ‘impossibly high standards of a three-star chef’, the architects impressed the jury with a solution based on ‘a few strong gestures’.

Relax & Consume winner: Pakta Restaurant by El Equipo Creativo. Photography © Adrià Goula.

Read what the jury said.- A whimsical setting of colour-coded islands enlivens the ordinary interior of an office for the unemployed in Den Hoorn. Spaces separated by colour, instead of by walls, enforce the humane design concept that people should not be placed in boxes. Swaying the jury was i29’s use of ‘banal elements in an interesting way to create complexity’ in a design that ‘challenges people to move through the space to discover it’.

Concentrate & Collaborate winner: Social Workplace by i29. Photography © i29.

Read what the jury said.- Ignoring the cinematic potential offered by converting a slaughterhouse into a movie theatre, CH+QS came up with an interior that is more fantasy than horror. Steel frames, interwoven with irrigation hoses and tube lighting, conjure an experience that seduces the senses. According to the jury, Cineteca Matadero is ‘a commendable technical insertion in an old building, showing the architects’ genuine understanding of what it means to go to the movies’.

Serve & Facilitate winner: Cineteca Matadero by Churtichaga+Quadra-Salcedo Arquitectos. Photography © FG+SG.

The Great Indoors is an international, biennial, interior design award. The Great Indoors Award will honour interior design projects in the following four categories. The winner of each category will receive a monetary prize of EUR 5,000.

Show & Sell. Relojeria Alemana Boutique by OHLab (ES)
Retail: shops, showrooms, trade-fair stands, exhibitions

Relax & Consume. Pakta Restaurant by El Equipo Creativo (ES)
Leisure: hotels, bars, clubs, restaurants, spas, wellness centres

Concentrate & Collaborate. Social Workplace by i29 (NL)
Work: offices, studios, administration buildings, conference centres

Serve & Facilitate. Cineteca Matadero by Churtichaga+Quadra-Salcedo Arquitectos (ES)
Public: libraries, hospitals, theatres, schools

The international jury consisted of: Edouard François (FR), Director Maison Edouard François, Paris; Beatrice Galilee (UK), Chief curator of 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennale, London; Fabrizio Gallanti (IT), Associate Director Programs at Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal; Christien Meindertsma (NL), Designer, Rotterdam; Lyndon Neri (CN), Founding Partner of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, Shanghai and Design Republic, Shanghai.