Winner spotlight: St Hugo
Architecture, interiors and fine wines come together at St Hugo, a vineyard in South Australia’s...
Winner spotlight: The Voxman Music Building
The University of Iowa’s Voxman Music Building is a window onto musical performance, its glazed...
Historic hangar converted to Google office
A historic aircraft hangar in Los Angeles has been converted to Google’s latest workplace, in a design by ZGF Architects. The giant, seven-storey hangar in Playa Vista was built in 1943 to house the Spruce Goose, the iconic flying boat. The design of the original hangar has been preserved, while creating a modern workspace for Google and YouTube employees through the building’s adaptive reuse.
Winner spotlight: Cave Club
Brave and heroic: that was how the judges of the World Interiors News Awards 2018 summed up Cave Club, a nightclub in Guangzhou, China. The design, by Republic Metropolis Architecture, won the Bars: Experience Award in the prestigious WIN Awards 2018, which were celebrated in London last month.
Apple opens Bangkok store
Apple has opened its first store in Thailand, with a Foster + Partners’ designed glazed pavilion in central Bangkok. The Apple Iconsiam store is connected to the new Iconsiam Center, a major mixed use development with shopping malls, hotels and apartments, and sits above the city’s Chao Phraya River.
Winner Spotlight: Future Street
How will our streets look and function in the future? To give people a better idea, the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) commissioned Place Design Group to come up with a vision for Sydney’s Alfred Street. The ideas were showcased for three days only in Sydney as part of AILA’s 2017 International Festival last October. But Place Design Group’s vision has won global recognition with the inaugural Best Immersive Use of Tech Award in the World Architecture News Awards 2018, which were celebrated in London last month.
Winner spotlight: Carhartt Work in Progress
Carhartt Work in Progress’ (WIP) store interiors are known for their utilitarian sense of chic, often expressed in grey, metallic finishes. For the fourth store to open in London, Faye Toogood has expressed the retailer’s aesthetic in warmer tones.
UK government ban hits high rise timber housing
The UK government has banned the use of combustible materials in the external walls of new buildings over 18m in height that contain homes. The move comes in response to the tragic fire at the Grenfell Tower block in London last year, but it has prompted concern among architects as it rules out the use of engineered timber products like cross-laminated timber (CLT) in high-rise housing blocks. They say the move limits the potential for sustainable high-rise residential innovation and development.
Winner spotlight: BAKE store
For retailers, setting out your brand in bricks and mortar with a first store in a city is an extremely significant statement. BAKE, a maker of cheesecake-style cheese tarts, has presented its brand in some style with its debut shop in Ho Chi Minh City, in Vietnam. The end result has attracted both customers and a Retail Interiors Award in the World Interiors News Awards 2018.
Winner spotlight: Foro Boca Concert Hall
Raw, powerful and intensely beautiful: these are some of the words that have been used to describe Rojkind Arquitectos’ Foro Boca Concert Hall in Mexico. These qualities come from the architect’s understanding and application of concrete for this project. And this earned the building the Concrete in Architecture Award in the World Architecture News Awards 2018, which were presented earlier this month in London.
Winner spotlight: Can Graphic Design Save Your Life? exhibition
What is the relationship between graphic design and health? That was the subject of an exhibition, Can Graphic Design Save Your Life? at London’s Wellcome Collection. The creativity of Universal Design Studio’s design for this exhibition made it a clear winner of the Exhibition Spaces Award in the World Interiors News Awards 2018.
Ole Scheeren’s Bangkok tower complete
Buro Ole Scheeren’s addition to the Bangkok skyline, the MahaNakhon Tower, has reached completion with the opening of its vertiginous observation deck. The observation deck, which crowns Bangkok’s tallest tower, is open to the public and is located more than 300 metres above ground level. A 4.5 metre by 17.5 metre walkable glass platform, called the Skytray, is quite literally the highlight of the visitor experience.
