The winners of the Forum AID Awards 2009

Futuristic Alpine cabins in a Danish suburb. Graphics from floor to ceiling in Hong Kong. An unusual sheet metal stool. And a Norwegian ray of sunshine that plays with your psyche under the table. On February 3, the winners of the Forum AID Awards 2009 were revealed. The Nordic region’s most innovative architecture, interiors and design were celebrated by hundreds of guests at the distinguished Rival in Stockholm. The night’s prize ceremony and party saw the Nordic architecture and design elite mingle with the year’s stars. The competition was organized by Forum AID Magazine for the eighth year in a row.

And the winners are…
Architecture: Mountain Dwellings by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group. Denmark. Client: Høpfner A/S and Danish Oil Company A/S
Interiors: Cristal Bar by Katrin Olina Petursdóttir. Iceland. Client: Zenses
Design: Plopp by Oskar Zieta for Hay. Denmark.
Best Student Work: Subconscious Effect of Daylight by Daniel Rybakken. Norway.

The jury’s justifications
Architecture
Mountain Dwellings by BIG. Client: Høpfner A/S and Danish Oil Company A/S.

Mountain Dwellings by BIG is a bold, ambitious and seemingly illogical building that on closer inspection is highly rational, as well as being a lot of fun. Situated on an unpromising suburban site, the client’s demand for both car parking and housing has been met by placing the residential element on top of the parking. The resulting bulk has been tamed by arranging the flats as if they are Alpine cabins on a hillside, each featuring a generous and well-screened terrace. With their mountain analogy BIG have successfully reduced a complex brief to something resembling an expert logotype – colourful, witty and unforgettable.

Interiors
Cristal Bar by Katrin Olina Petursdottir. Client: Zenses.

Of all the interiors shortlisted in this category, Katrin Olina’s Cristal Bar was the one the jury felt they would most like to experience. With every available surface covered with Olina’s graphic art, the patterns become more than just decoration and create a dream-like, immersive environment. It is a simple idea to make a two-dimensional pattern the dominant design feature of a three-dimensional space, but the result is striking.

Design
Plopp by Oskar Zieta. Client: Hay.

Plopp may look like a piece of contemporary art, but the process that created it is good, old-fashioned industrial design. The designers have identified an interesting new manufacturing technique that involves forming sheet steel with compressed air, and applied it to an everyday item of furniture, creating a striking new form in the process. This process contrasts strongly with that adopted by too many designers these days, who start with aesthetics and worry about technique later, often with unfortunate results. By combining technical and aesthetic innovation, the jury felt Plopp was highly deserving of this award.

Best Student Work
Subconscious Effect of Daylight by Daniel Rybakken

Daniel Rybakken’s poetic work is a functional piece of furniture with a conceptual twist –light is projected from beneath the table to replicate the effect of sunlight slanting through a window. It is a concept that appeals to anyone who has experienced the oppression of living or working in a windowless room, or who has felt starved of light in the depths of winter. By affecting the user psychologically, rather than through function or form, Subconscious Effect of Daylight hints at a whole new potential area of research for designers.

Jury
The jury consisted of Chairman Marcus Fairs, Manuelle Gautrand, Sean Griffiths and Dirk Wynants.

Images: Forum AID