Table of contents for 2024 Special in Frame

Every year we take stock of the overarching trends shaping spatial design, using the FRAME Awards winners as our starting point. After all, based on the votes and feedback from our 190 jury members, these projects represent the best this industry has to offer. If you’ve been following our publications, you are well aware that the five drivers for spatial design we defined one year ago won’t be going anywhere soon. They’re here to stay for years to come. Let’s mention them once more. Especially in an increasingly digital-first world, people crave physical EXPERIENCES. Since we spend about 90 per cent of our time indoors, the spaces we dwell and work in need to foster our HEALTH AND WELLBEING. The construction of any space has an environmental impact, which needs…

‘Brilliant, almost cinematic experience design utilizing a minimal palette’ is how jury member Tessa Mansfield, chief creative officer at Stylus, described the work of 2023’s Emerging Designer of the Year F.O.G. Architecture. The cross-disciplinary studio with teams in London, Shanghai and Chongqing was founded in 2018 by Zhan Di and Zheng Yu 'upon the belief that great spaces are filled with emotion and form a timeless connection with people’. This conviction is reflected throughout the firm’s sense-driven portfolio, which spans different scales, from product to installation to (interior) architecture. Like Mansfield, Agata Kurzela, founder and design director of Agata Kurzela Studio, praised the architects for their ‘light-touch design approach’, especially because it doesn’t limit their creative range. ‘Whether fully analogue or technology-driven, the sculptural quality of the work comes to…

HOUSE OF THE YEAR 19 WATERLOO STREET SJB SYDNEY Dubbed by its designers as an ‘exercise in limiting a footprint but expanding connections’, 19 Waterloo Street in Sydney stands on a site of just 30 m2. To jury member Agata Kurzela, founder and design director of her eponymous studio, SJB succeeded: ‘The effort of introducing daylight at the cost of the footprint pays off, and returns a bright and airy interior, despite a small footprint.’ It wasn’t just the petite size of the site that informed the design. The arrangement and geometry of the apertures in the Jacques Tati-inspired façade were designed in dialogue with the street. As the designers describe: ‘You’re at once in the city and part of its fabric, yet removed from it, still afforded a quiet…

MELBOURNE Colour equals taste and temptation at Kōri Ice Cream. Architects Eat’s design reflects the fresh spin on Japanese flavours being scooped up and served in the Melbourne store, with tones inspired by Kawaii culture. ‘Delicious and smart, with a single colour and a single conceptual gesture doing all the heavy lifting,’ said jury member Agata Kurzela, founder and design director of Agata Kurzela Studio. The use of ‘Kōri red’ (Dulux’s water-based, low-VOC Retro Disco paint) is twofold. It divides the 41-m2 shop into two zones – front and back of house – and makes a statement on the façade. The latter was designed to make a splash in its location, a heritage building on a street with an established, competitive ice cream market. ‘The colour is the driver inside…

It’s hard to talk about design and not think of Patricia Urquiola. Born in 1961 in Oviedo, Spain, she has dominated the design scene throughout the 21st century. At trade fairs, in magazines and online: she – or her products – have been present front and centre since the early noughts. She founded her studio in Milan in 2001. Combining strong, architectural forms with sensual textures, she quickly stood out in the male-dominated Italian design world. Her use of colour was (and still is) as expressive as her way of speaking: anyone who has ever met her will undoubtedly remember how her gesticulating hands support her passionately delivered waterfall of words. Urquiola has designed almost every conceivable interior product, from washbasins to lamps and tiles, at least once. It is…

US-born brand Blue Bottle Coffee, which claimed this year’s Client of the Year award, has achieved cult status since opening its first venue in California some 20-plus years ago. The brand has launched several outposts and now occupies prime real estate in many storied neighbourhoods across the US and Asia. Each outlet represents the brand’s identity with a clean and sophisticated look. It speaks to an Instagrammable minimalism that flies in the face of Starbucks’ Reserve Roastery locations whose maximalist, theme-park interiors offer an altogether different experience. Or, as jury member Emma Maxwell, founder and design director of Emma Maxwell Design, said: ‘The brand admirably deliberately keeps visually quieter in a saturated coffee market.’ Being less visually domineering than its competitors allows Blue Bottle Coffee to exist as a neighbour,…

BAR OF THE YEAR LINKEDTOWN COFFEE XIANXIANGDESIGN HANGZHOU At a time when eco-consciousness should be the norm, can sustainability make you stand out? Yes, decided the jury, if LinkedTown Coffee is anything to go by. When the 65-m2 coffee bar joined countless other cafés in Hangzhou, XianXiangDesign decided to diverge from the masses with a ‘wasteland-style statement’. Using what they refer to as ‘low-dose design’, the designers embraced the original industrial site. Broken flea market furniture finds were revived with ‘prosthetics’, while graffitied branding solidifies the subversive vibe. Jury member Christophe Penasse, CEO of Masquespacio, felt that XianXiangDesign exhibited a ‘smart use of a reduced budget’, proving you can ‘still be authentic through recycling’. Tank creative director and associate partner Miriam Zuurbier enjoyed the bar’s boldness: ‘It’s fresh. Different. An…

LEARNING SPACE OF THE YEAR CENTRE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION STUDIES FIELDWORK AND BRAND ARCHITECTS MELBOURNE A learning centre slotted in a high-rise-heavy cityscape can still prioritize human-centric qualities like natural light, ventilation and greenery. That’s what Fieldwork and Brand Architects proves with the 2,690-m2 Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES) in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra. The busy urban site inspired the integration of a central atrium to create conditions conducive to learning – a pursuit developed in consultation with Dr Ben Cleveland, associate professor in learning environments and co-director of the Learning Environments Applied Research Network at Melbourne School of Design. According to jury member Marie Hesseldahl Larsen, partner and head of interior and product design at 3XN, the goal was achieved: ‘It looks like a safe, pleasant…

SHENZHEN ‘It sets the stage for a unique and immersive experience centred on light, which is the essence of the category,’ said Rosha Ehsan, head of design at Gastronomica, during jury deliberations for the Best Use of Light award. Light is also the essence of the brand behind the space: Cettiga specializes in LED downlight design, development and production. For its 170-m2 Field Design Center in Shenzhen, the brand worked with Peng & Partners to transport visitors into a ‘poetic palace of light’ in which illumination is the protagonist. ‘Very well done,’ said Jai Kumaran, partner at West of West. ‘A series of quiet spaces whose differences are defined by the lighting, demonstrating a high degree of craft and ability to control different light sources to create dramatic effects.’ Samar…

A series of furniture pieces made from waste polystyrene shows what’s possible when you challenge the status quo. In Tokyo, the ubiquitous material is collected after (often only one) use and sent to treatment plants in and around the city to be melted into ingots. These are typically exported to Europe and Southeast Asia, where they’re shredded into granules for use in cheap recycled plastic products, which are mainly made in China. In essence, the material is shipped around the globe and undergoes complex recycling processes, only to end up being sold as low-cost goods. Approaching Tokyo waste materials as ‘vernacular materials’, We+ explored the possibility of melting polystyrene into ingots in intermediate treatment plants for manufacturing furniture. The recycling process is radically simplified, and (waste) polystyrene gains a new…

ENCOUNTERS BY DESIGN Strategies for Spatial Stories by Atelier Markgraph Discover the strategies behind the visionary new practice of designing spatial encounters: whether it be a museum exhibition, brand experience or urban installation, space has become the unexpected medium through which to tell stories and craft identities. This comprehensive investigation delves into Frankfurt-based spatial design agency Atelier Markgraph’s portfolio through the lens of encounters. €59 frameweb.com/books…

‘Simple but powerful.’ To Dongzi Yang this combination of words best describes the work of his multidisciplinary studio Various Associates, which he cofounded with Qianyi Lin in 2017. The Shenzhen-based firm, named 2023’s Designer of the Year, indeed excels in creating immersive spaces that forego screaming, attention-commanding aspects in favour of strongyet-balanced architectural interventions that activate one’s curiosity. Whether it’s an aura of mystery, a futuristic feeling or a fantasy-driven narrative, there is always a very distinctive atmospheric layer enveloping VA’s spatial experiences. We talked with the studio’s founders about emotion-driven environments, making spaces memorable and designing for longevity. RT Most of your work has distinctive architectural qualities; you can consider it to be true interior architecture. To you, what’s the power of space? QL We look at interior design…

Gen Z is embroiled in an affair with escapism. It’s no wonder. A daily (doom)scroll through the news doesn’t make the here and now seem all that appealing. In fact, the findings of a 2022 McKinsey study suggest Gen Z is the generation with the ‘least positive life outlook’: one in four respondents reported feeling emotionally distressed, almost twice as many as millennials and Gen X. In turn, writes Tatenda Musekiwa for Gen Z-led consultancy start-up The Red Flower Factory, they’re turning to ‘binge-watching TV, playing video games, in-person events, excessive messaging or immersing themselves in imaginary worlds’ to provide ‘a momentary escape from the real world’s harshness’. While not exactly kicking them when they’re down, companies are certainly cashing in on them when they’re down. After all, Gen Z…

Ask a designer why they chose their profession and the reply will probably be: to make the world more beautiful. Time and time again, the world’s largest design manifestation – Milan Design Week – confirms it. Hundreds of thousands gasp at the latest iterations of the chair, the table and the lamp. New designs try to appeal to their audience in ever more interesting shapes, attractive shades and seductive surface materials. Naturally, the majority is new. But that doesn’t mean it’s innovative. Increasing your market share with a new product line isn’t the same as being innovative. True innovation, the one that speaks about new functionalities, materials and technologies benefitting people and planet, is typically to be found few and far between. Ultimately, design mostly speaks about desire. Things simply…

WAALWIJK It wasn’t the use of just one material that scored the Schoenenkwartier Shoe Museum top marks from the jury; it was Civic Architects and La-Di-Da’s approach to integrating materials into a 1930s listed building complex, which was renovated and expanded to become a shoe-related knowledge centre in Waalwijk, a city once known as the centre of the Dutch shoe industry. Jury member Chantal Vos, associate partner at Kraaijvanger Architects, felt the designers developed a ‘modest and harmonious palette alongside the original architecture’. KTX archiLAB partner and architect designer Farid Ziani concurred: ‘The introduction of new materials into the old structure feels smooth, rather than trying to make a statement or demonstrate their possibilities.’ The jurors agreed that while the palette is limited, it wasn’t limiting. ‘Each of the materials…