University Campus Design Fosters Community and Wellness

Project of the Week

This week's instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features a public space design by 2020 SBID Awards Finalist NBBJ. The client for this project wanted to create a world-class campus that would attract and retain the very best students and academics.

SBID Awards Category: Public Space Design Sponsored by Sans Souci

Practise: NBBJ

Project: American International University 

Location: Jahra, Kuwait

What was the client's brief? 

Armed with the client’s vision, the design team crafted a concept inspired by a young group of Kuwaitis, dedicated to rebuilding their natural landscape after decades of upheaval through the planting of 350,000 trees. The interior design embodies the attributes of these desert trees through the exploration of warmth, pattern, canopy, and dappled light.  The campus’ interstitial spaces pull from the qualities of middle-eastern seed pods (vibrant colours, unique forms and textures) resulting in environments that promote creative thinking and informal collaboration.  These spatial elements combine to form a campus that feels established and firmly focused on the country’s future leaders.

What inspired the design of the project?

The client wanted to create a world-class campus that would attract and retain the very best students and academics. A series of key design drivers was established to enable a strategy to achieve this from a spatial standpoint. These four design drivers were the primary inspiration for the final design of the campus:

Fostering Community: The Student Union offers a mix of environments that encourage this community of commuters to stay on campus and foster connections.

Oasis for learning: In response to the region’s harsh climate, the library serves as a campus destination that is fueled by natural light, plantings and comfortable learning environments.

Flexibility and Adaptability: The project was designed to use space efficiently while being ready for change. AIU is designed with the future in mind, able to adapt to support an evolving curriculum.

Wellness: The college is inspiring a cultural shift centred around physical fitness by opening an on-site fitness and health centre. Additionally, the feature stairs throughout the campus encourage movement.

What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project?

Accelerated Schedule: The client bought out the University rights from another group. Once this was purchased, the shell and core of the building were already being constructed. In order to open for the autumn 2019 school year, the interior fit-out schedule needed to be accelerated. From visioning through Stage 4, the design team only had 20 weeks to execute the project. The scope included full interior design and FFE services.

Commuter Culture: The location of the University is located one hour from Kuwait City. The University’s competitors are located in the heart of Kuwait City. Being a commuter campus, we took this obstacle and turned it into opportunities to foster campus community and provide amenities; this was paramount to the project's success. Amenity highlights include a 2-story library, collaboration hubs in student focused areas and a large work cafe to provide opportunities to learn and connect.

Unique Methods: As our scope did not include someone from our design team full time on site during construction, high expectations for quality needed to be met in working with local fabricators. As a result, we were able to add site visits to ensue craftsmanship and quality were appropriately met.

Flexibility and Adaptability: During the design process, Stage 1 - Stage 5, there wasn’t an established curriculum. The project was designed to use space efficiently while being ready for change. AIU is designed with the future in mind, able to adapt to support an evolving curriculum.

What was your team’s highlight of the project?

It was incredibly rewarding to see student use (and love!) the space the way our design intended — from social interactions in the cafe to learning in the classrooms.

The built-in banquettes in the cafe were designed with larger groups in mind. The week our team visited for photography, bespoke banquettes designed to hold four-to-six students had eight students crammed in laughing and enjoying a meal together. Our client also told us that during student tours, the design has greatly helped with recruiting and retaining students.

Why did you enter the SBID Awards?

As the SBID International Design Awards is one of the most prestigious global interior design award programs, we thought it was the perfect platform to showcase a project we are proud of — that makes a difference in the lives of young people and creates a welcoming environment for the leaders, creators and innovators of tomorrow.

Art as a form of communication

Specifying artwork with purpose & meaning

The first step to making it right when placing artwork in a home is to understand the relation of the owner with art: Is it decorative? Is it an intellectual/passionate relation with its meaning and expression? Is it pride for having many pieces he/she have accumulated? or Is it the display of a well-shaped collection?

Interior design as a frame to enhance artistic works

If you are lucky enough to have one of Monet’s waterlilies or a Rothko (let’s dream) you want to be able to immerse yourself in the expansion that these artworks offer, one of beauty and nature, the other of eternity so the position chosen for them has to be one that allows contemplation, that removes distractions, with the right lighting and a space from which you can imagine, think and feel.

Art helps us to appreciate the tangible and intangible from different perspectives allowing ourselves to expand our horizons while we enjoy it visually; Interior design has the duty to understand this, incorporating them wisely, thoroughly and sensitively in the design scheme and flow of the space. We cannot forget that Interior design can be either the frame that enhances communication or the zero-multiplying factor; for an art lover, the latter should not happen.

Want to submit your own content? Click here to find out more.

Project of the Week

This week's instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features a residential design by 2020 SBID Awards Finalist Chains Interiors. The Taiwan-based design practice worked on this high-end project which was inspired by a song written by the owner.

SBID Awards Category: Residential Apartment Over £1M Sponsored by Vectorworks

Practise: Chains Interiors

Project: Write A Song For You

Location: Taipei, Taiwan 

What was the client's brief? 

Our client is a professional Musician. Since music is such a big part of his life,  he wanted music to flow in all corners of the home, while remaining functional.

What inspired the design of the project?

The concept of this design is inspired by a song that a house owner wrote for his beloved wife. While the tunes and tempos of the song transform into lines on the walls, the spontaneous melodies also turn into colours in the space and the twists and turns of the notes into topographic curves on the ceiling. Together these elements become a manifestation of the tenderness conveyed by the song.

What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project?

Finding a balance between aesthetics, design concepts, actual usage requirements and budget. We also wanted to make the intricate ceiling lines perfect, so we made several versions to make sure the final design achieved this.

What was your team’s highlight of the project?

The highlight of this project was successfully fitting the final design with every part of the song that the house owner wrote.

Why did you enter the SBID Awards?

The SBID Awards have always celebrated international certification and we wanted to showcase our work to a wider audience by participating in this competition.

Hitzig Militello Architects share the inspiration and process behind their high-end Buenos Aires cocktail bar and restaurant project; Osten.

Osten, the high-end cocktail bar and restaurant, is located in Puerto Madero's distinguished neighbourhood in Buenos Aires. The generating idea and initial design concept stems from the era of the economic crash in 1929. Inspired by the novel The Crack-Up by Scott Fitzgerald, and the decadence of glamour from The Great Gatsby.

At first glance, a large corridor is built with scaffolding and the name Osten hangs on perforated metal located in the main entrance that also functions as a waiting room. This sets the scene and atmosphere in an alluring effect to inspire desire to discover the space step by step.

The corridor has 6 different accesses to the general space - this was fundamentally designed so each of the areas can be made independent to divide the areas as private spaces when required.

Access to the bar is at the end of the corridor, crowned by metal perforated structures to frame the identity and design of the bar. The corridors separate the entire space into two large areas of use against the backdrop of this large, statement bar.

The presence of scaffolding acts to support the design theme, representing the  era that could no longer support itself. The essential characteristic of scaffolding devices throughout the scheme is ultimately the temporality of their use, and it is this word "temporality" that defines the end of that era of over indulgent elegance. These scaffolds underpin large sheet metal arches painted in gold, but without the glitz or bombast, their appearance is instead rather aged.

The language of the arches is carried throughout and used house all the most representative areas with the bar at the epicentre; the access through a large corridor, the bar itself and its setting, as well as the staircases and perimeter seating area. Knots hold each encounter of the aged scaffolding with old bronze paint.

Modernity is essentially represented by the inner skin, built with cementitious plates and marble organised in pieces in different areas. These marble slabs are arranged in between the scaffolding structures, seeking a relationship between the elegant and the temporary. All Carrara and dark green marble slabs are arranged linearly and held in an ethereal way.

Modernity also makes an appearance through the acrylic tubes that are part of the lighting system where the two worlds are combined; the modern and its acrylic packaging with art deco drawings. In the same way, large lamps that simulate spiders, hang with acrylic tubes and chains representing the beads.

The graphic identity developed from the naming typography was applied in different spaces, in the form of a stencil on walls and through cut-outs in plates to achieve devices that function as dividers. As a result of typographic development, graphic pieces of feminine profiles have been developed and applied in the form of artistic paintings held by the scaffolding system.

The scaffolding system extends to the outdoor spaces to support the seating area, with a large mural designed by the branding team through the development of the typeface family. The tonality of the old bronze, dark green, light and blue was the result of a sober and elegant composition.

Project of the Week

This week's instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features a retail design by 2020 SBID Awards Finalist 4SPACE Design. The Dubai-based design practice was tasked with bringing to life the 140 square metre fashion retail store Tutus Kurniati.

SBID Awards Category: Retail Design Sponsored by Garrett Leather

Practise: 4SPACE Design

Project: Tutus Kurniati

Location: Dubai, UAE

What was the client's brief? 

The client wanted to develop her e-commerce platform with its first flagship store, for a more intimate shopping experience. It was important that the design reflected the brand as a luxury resort wear. The client envisioned the space to be modern and very feminine.

What inspired the design of the project?

Since the logo speaks highly of the character of the owner, 4SPACE focused on the featured colours; pink and beach-sand. The interior design was inspired by the waves on the shoreline, rocks, and seashells.

What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project?

Completing the project on time for the grand opening of the Mall. We had a hard time with our terrazzo floor as it was installed manually, placing the terrazzo aggregates one by one to ensure that the outcome will be the same as the design.

What was your team’s highlight of the project?

The Instagram booth inspired by the beach showers with a neon sign and perfect lighting for an insta-worthy status - a notable design concept that is totally chic and canny.

Steps seating lounge that would appeal to social media-savvy females who enjoy retail culture.

In a cash-free COVID future, Tutus Kurniati was designed with no cash desk where technology works at its best.

Why did you enter the SBID Awards?

We’ve been participating in the SBID Awards since 2016 and we’ve heard nothing but praise. The process for submitting the entries has always been easy and all the coordinators are very helpful. Having a good review and been very consistent in promoting the interior design profession makes us a keen follower and member of SBID. Our founders and Interior Architects of 4SPACE started becoming Accredited professionals of SBID. We’ve also won the “Overall Winner” for SBID Awards 2018.

Questions answered by Firas Alsahin, Design Director, and Amjad Hourieh, Managing Director, 4SPACE Design.

We hope you feel inspired by this week's design!

If you missed the last instalment of Project of the Week, featuring an office renovation in a pre-war building, click here to see more.

Nicholas J. Hickson and Manuela Mannino, founders of THPD, lead us on a trail that winds through the new tendencies of Hotel Design.

The hotel and tourism industry rest on an ever-changing canvas and today more than ever – also considering the pandemic period – the customer and traveller requirements express themselves through novel brushstrokes.

“If we were to identify the new directions our work is heading in, the necessity to conceive and design projects as authentic travel experiences and stone narrators of the place housing them, that is to say, destinations worth admiring and living would be the at the first place” – Nicholas Hickson says.

New frontiers of hotel design open up and the positions that recently come out during “Designing New Hospitality” – the digital conference fostered by Elle Décor Italia –  seem to meet Hickson’s philosophy. “Emotional hotels” capable of offering stories, experiences and emotions and “story-teller interiors” wherein the city itself may be to some extent retained and enclosed are ­– according to the industry experts surveyed last January by Il Sole Ventiquattrore – the new hôtellerie avant-garde (Pierotti, Paola).

Today, according to THDP, hotels are places of enchantment for travellers and local inhabitants, rather than mere ports of passage. Modern sanctuaries far from the hectic pace of the city or refined niches where divorcing from reality, contemporary hotels are the background to unique experiences and places to appreciate the rare flair of the inside spaces. Two fundamental reference models may be cited. The Indigo Verona Grand Hotel Des Arts, largely inspired by the Arena di Verona theatre and based on Romeo and Juliet second act, and the Hilton Frankfurt City Centre, where the welcoming atmosphere of Manhattan – the New York district that lends its name to Frankfurt city – informs the magnificent construction.

“Designing the Indigo Verona Grand Hotel Des Arts has been just like writing poetry ” – the architecture Mannino explicates.

Upon entering, the reception and the hotel lobby feature an evocative counter inspired by the stone masonry of Juliet’s renowned balcony in Via Cappello. And not only that. “The rear panels behind the newly designed reception take cues from the staggered wings of the theatre. Given the renown of Verona’s signature Roman arena, it would have been a pity not dedicating him a tribute…” – the architecture Mannino explains.

The burnt bronze and the deep indigo blue colours are complemented by terrazzo sophisticated finishes, thus rendering the whole place a postcard-worthy spectacle to be admired in every single detail. The lightning is entirely made in Italy and conceived to enhance the Roman arches on the reception pod front. “The café façade is a homage to the Hotel Des Arts – namely the hotel prior to becoming Indigo – and consists of frames in varying shades”. The most precious Italian marble completes the ambience with a further hint of elegance.  “The selected furnishings feature soft shades of blue and aquamarine with rattan and orange hues, manufactured by the Italian firms Miniforms and Tehkne”. The former hotel’s art masterpieces and the mirrors have been carefully tended and maintained, with the intention of providing the atmosphere with modern touches.

“We wanted them to merge with works already part of the heritage of the hotel, belonging to Classical periods and mid-century. Sustainability is a priority for us and recycling is a valuable resource we have at our disposal. We wanted to give the existing works new life rather than throwing them away”. And the resulting effect is astounding.

Indeed, GlobalData’s “Luxury Hotel Market to 2024” 2020 report has revealed an upward tendency as regards the tourism industry sustainability. Paperless counters, refillable dispensers and recycled materials are trends likely to gain increasing popularity over the next years, thus leading to greater competition in the market. A further aspect highlighted by GlobalData’s report is the key role technology will play in the near future as a consequence of the pandemic restrictions, as luxury hotels are expected to redefine their design towards a more contactless experience, (GlobalData, November 2020).

“The new Hudson Yards Bar at the Hilton Frankfurt Centre resembles a typical New York café, with brass gantry shelving, custom counters, brass foot stops and a Rancilio coffee machine realized ad hoc” – Hickson explains. The ideal place for relaxing during the day or in the evening. “The bar is designed to work day and night. We have installed swing doors so that, besides hosting a ‘day’ focus section for coffees and sweet treats, the night discloses an unedited set-up, with cocktails and liqueurs”. The guests find themselves wholly immersed in the New York atmosphere, albeit with a local food menu. The spaces combine urban and chic vibes, with green marbles and brass elements. To top it all, a parquet reminiscent of the asphalt colours. “We have worked with a four-colours palette: we wanted the guests to feel as though they were standing at the very heart of Manhattan.”