2023 SBID Awards Finalists Announced

The SBID International Design Awards finalists for 2023 have been revealed, boasting an impressive shortlist of award-worthy entries across Interior Design, Product Design and Fit-Out. From the design scheme, materials used and products specified through to the final fit-out installation, the SBID Awards champion design standards across the supply chain in the design, procurement and execution of outstanding interiors!

To complete the third and final stage of judging, the online Public Vote is now open! Worth 10% of the final scores, it’s your chance to sway the results to decide which finalists you think deserve to take home a prestigious SBID Award!

You can only vote once per category, so choose wisely and vote for your favourite designs today! Voting closes at 5pm (BST) on 11 September.

Voting closes at 5pm (BST) on 11 September.

Visit www.sbidawards.com to find out more!

The SBID International Design Awards finalists for 2022 have been revealed, boasting an impressive shortlist of award-worthy entries across Interior Design, Product Design and Fit-Out. From the design scheme, materials used and products specified through to the final fit-out installation, the SBID Awards champion design standards across the supply chain in the design, procurement and execution of outstanding interiors!

To complete the third and final stage of judging, the online Public Vote is now open! Worth an influential 30% of the final scores, it’s your chance to sway the results and decide which finalists you think deserve to take home a prestigious SBID Award! You can only vote once per category, so choose wisely and vote for your favourite designs!

Voting closes at 5pm (BST) on 24 August

Voting closes at 5pm (BST) on 24 August.

Visit www.sbidawards.com to find out more!

In this week’s interview with 2021 SBID Awards winners of the Fit Out Contractor of the Year – Workplace category, Modus Workspace, share the key elements they focus on when designing workplaces and predict future changes in workspace designs.

How important is it to enter the SBID Awards & receive industry recognition for your work? What are the benefits?

It’s so important to our team and our clients. I’m lucky enough to work with a group of people who get up every day and truly love what they do, no matter what. It doesn’t matter if an award is waiting for them at the end of a project, but it sometimes helps. For my team, it gives them the recognition that they deserve and keeps them motivated to continue to aim high, always. We have seen just how powerful winning awards can be for our clients, from stakeholder management to employee retention and hiring top talent, it also reaffirms to our clients that their investment and trust in Modus was worth it.

As a specialist in workplace fit-out projects, what are the most important considerations when designing for working environments?

For the past 30 years, Modus has been designing and delivering office spaces with the objective and empirical evidence to support, that this helps our client’s businesses perform better and have happier, healthier work environments. Every project is unique, and we approach each one with open minds, because it is about understanding the fundamental needs and wants of our clients including their goals and ambitions. However, there are a few key areas that form the baseline for all decision making: workplace strategy, sustainability, wellbeing, culture and future proofing their space for today and tomorrow.

What insights can you give regarding the future of the workplace? How should office designs evolve alongside changing trends?

There’s a lot of talk around the future of the workplace and how it will evolve and change. The digitalisation of spaces will be a big thing. From ‘zoom’ kitted out meeting rooms to intuitive tech, the office of the future will be designed for a different kind of working and a multitude of different office landscapes.

Now that you’ve won an SBID Award, what are the next steps? Is there anything new you are excited to be working on?

We’ve got so many exciting projects already in the pipeline for 2022, we’ve been venturing abroad with projects in Dubai and Europe – it’s all under wraps for now but watch this space!

What advice can you give to young designers starting out in the design industry?

Think big, think broadly and have a go. Be brave with your designs and send that email to the D&B firm you’ve always wanted to work at, you never know what’s around the corner. At Modus, we pride ourselves on nurturing the designers of the future. It’s something we take very seriously and I particularly love doing. We are always looking to take on new talent so if you’re looking to start a career in design, get in touch with us at [email protected].

Questions answered by Vidhi Sharma, Creative Director, Modus Workspace.

In this week’s interview with 2021 SBID Awards winners for the Fit Out Contractor of the Year – Residential category, ALTER EGO, the designers discuss creating interiors that perfectly align with the clients’ desires and blending the architectural style of the residence into its interior design.

How important is it to enter the SBID Awards & receive industry recognition for your work? What are the benefits?

We are absolutely delighted and honoured to become a winner of the SBID Awards in the Fit Out Contractor of the Year – Residential category. Receiving recognition from one of the most prestigious and renowned awards in the global design industry brings not only status and global promotion but also inspiration for new incredible projects and hopefully the future victories.

What do you think made this particular design an award winner?

This project on the Cote d’Azur is an example of successful synergy when the wishes of the Client and their willingness for innovative ideas coincided with our creativity and experience in the realization of unique and complex turnkey projects.

One of the customer’s key desires was a house exposed to nature so in this coastline villa we implemented the concept of a space with blurred boundaries, open to light and air. The seascape of the French Riviera inspired our team and became the main visual component of the interior. From certain angles it seems transparent. Each room faces picturesque views from panoramic windows.

A high point and best illustration of the concept is a sophisticated light composition – a flock of glass birds “hovering” in the central room of the villa. These bespoke pendants of different shapes and sizes were created according to our designer’s sketches by outstanding glass artisans. The functional content of the house and all storage systems are designed to create a feeling of completely unfurnished space, where nothing distracts from the purity of lines and the beauty of proportions.

The exterior of the residence is an architectural statement in itself. How far did this inspire the design of the interior?

A good interior is always a consequence of high-quality architecture. The villa blends perfectly with the surrounding landscape and the design solutions correspond to the context of the place. Bionic forms present in façade design, inside the house turn into large-scale arches, the curved wall panels set up a unique plasticity of the space and create a feeling of perfectly smooth surface. The decorative effect is enhanced by Onyx Rainbow inlay of extraordinary colours and patterns, perceived as stunning pictures created by the nature itself. A mesmerizing Calcite Blue picked up as the main bathroom finishing material captivates the observer with the charm of its sugary tones that, on one hand, suggest the perception of ethereal beauty and, on the other, symbolise freshness and clarity. White colour, prevailing in the interiors, acts as a joint background, emphasizing the continuity of spaces.

When taking on a turnkey project, what is your approach to establishing a successful design scheme that achieves the client’s vision/brief?

Our first responsibility and aim are to hear and understand the client properly. We do our best to ensure that our architectural or interior design concepts hit the customer’s wishes on the first try. This is a very ambitious goal, but there is no other way to start working on a complex, unique project.

Accurately hitting the client’s wishes on the first try means that an invisible connection has been found, a person has been heard and understood, and understood not only at the conceptual level, but at the level of further interaction – we already know which project timeline to build, which team will be most effective in working on this project, which contractors will be able to meet the client’s expectations, and much more.

How to achieve such an understanding from the first minutes? It is probably easier to answer how to be a human…

But there are simple ingredients: experience, good education, wide vision, and most importantly – passion for what you do.

Now that you’ve won an SBID Award, what are the next steps? Is there anything new you are excited to be working on?

Among new directions for the company’s development, we could highlight the sphere of hospitality. Our deep knowledge and many years of experience in private premium sector are highly demanded by hotel developers, allowing them to embody the principles of unique comfort and exclusivity in commercial hospitality projects.

Due to the change of travel conditions, that we are witnessing now, people’s requirements for a hotel are also changing, as they often have to spend more time there. So, new boutique hotels more often make use of the experience of bespoke residential construction, creating the most comfortable and thoughtful living conditions for their guests. And we are very pleased and excited to cooperate with developers in this industry.

What advice can you give to young designers starting out in the design industry?

Starting work with a potential Customer it is important to place the person in the centre stage, to hear and understand them. Therefore, in order to more accurately determine their concerns, interests, hobbies, favourite places and preferences, designers should listen to the Client more than talk about themselves.

Do not focus only on your ideas and sources of inspiration, always put the interests and wishes of the client first, and do not forget that the ideal interior is always created exactly for a specific customer and takes into account the smallest details, like a tailored suit, made exactly to measure.

Questions answered by Julia D. Lantieri, Founder and CEO and Vyacheslav Labzin, Architect and Creative Desirctor, ALTER EGO Project Group.

Cumberland Group is a principal contractor working across all sectors of the fit out and refurbishment industry. Founded in 1977 by our MD Dave Park, and along with the second generation of Directors, Cumberland has built a reputation as the go-to contractor for the highest standard of finishes and bespoke joinery manufacture.

“We are an award-winning contractor and pride ourselves on our ability to deliver for our clients consistently, through our customer-focused friendly approach, high standard of finishes and always with an attention to detail that is second to none.”

Bespoke joinery manufacturing workshop

As a time served joiner with a wealth of knowledge and experience in crafting bespoke joinery pieces, Dave established the Joinery Workshop as an integral part of the services Cumberland Group offers. The company’s Directors are all professionally qualified, traditional craftsmen who have over 100 years of combined experience in carpentry and joinery, so their clients can be ensured that their project is in very capable hands.

Cumberland Group have been manufacturing vast ranges of bespoke joinery throughout the years and they have many services available. State-of-the-art machinery keeps them up-to-date with modern joinery manufacturing methods and complements the traditional skills and knowledge that they have built up over the decades of experience in the joinery trade. Cumberland’s exceptional traditionally trained craftspersons provide a unique, highly skilled and guaranteed service with an emphasis on attention to detail to their valued client base.

Cumberland Group offer a fully bespoke joinery manufacturing service including:

• Special Veneering
• Solid Surface Fabrication
• Prototype workshop
• Bullet Resistant Doors and Frames – (Used to in banking premises)

Modern all-in-one technology

In 2018 Cumberland Group installed a new top of the range CNC machine which provides answers to all the problems associated with woodworking and with advanced materials processing. Just a few clicks to design and manufacture pieces of any shape, the machine is run by the Suite Maestro which has specific modules for every production cycle. Unique on the market in having an unrivalled price-performance ratio and it can be configured according to the clients needs.

This new machine provides the team with 60% time saving in drilling cycles and no downtimes for setup operations, while the exceptionally trained machinists and joiners provide a unique, highly skilled and guaranteed service with an emphasis on attention to detail.

• Unmatched finishing
• 5-axis direct-driven spindle head which ensures the total absence of vibrations even with huge material removal at high speed.
• High-performance drilling heads

Machinery that is intuitive, reliable and customizable

Single-blade beam saw controlled by PC/PLC control system, designed to cut solid wood panels or panel stacks. This new machine has increased Cumberland’s productivity by 30% and made a space saving of almost 20%. It is fast, precise and has powerful software to programme and create all panels imaginable.

Sustainability

Cumberland Group understand that adopting a sustainable stance is a critical element to their ability to operate effectively. Their sustainable ethics include accountability, transparency, ethical behaviour and respect for people. Internally they understand that fostering a healthy and safe working environment brings out the best in their staff. Cumberland Group also understand that they have a duty to reduce their environmental impact and contribute to the local community. They are committed to upholding their position as a leader within the industry, creating an environment where the principles of sustainability are understood, embraced and practised.

As a responsible company Cumberland have for many years taken their impact on the environment very seriously and make it their objective to get their manufacturing processes as green as possible. They do this by:

• Using reclaimed wood
• Using sustainable Eco-products
• Sourcing products locally
• Disposing of waste dutifully

Leading the way with a renewable energy source

Cumberland Group’s state of the art environmentally clean waste recovery facility at their Joinery Workshop has dramatically impacted their energy consumption. They ensure all their waste wood is recovered and used as fuel to heat their workshop, which diverts almost all of their production waste from landfill.

As well as the impressive performance and cost-saving benefits, the Group are burning one of the few remaining sustainable fuel sources, enabling them to operate a more environmentally responsible manufacturing facility.

Spray shop

Based on the same site as their joinery manufacturing workshop, is the fantastic purpose built spray finishing workshop where Cumberland’s in-house team provide a professional and high-quality spray paint finish to all of their bespoke joinery.

The spray booths are equipped with the latest technology in spraying providing the team with a controlled environment monitoring airflow and temperature at all times allowing for them to have a dust and defect-free final result. Cumberland Group can guarantee that everything they produce is done to the highest standard by using the latest high-quality paints and lacquers. They only use the finest materials to guarantee a resilient, hardwearing finish.

Liquid metal spray coating

Cumberland Group can now offer a new process – Liquid Metal coating that can be applied to almost any surface to produce a genuine metal finish. The trained sprayers use one of the toughest and fastest drying cold applied liquid metal coatings available today.

Whether it’s subtle modernity, or statement-making decadence, the unique range of liquid metal coatings can help to create the finish you’re looking for. The coating is available in different metal finishes: from Copper to Gunsmoke, Bronze to Aluminium, the team is certain that this new technique will help bring your ideas to life.

The quality of Cumberland Group’s work speaks for itself and everything they supply is guaranteed to be visually stunning, professional in appearance and painted in the most durable and reliable materials.

Because the company owns and operates both the joinery workshop and spray workshop, they are not let down by unpredictable supply chains. They are fully in control of their production process which means they can produce quality products on time, every time.

If you’d like to become SBID Accredited, click here for more information.

If you’d like to feature your news or stories with SBID, get in touch to find out more. 

If you’d like to become SBID Accredited, click here for more information.

The SBID International Design Awards finalists for 2021 have been revealed, boasting an impressive shortlist of award-worthy entries across Interior Design, Product Design and Fit-Out. From the design scheme, materials used and products specified through to the final fit-out installation, the SBID Awards champion design standards across the supply chain in the design, procurement and execution of outstanding interiors!

To complete the third and final stage of judging, the online Public Vote is now open! Worth an influential 30% of the final scores, it’s your chance to sway the results and decide which finalists you think deserve to take home a prestigious SBID Award! You can only vote once per category, so choose wisely and vote for your favourite designs!

Voting closes at 5pm (BST) on 10 September

Voting closes at 5pm (BST) on 10 September.

Visit www.sbidawards.com to find out more!