Although Russia is very fond of decorating their homes, especially if it is located in an elite house in a prestigious area, we do not have so many interior contests, in the West there are more. There are well-known and fairly old interior awards - for example, the Arkhip Prize, given every year by the Salon Interior magazine, or certificates awarded at exhibitions in the House on Brestskaya. However, these well-known awards are given for ready-made projects collected on the basis of professional awards. When three years ago the Capital Group holding together with the Labyrinth company decided to occupy their niche in this area, they established a competition with a slightly different structure.
Interior Capital Awards (ICA) participants are invited to create an interior design project for one of the holding's facilities under construction that is close to completion. This, of course, creates a slightly different competition environment than when everyone brings very different things made for different customers. And we can also say that high advertising efficiency is likely expected from such a reception - the founders are promoting a new house under construction and being sold, demonstrating the work of participants by its example and holding the award ceremony right there. In 2005 it was the Panorama club house, in 2006 - the penthouses of the City of Yachts, this year the layout of the Barvikhi Hills townhouses on Rublevskoye Highway was given as the basis for the competitive project.
In addition, the participants of the competition had to use the products of the partners of the founders, additional sponsors of the competition in their interior projects - for example, a special Philips designer TV, Aflex armchairs, MK design in cucina kitchens, author's furniture by French designer Patrick Robber and the company's ecological materials were placed in each designed interior EmmeBi. Designers probably had to face some difficulties trying to fit all these things into their interior. Which is a bit like the cinematic tricks for including different brands of cigarettes or beer in popular action movies or computer toys. However, the event also has an additional meaning - in addition to advertising houses and various interior products, the competition provides an opportunity to declare themselves to young architects and novice studios, who, in fact, mainly participate in it.
Hence, the projects are somewhat utopian, supported by the fact that they are not intended for practical use and thus represent a cross between a work commissioned by an architect by a specific client for a specific location, and a conceptual project made “for himself”. However, closer to the first, and even closer to the student's assignment "on the topic", for example, of a club. Only here relatively recent students are no longer learning abstract principles, but the practice of today's life, coupled with modern design requirements.
In this case, this turned out to be the environmental friendliness of the interior, understood mainly formally - in the form of bends tending to nonlinearity (for the project that took first place, for example, the floor covering rose as if the remnants of building materials were hidden under it). The non-linearity, however, is rather modest, not the same as, for example, in Zaha Hadid's room at the Puerta America hotel.
Most of all praise and additional prizes from the jury members this year deserved the project of the creative group "April", called "Angel's House". Here everyone was conquered by a rectangular opening, which runs as a continuous tape from ceiling to floor, cutting through the floor and ceiling approximately to the middle. There is a bed above the opening, where, apparently, the angels are supposed to fly to spend the night. It must be said, however, that if someone decides to arrange a similar interior for themselves in Barvikha Hills, he will have to cut through part of the ceiling (the houses are almost ready), and below, probably, put a mirror, since below the floor there are garages everywhere, passing into underground tracks, and there can be no sky.
The third place went to the designer Aida Saida from St. Petersburg, who created a stylish black and white interior with a real (or dried?) Tree inside. The wavy black lines on the walls should follow the contours of the surrounding "hills". It's not a bad idea if the project showed a real landscape outside the window, and not the same curved line that was used to decorate the interior. Alas, townhouses are not a house on the coast of, say, the Atlantic, and the crowding here is somewhat greater than the architect would have liked, who painted wild spaces outside the window.
As noted by all members of the jury, the competition has grown significantly this year. In particular, the space was given, though limited in area, but with a free layout - which, according to one of the members of the jury, Elena Gonzalez (Project Russia magazine), made it possible to interpret the interior in space, and not just decorate it. The number of participants also increased: over a hundred projects were submitted, of which only 15 reached the secret ballot by the jury.
In the village of Barvikha Hills, roads are placed inside underground reinforced concrete substructures in order to create an illusion of pure nature at the top (trees will not grow, but bushes - maybe) - accordingly, the participants bent the walls, floors, brought trees and other elements of the landscape inside - so that the interior merges into the idea of a grassy idyll outside. Judging by what happened, young interior designers are able to fill the interior of the desired house with the required requisites without apparent difficulties, without losing their connection with nature with enviable ease.
