In 2014, the forum turned five years old, and the jubilee Office Next was held at a new exhibition site - in Gostiny Dvor. There were many guests at the ceremony, but there were almost no architects, except for those who participated in the competition. Apparently, everyone preferred the harsh everyday life to the local holiday, and went to a rally in defense of the Shukhov Tower. Nevertheless, there were enough spectators and fans who greeted the names of the nominees and winners with joyful shouts.
While the guests were gathering, and after the awarding ceremony, jazz played with the girls on the saxophone and drums, and among the elegant audience were wandering fashion models and fashion models dressed in futuristic and suprematist architectural costumes.
The international jury consisted of 29 experts: architects, developers, builders, representatives of the office real estate industry and the media. Out of 119 completed projects from Russia, the CIS countries, Europe, the USA and Japan, they selected the winners in ten nominations.
Opening the awards ceremony, Sergey Konnov (Managing Partner of OfficeNEXT and ProjectNEXT) and Berndt Fichtner (Managing Director and Owner of Ost-West-Partner GmbH) noted that the winners are not only those who will receive the award, but all the nominees for the Best Office award Awards, because it is they who set benchmarks and determine trends.
By tradition, both architects and customers have come out to receive awards for corporate interiors. Summing up the winners' speeches, we can conclude that both of them were lucky - trusting and relying on the skills of professionals, customers did not prevent architects from creating and solving assigned tasks and, as a result, received comfortable, positive and beautiful offices, sometimes exceeding the expectations of customers.
The Grand Prix Best Office Awards 2014 went to the architectural studio of Pavel Polikarpov for the office of Baring Vostok Capital Partners. She also received a prize in the "Brand and Image" category. To which Pavel Polikarpov laconically remarked: "It was pleasant and unexpected."
The office of the company "Litrada" of the design studio Remeika Design was chosen in the nomination "Organization of space". For a bright, light office in open space format, built of metal structures on the roof of a penthouse, the architects have developed several unique structures: partitions resembling a streamlined ship's hull; flower girls, which also serve to store documents; volumetric ribbed ceiling structures that hide the air ducts.
The prize for "Comfort and Ergonomics" went to Kaspersky Lab and ABD Architects. According to Sergey Kudryavtsev, managing partner of Pridex Group, who presented the award, ergonomics is the most promising area of office design. The architects created a calm, anti-stress environment for the employees of the "laboratory": natural colors, the absence of annoying visual factors and intrusive graphic design. The project manager Denis Kuvshinnikov noted that the project “was done for a long time, sometimes it hurt, but the result was wonderful”.
The Lighting Design award went to the interior of Baker & Mckenzie, created by Sergey Estrin's Architectural Workshop. Partner of the company Konstantin Kuzin said that the office was ready day after day, as planned, and if employees are usually unhappy with moving and grumble, then in this case there were no dissatisfied.
Office of Google Architectural Bureau OFFCON was awarded in the category "Design Idea". Presenting the prize, Vice President of Torgovaya Ploschad Andrey Kryuchkov said: “Outstanding ideas win. Hypnotic, spectacular, which captivate investors and they want to invest in them. " Receiving the award, one of the authors of the project, Fyodor Rashchevsky, shared: “It was an amazing work. A once-in-a-lifetime event and a dream come true. Never give up - you can overcome any difficulties."
The prize for the "Atrium of the Business Center" was received by the "Lesnaya Plaza" business center from the architectural bureau Aedas, which has received an award in this category for the second year in a row.
In the nomination "Business space in public interiors" the winner was the VIP-zone of the Koltsovo airport, made by the architectural studio NefaResearch. Architect Boris Voskoboinikov noted that “positive things must be done at this time. The customer allowed us to do this and our airport makes us happy”. In turn, the customer in the person of Evgeny Krasikov (Director of Strategic Communications at Airports of Regions) thanked the architects for their bright, cheerful work: Koltsovo Airport received many industry awards, and now also a professional one - architectural. It is very nice. This striking work is seen by millions of people, and already before the flight, a sunny mood is formed on the doorstep.
The prize in the new nomination - "Best Regional Office" - was awarded to Skybox (the business area of the Kazan Arena stadium in Kazan), made by the Nikolai Novikov Architectural Workshop. According to the authors' stories, the work was hard, but fruitful. And the customer, the general director of the Kazan-Arena stadium, Radik Minnakhmetov, is very pleased with the result: “The architects managed to get maximum functionality from each square meter. This is the best VIP box in all stadiums in the world. Guests do not want to leave it - they sit for a long time."
"Best International Project" - Valmet - made by the Finnish Architectural Bureau Gullstén-Inkinen Design & Architecture. Jari Kinnunen (architect Gullstén-Inkinen Design & Architecture), who received awards for both architects and client, conveyed to everyone in the audience the wishes of his client related to the production of paper: “Now that you are all working on computers, do not forget please, about paper."
And the "Audience Choice Award" went to the Skincare office from the DWG Construction Architectural Bureau. This means that their task - "to create such an office environment that will maximize the creative thinking of employees" - the architects of the project Tatiana Yakobson and Evgenia Likhacheva completed. Although the victory itself was not expected. As well as the customers who were "very moved".
In addition to the Best Office Awards, the ceremony included an awarding ceremony for the winners of the Rusatom New Space competition, which was hosted by the ProjectNext communications agency. Projects from 12 countries took part in the competition for the development of a corporate concept for the design of work and public spaces. The first place was taken by the architectural bureau from St. Petersburg Milo Da Malo. Second place is the Wonderful laboratory. The third architectural bureau is Front Architecture.
