Design Awards 2018 / Wallpaper*

Philippe Malouin / Winner Designer of the Year

The wait is over. Glittering gongs have been pinned on the past year’s world-rockingest people, places and very particular things, as we make our cut of the best in class for the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2018. Careers will be lifted, corks will be popped and tears will well. Here, we reveal the winners of the Judges’ Awards, our highest honors. And a thank-you to this year’s jury – British architect Farshid Moussavi; Nordic cuisine trailblazers René and Nadine Redzepi; Dutch infrastructural artist Daan Roosegaarde; master minimalist Jasper Morrison; and Ethiopian model, actor and campaigner Liya Kebede – for their time and powers of discernment. Here are some of the winners and the shortlisted.

Philippe Malouin / Winner, Designer of the Year

Michael Anastassiades / Shortlist, Designer of the Year

Jaime Hayon / Shortlist, Designer of the Year

Antonio Citterio / Shortlist, Designer of the Year

Philippe Malouin / Designer of the year

Philippe Malouin is not only our Designer of the Year but one of the friendliest around, and one of the hardest working. In the last year, the multi-skilled Canadian has created a brutalist concrete pavilion for a Swedish park, tubular lighting for Matter Made, a marble installation for Santa Barbara Museum of Contemporary Art and furniture for SCP. He has also launched an interiors studio, Post-Office, designing spaces for the likes of Aesop and Valextra. Malouin’s dexterity is dizzying. A robust minimalism runs through much of his output but also a determination that his designs should engage. Ultimately, his mission is a simple quest to ‘make good design that works’.

Malouin’s core pavilion pictured on top was presented at Salon 94 design booth at Design Miami. The concrete pavilion was designed for the Superbenches project, an initiative that aims to regenerate a park in Järfälla, Sweden.

Zeitz MOCAA / Winner, Best New Public Building

Musée Yves Saint Laurent / Winner, Best New Public Building

Centro Botín, Santander, Spain, by Renzo Piano Building Workshop / Shortlist, Best New Public Building

Australian Islamic Centre, Melbourne, Australia, by Glenn Murcutt / Shortlist, Best New Public Building

Zeitz MOCAA, cape town, by Heatherwick Studio / Best new public building joint winners

Grand gestures define Cape Town’s new Zeitz MOCAA. As a much-heralded cultural waypoint, the vast converted grain silos are proving to be a key draw on the city’s Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. Topped by the exclusive Silo Hotel, the new home to Jochen Zeitz’s impressive collection of contemporary African art is a concrete catacomb of galleries. Heatherwick Studio has made typically bold strokes at the building’s heart, making elaborate cuts into the structure’s concrete cylinders to form a towering, quasi-organic atrium.

Musée Yves Saint Laurent, Marrakech, by studio KO / Best new public building joint winners

Yves Saint Laurent’s Moroccan legacy is now complete thanks to the opening of this elegant new museum devoted to his life and work. Sited next to Jardin Majorelle, a historical garden saved from redevelopment by the French couturier in 1980, the 4,000 square-meter museum houses exhibition spaces, a research library and an auditorium. Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty of Parisian firm Studio KO have gone for a pared-back approach, using local brick construction techniques wherever possible, and placed a circular courtyard at the building’s heart.

Max Núñez Arquitectos, Winner, Best New Private House / Photo Roland Halbe

Ghat house, Chile, by Max Núñez Arquitectos / Best new private house

Set on the steep slopes rising up alongside Chile’s spectacular Central Coast, Ghat House, designed by the Santiago architect Max Núñez, is arranged as a series of boxes held up by 15 dynamically canted concrete columns. Inside, a concrete staircase rises up from ground level, while a similarly vertiginous external stairway steps down the length of the sloping façade, offering up far-reaching ocean views. From above, the house reads only as a series of wooden pavilions, with a spectacular hidden underworld below.

‘Dot’ braille smartwatch, by Dot / Life Enhancer of the Year

South Korean start-up Dot ‘strives to be a pioneer in accessible and affordable innovations for the vision impaired and the deafblind.’ The design of its minimalist smartwatch is informed by the iconic style of Dieter Rams, and the technology behind it gives new meaning to the word ‘smart,’ as this is the first time active braille technology has been integrated into a mobile device. Combining a lightweight aluminium body with a white plastic face and a choice of bands, the watch not only tells the time and date, but also offers notification on calls and messages, and can be combined with an app for further features.

Santa Clara 1728, Lisbon, Winner, Best New Hotel / Photo Francisco Nogueira

Santa Clara 1728, Lisbon / Best New Hotel

Housed in an 18th-century pile on one of Lisbon’s most romantic squares, with views of the Pantheon and the Tagus River, Santa Clara 1728 is the fourth in a string of slick design-led properties from local hotelier João Rodrigues. The clean, modern interiors, by local architect Manuel Aires Mateus, are refreshing trimmings to the building’s ancient walls and worn limestone stairs that lead to the six spacious suites. Here, coarse linens, pale woods, armchairs by Carl Hansen & Søn and furnishings by Italian designer Antonio Citterio come together in a neutral palette boosted by a graceful duck-egg blue. Downstairs, unwind in the dining room under the warm glow of Davide Groppi’s ‘Simbiosi’ lights, with a glass of Portuguese wine and a comforting lunch made using fresh market produce, while you plan the best to see and do in Lisbon with the help of Rodrigues himself.

Pictured above, featuring a Living Divani sofa and Davide Groppi ‘Moon’ light, the hotel’s entrance hall and reception area is a serene, welcoming space.

Maison du Danemark, Paris + Tak, Stockholm / Joint Winners, Best New Restaurant

Maison du Danemark, Paris / Best new restaurant

Copenhagen studio GamFratesi has divided Denmark’s official cultural outpost in Paris into two distinct restaurants, dressing the spaces with a catalogue of its own covetable designs. On the ground floor, Flora Danica is an airy brasserie with herringboned marble and botanical drawings, while upstairs, the more formal Copenhague (seen here) is cloaked in dark leather. Both serve menus conceived by chef Andreas Møller as an ode to French-inflected Nordic gastronomy.

Pictured above left, Copenhague is furnished with Gamfratesi ‘Musculo’ armchairs and Kvadrat/Raf Simons textiles. Photo: Heidi Lerkenfeldt.

Tak, Stockholm / Best new restaurant

An acclaimed chef, an award-winning bartender, a Norwegian hotelier and Sweden’s only sake sommeliers are just some of the ingredients that have come together to create Stockholm’s latest hotspot, Tak. Housed in a brutalist building and designed by local firm Wingårdhs, the two-storey space includes the largest outdoor terrace in the city. On the menu are homemade yuzu lagers, sparkling sakes, and Frida Ronge’s Swedish-Japanese dishes, such as tempura salsify with roe and sour cream.

Pictured above right, Tak features Japanese inspired gold partitions and Jasper Morrison chairs. Photo Patricia Parinejad.

Less / Winner Best New Grooming Product

Few cosmetics brands take the bare beauty essentials as seriously as fledgling German brand Less. Its skincare range comprises just three products: two face oils and a millenniaold Moroccan washing clay called ghassoul. Unnecessary additives are eschewed in favor of a select batch of five raw plant oils, while the similarly economical packaging, featuring the brand’s slim minus logo, is devised by founder David Scherf. The clay can also be stored in a container designed for Less by Belgian architect Vincent Van Duysen. Less, in this case, is certainly more.

JUDGES

Farshid Moussavi
The cultural world’s architect of choice

René and Nadine Redzepi
The haute cuisine couple of Noma fame taking New Nordic global

Jasper Morrison
Wallpaper’s 2017 Designer of the Year takes minimalism cross-discipline

Daan Roosegaarde
Art-tech mastermind making light work of urban installations

Liya Kebede
A tower of talents that span modelling, fashion and philanthropy

Design Awards 2018 / Wallpaper*
See the entire list of winners and the shortlisted >