On 22nd of November in Sofia Event Center the winners of the international competition for interior design the Dibla Design Awards 2017 were announced. The event that has unprecedented scale and authority in the region was organized for the second year in a row by the Dibla platform and took into consideration more than 140 projects that reached the judge stage. The professional interest and the scale of the international reach of this event show that Bulgaria is stepping up on the global design scene as a competitive and intriguing participant.
The international jury including renowned names from the design scene like – Hasegawa Aoi, Fernando Cobelo and Artem Zverev and Artur Sharf – YoDezeen, shared their impressions and positive experience with the presented interior design ideas and projects. From the host’s side names like – Ilian Milinov, Vladislav Kostadinov – studio 8 ½ and Penka Stancheva – PS Architects, participated and gave the awards to the great design projects. Here are some of them:
Apartment
Ina Damjanova – a ceramic artist and interior designer that is hot on this year’s scene. Her project has a characteristic style, intense color palette, expressive textures and artistic touch.
The designer is not afraid to use dark colors – she entwines them with the unique textural expression of her ideas. The rough surfaces and special textures of the cement the designer likes to use. Harmonize with the delicate and vital color palette, the unexpected focal points like the great fireplace with its graphic copper cladding. Hot design furniture pieces like the large sofa and the dining table with playful and eclectic chair, selection by Gervasoni, with their warm and cozy expression balance the smooth and clear lined modernism of the kitchen composition with their modern rustic style.
Family House
This stone-castle-home project belongs to E House Architects and leading architect Anna Nevrocopska. The stone facade of the family home blends with its natural surrounding and secures not only a robust aesthetic statement but also natural isolation and sustainability for the architectural project.
Some of the materials used in the construction are reused wood beams and material elements from old, traditional mountain buildings, and this adds to the historic charm of the home. The double height volume of the living premises offers an abundance of natural lights, rich textural experience and strong connection between natural elements. The characteristic focal point of the fireplace with its 10 m height- chimney secures the inside expression of the sun warmth- and the special oval window gives a stage for the sunset to also inhabit the interior design of the house.
Workshop| Exhibition Space| Shop
Drekka project by don’t DIY Studio: The modern, clear-lined and almost minimalist design of this premise captures with its light expression and slight industrial hint, entwined with characteristic elegance and playful note signature touch for the designers’ style.
The premise consists of two zones one that hosts the bar with its refreshments and drinks- exhibiting-space and the other that composes a space (with large marble table top as a focal accent) where the workshops and social gatherings of the Drekka project can be hosted. The duality of the color pattern and the transfusion between white and blue gives luminosity and fresh expression to the design composition.
Workspace| Office
DA Architects created the showroom concept for the office furniture brand. The designers were fallowing the Re-use and Recycle inspiration for this project.
Using old shipping containers and their row industrial expression to separate different showcase zones and to underline the modernistic and clear-lined appearance of the office furniture selection the designers used some unusual spatial arrangements and dynamic lighting scheme. One of the containers is half suspended above the sliding concrete floor and accessible by staircase design – that offers lightness, dynamics and intriguing design composition.
Restaurant| Bar
The design of the Cosmos Restaurant by FUNKT was also given special attention by the Dibla Design Awards jury. The project is expressive and straightforward with exposed brick walls and cement structures; the color compositions are also based on pure original terracotta basses and pastel tonalities and the furnishing caries a retro hint.
But the most expressive feature of the premises layout is the sculptural conus in the center of the restaurant. Its LED lighting installation carried out by PiXL Factory, is inspired by the cosmic pattern of planetary movements. Each shining sphere travels on a pre-programed route, and the whole light installation creates striking light patterns for the guests of the restaurant to experience while they enjoy their meal.
The symbiosis that is reflected in the gourmet cuisine is searched by the designers – between old traditions and new light expressions, between unique and expressive. Entwining wood and metal, comfy looking upholsteries in pastel tonalities with a retro vibe and contemporary read, and dynamic light installation, the designers, created the expressive furniture design and the hexagonal honeycombs structures for the bar holders.
