Every week we highlight the FRAME Awards submissions that have been frequented most by our readers and jury. Below are the five most-viewed projects between 26 July and 2 August 2024, shared with feedback left by the jury.
Saryo Yamashina
Takasu Gaku Design & Associates
Restaurant and retail space Saryo Yamashina, designed by Takasu Gaku Design & Associates, occupies the first floor of a building facing a quiet alleyway building in the bustling city of Asakura, Japan (Single-Brand Store, 5.80). Operated by a tea specialist, it is the second shop in the brand’s portfolio. It was opened with the concept of giving space for customers to enjoy specialty Japanese teas along with Japanese-style sweets, in a casual yet authentic manner. The sales floor is located at the front of the store while a U-shaped counter for dining and sipping tea is located at the centre of the space. Materials like wood, washi paper dyed with tea and counters made of plaster mixed with tea leaves imbue the brand’s essential product into the space.
See more here.
21C St. Louis Missouri
Hufft
Occupying a landmark 1920s-era building in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, USA, is the 21c Museum Hotel (Hotel, 5.25). Hufft sought to keep the building’s history and former uses visible throughout the space; it was originally built for the YMCA. The 10-storey building has been restored and reimagined in a Renaissance Revival style. It comprises 173 rooms, a contemporary art museum, a restaurant, a café, athletic facilities, and exhibition and meeting spaces. The adaptive reuse of the space helps to reintegrate the historical space into the city, activating it with a variety of new use cases.
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NIO House Amsterdam
MVRDV
Occupying a seven-storey building on Amsterdam’s Keizersgracht originally built in the late 19th century, the new NIO House Amsterdam renovates the building with an interior design by MVRDV (Single-Brand Store, 5.63). The design approach sought to balance the historical building’s original features while activating it as a dynamic retail and brand community space for the electric vehicle label. MVRDV implemented a gradient approach, with the colour and material palette changing as one progresses upwards, from ‘earth’ to ‘sky’. With one single floor dedicated to the display of cars, and the inclusion of a café, co-working space, art gallery and events space, the brand space inverts the notion of the traditional car showroom.
See more here.
Museum of the Future – Journey of the Pioneers
Atelier Brückner
Atelier Brückner created Journey of the Pioneers, a three-floor immersive exhibition at the Museum of the Future in Dubai that gives visitors a platform to act against climate change (Exhibition, 6.11). Visitors are transported to the year 2071 through a ‘space capsule’, where the journey begins. They arrive at ‘OSS Hope’, a fictitious space station, with walls constructed of 3D-printed mesh meant to appear as space matter. Visitors are invited as recruits to help battle these issues in the next section of the exhibit. Guests can engage in activities and view ongoing scientific research projects meant to address other environmental issues. The exhibition not only presents a future full of challenges but also calls for action, with recruitment stations inviting visitors to contribute their skills and resources to impactful projects.
See more here.
Mint 42
May Architectural Design
May Architectural Design designed Mint42, a 2,630-sq-m staff canteen on an IT administration campus for Aldi Süd. To meet the post-pandemic needs of employees, the designer sought to create a casual, comfortable space that works just as well for eating a meal as it does for working, socializing and networking. It is organized in six different building cubes, each with a different function. In addition to flexibility, the integration of the outdoors into the interior, and vice versa, was central to the space’s planning. Large windows provide ample natural light and materials like wood serve a biophilic function.
See more here.
