Back with a bang: Celebrating the winners of IDCS 9th Design Excellence Awards 2022

It was a night to remember as top talents in the interior design industry gathered on 2 December 2022 to recognise interior design excellence, innovation and talent throughout Singapore, Asia Pacific and the world. 

Winners of the 9th Annual Design Excellence Awards 2022 were announced by the Interior Design Confederation Singapore (IDCS) at the glitzy event held at Shangri-la Singapore after two years of virtual ceremonies. Editors from Media Group’s publications, including epicure, Portfolio, SquareRooms, d+a and JetGala, proudly presented many of the awards to the winners on stage.

The latest edition of DEA awards saw 204 awards – considered an industry seal of excellence – given out across 35 categories in two tracks: the Interior Design Excellence Awards (I-DEA) for completed built projects by industry professionals; and the Spatial Design Awards (SPADE) for completed academic projects by design students. The DEA 2022 theme had been to submit projects “in the built-environment that harkens back to a period of peace, tranquility, freedom of expression and offers us a future of hopefulness.”

Among the top winners were Clint Nagata of BLINK Design Group who won Interior Designer of the Year; and Avalon Collective who won Project of the Year – Designers’ Choice for Hilton Singapore Orchard, Presidential Suite. The newly created Special Recognition Award – Jury’s Choice went to M. Moser Associates for Dyson Singapore, St James Power Station. Tony Chi of  tonychi.studios received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Best of homegrown and international talents

The I-DEA Gold Winner for Best F&B Design, ≥ 5001 sqf, went to greymatters for the project Restaurant Born, located within the iconic Jinrikisha Station in Singapore. The firm embraced the architecture and space presented to them – what was once the station’s ticket hall is now the main dining room with expansive double volume space surrounded by beautiful arches. Peter Gentenaar’s sculpture, which is suspended from the ceiling, highlights the contrast between the old and new while manifesting chef-owner Zor Tan’s circle-of-life journey.

In the 2001 – 5000 sqf category, Yaakov Turjeman (CCA Studio) and LAANK won Bronze for North Miznon Singapore. Highly commended were Hot Design Folks for Asador, and PAI Studio Pte Ltd for Si Chuan Dou Hua and Spice Brassiere. In the ≤ 2000 sqf category, engine Inc was awarded Silver for Shinjuku Ale. The Bronze award went to three firms: Spacebar Design for Hue Restaurant; Plain Design for Linger On; and Hot Design Folks for Yen Social. YWA Studio was Highly Commended for Bakeaholic Cafe.

SPADE winner for Best F&B Design went to Basil Rico Gahi, University of San Carlos, who won Bronze for Pabukid Restaurant. Highly Commended were Yeo Shan Fei, Temasek Polytechnic for In-fuse; Lim Wei Sheng, Lennon, Nanyang Polytechnic for Kafein Cafe; Khoirunnisa’ Binte Azmi, Nanyang Polytechnic for Kaleidoscope Cafe, and Koh Charmayne, Nanyang Polytechnic  for Nintendo X Lego Cafe.

Winning entries were selected by a jury panel comprising accomplished and respected interior design professionals, including: IDCS president Cameron Woo and founder of Cameron Woo Design; Ed Ng, principal and co-founder of ab concept; Amy Van, contributing editor D+A; Shigeru Kubota, chairman of Japan Environmental Design Association; Su Seam Teo, partner of LTW Designworks.

For the full list of winners, visit idcs.sg/dea2022.