[ { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000001", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010010", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "ESPRIT C. KEI GINZA", "metadata": { "Project": "ESPRIT C. KEI GINZA", "Location": "Ginza, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Bar and Restaurant / Fine Dining", "Designer/company": "A.N.D., NOMURA Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "ESPRIT C. KEI GINZA; Chef Kei Kobayashi; Toraya", "Completion": "20 April 2024" }, "excerpt": "ESPRIT C. KEI GINZA by A.N.D., NOMURA Co., Ltd. is a three-story fine dining establishment in Tokyo, blending traditional Japanese materials with a modern modular design.", "editorial": "Ginza has always been a place where Japanese craftsmanship meets an international taste for refinement. At ESPRIT C. This connection is evident through Chef Kei Kobayashi’s collaboration with Toraya, merging culinary innovation with a tradition focused on precision, seasonality, and the art of hand-making.\nDesigned by A.N.D., NOMURA Co., Ltd., the three-story restaurant embraces the process of creation. Cooking is not hidden from diners; preparation, service, and the transformation of ingredients are part of the overall experience. The architecture guides guests from the bustling street into a space where anticipation builds through sequences, partial views, and different levels of enclosure. This progression reflects Japanese spatial culture. Rooms are revealed gradually, allowing each movement to be appreciated. Dark thresholds, turns in circulation, and controlled sightlines create a rhythm that aligns more with the unfolding of a meal than with traditional restaurant layouts. By the time guests reach the main dining area, they have already transitioned from the outside world.\nA distinctive feature of the restaurant is the ceiling. An ichimatsu grid, showcasing a traditional Japanese checkerboard pattern, starts with recognizable order and then transforms into an array of suspended cypress and acrylic rods. This change from geometry to volume shifts based on perspective, lighting, and positioning within the room. This transformation has cultural significance. While ichimatsu holds historical meaning, its new interpretation connects it to the present. The combination of timber and acrylic allows natural textures and modern precision to coexist, creating a dialogue between past and present.\nMateriality plays an important role. Cypress wood adds scent and texture, Jindai cedar reflects the darker character of timber preserved for centuries underground, and Date Kanmuri stone brings geological weight to the interior. Glass, resin, and silver leaf catch and scatter light across surfaces, evoking the movement of water through reflection. Toraya's presence is felt through its approach to craftsmanship rather than recognizable dessert motifs. The company’s long history is expressed through themes of repetition, material refinement, and the continuation of traditional knowledge using contemporary techniques. This partnership aligns with Kei Kobayashi’s culinary practice, where precision and experimentation are part of the same process.\nThe open kitchen gives a human scale to this experience. Chefs are visible across the counter, integrating their hands, tools, and ingredients into the restaurant's atmosphere. Counter dining brings guests closer to the preparation, while tables further back offer a more intimate setting. Both arrangements remain connected to the kitchen and the design overhead, ensuring that the creative process is present throughout the meal.\nA.N.D., NOMURA Co., Ltd. applies a high level of precision to details often overlooked. Foot bars are shaped for comfort during longer meals, working surfaces blend into the overall design, and lighting is thoughtfully positioned to highlight food, crystal, timber, and hands. Hospitality is expressed through these small details as well as through larger architectural elements.\nThe private dining room creates a different mood with warm tones, stone, timber, and reflective surfaces. It shares the same material palette while providing a greater sense of separation from the main dining area, extending the restaurant's narrative into a more intimate space. Environmental considerations are integral to the design. Standardized timber modules reduce fabrication waste, locally sourced timber cuts transportation distances, and existing Date Kanmuri stone is preserved and reimagined. The open kitchen also features a ventilation system that lowers exhaust volume by 17%, linking efficiency with the visible process of preparation.\n \nESPRIT C. KEI GINZA brings together cuisine, craftsmanship, and contemporary Japanese design in a cohesive way. Kei Kobayashi, Toraya, and A.N.D., NOMURA Co., Ltd. engage with tradition, reshaping and advancing it. Through the elements of timber, stone, light, and the movement of the kitchen, the restaurant embodies an ongoing act of creation in its architectural form.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/esprit-c-kei-ginza-designedby-andnomura", "Official Company Website": "https://www.and-design.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000001.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000002", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100010", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "L’hirondelle", "metadata": { "Project": "L’hirondelle", "Location": "Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Restaurant / Specialty Coffee Shop and Community Gallery", "Designer/company": "hiro nakata atelier", "Client/collaborators": "L’hirondelle; lighting design by DAISUKI LIGHT inc.; regional craftspeople", "Completion": "2 May 2025", "Area": "52.56 m²" }, "excerpt": "L'hirondelle in Tsukuba combines specialty coffee with a community gallery. Hiro Nakata Atelier uses weathered steel, plaster, and local craftsmanship to create a functional hub for social connection.", "editorial": "Tsukuba is characterized by unique proximity. International researchers and university students live alongside long-established communities, while organized urban districts quickly transition to agricultural landscapes beyond the center. According to Hiro Nakata Atelier, the city lacks informal spaces where these diverse populations can meet without an institutional agenda. The proposed solution is L’hirondelle, a 52.56-square-meter coffee shop designed to address this gap.\nSpecialty coffee serves as a daily ritual, complemented by a gallery program that extends its public purpose. Exhibitions, activities, and informal encounters can all take place within this compact interior, facilitating connections among visitors from both within and outside the region. The architecture allows for this program to evolve, treating the community not as a fixed audience but as a dynamic entity formed through regular use. The layout is organized around a U-shaped service counter positioned near the center of the space. This open geometry fosters direct interaction between guests and the barista while maintaining a clear working zone behind the counter. Although preparation is visible, the equipment is integrated into the furniture, ensuring that the social exchange of coffee takes precedence over the machinery.\nThe lower faces of the counter combine dark, weathered metal with warm timber framing. The steel is designed to mature through handling and age, while the timber lends a more domestic scale to the working object. Integrated display niches showcase coffee products within the overall design instead of relying on separate retail fixtures. Above the counter, a suspended timber canopy defines the service area without fully enclosing it. Closely spaced boards create a strong horizontal feature and conceal focused task lighting. A warm perimeter glow elevates the canopy from the pale ceiling, making the counter easily visible from the entrance while maintaining the room’s serene atmosphere.\nA curved plaster wall shapes the gallery side of the shop. Its expansive surface bends towards the entrance, and features recessed shelves for coffee, objects, and small works. Both natural and artificial light gently play across the imperfect plaster, giving displayed items the quality of a small installation without reducing the wall to a conventional retail grid. This curve also serves practical purposes: it conceals storage, defines the edge of the gallery, and guides movement around the counter. While the space remains open, the wall creates a distinct room-like condition conducive to display and slower observation.\nThe corner entrance and extensive glazing provide the compact room with more than one public face. A timber deck extends along the pavement, while additional outdoor seating occupies the side elevation. As a result, the activity inside is visible from multiple directions, reinforcing the shop’s role as an approachable local destination. The lighting is kept small in scale. Simple pendant fittings mark the window seats, recessed sources illuminate the counter, and concealed lighting softens the junction between the canopy and ceiling. These lighting sources are not intended to create a theatrical café image; rather, they support reading, conversation, and the tactile qualities of plaster, timber, and steel.\nThe colour palette is intentionally limited. Pale plaster and flooring provide a subdued background, while timber adds warmth at the canopy, counter, and bench. Weathered metal adds depth to the service furniture, while leather and small crafted components introduce variation at touchpoints. The space gains character through material aging instead of surface decoration.\nRegional products and collaborations extend the interior beyond its walls. Objects created in partnership with local craftspeople are displayed in the gallery and counter niches, connecting the coffee shop to a broader network of production. The programming can seamlessly shift between sales, exhibitions, and community activities without necessitating a separate formal venue.\nThe deliberate restraint of the setting matters. L’hirondelle does not imitate a community center or burden a small café with symbolic gestures. Its curved wall provides a clear focal point upon arrival, the counter encourages conversation, and the gallery introduces reasons to return that go beyond simply purchasing a drink.\nHiro Nakata Atelier presents coffee culture as a form of modest urban infrastructure. In a city where diversity has developed faster than some social connections, L’hirondelle offers an intimate starting point: local in its craftsmanship, international in its outlook, and adaptable enough to evolve with the diverse people who gather there.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/2026/8/2/5mtlyfzuo8p7os3gjeqqum5y2rd42e", "Official Company Website": "https://hnkt-a.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000002.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000003", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA202601000100", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Nomura Real Estate Development Group Headquarters", "metadata": { "Project": "Nomura Real Estate Development Group Headquarters", "Location": "BLUE FRONT SHIBAURA, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office / Corporate Headquarters", "Designer/company": "NIKKEN SEKKEI LTD", "Lead designers": "Masahiko Shioda and Tatsunori Ito", "Client/collaborators": "Nomura Real Estate Development Group", "Completion": "August 2025" }, "excerpt": "Nomura Real Estate Development Group's headquarters in Tokyo Bay features a responsive workplace design by NIKKEN SEKKEI LTD, merging panoramic hospitality with flexible co-creation spaces.", "editorial": "For decades, the corporate headquarters has symbolized privacy and separation. It was an address set apart, more fortress than forum. Today's work culture calls for transparency and engagement. BLUE FRONT SHIBAURA, designed by NIKKEN SEKKEI for Nomura Real Estate Development Group, responds with an alternative: a workplace that puts interaction, openness, and the rhythms of collaboration at its centre.\nThe headquarters unfolds across two floors overlooking Tokyo Bay. A public level for guests sits above, and a co-creation floor for teams is below. This arrangement is more than programmatic. It reflects a company's ambition to shape not just buildings, but the experiences, exchanges, and sense of belonging that define daily life.\nThe connection to the bay is central, not incidental. Circulation, lounges, and meeting rooms draw in the landscape, making the changing light and weather part of the workday. Time and place are not background; they animate the collective experience and ground the company in its city.\nMaterials and lighting are tuned to respond to these daily and seasonal shifts. The result is an atmosphere closer to urban hospitality than corporate formality. The space is welcoming yet disciplined, composed yet always connected to its context.\nThe architecture also reconsiders the culture of the meeting itself. Not every exchange needs the same room or atmosphere. Spaces for partnership, for workshops, and for formal presentation are each tailored to the rhythm of conversation and the demands of real collaboration, supporting work that is both focused and flexible.\nThis is not simply a matter of programming. It is a shift in how workplace design can shape culture. Meeting rooms become tools for choice and expression, not just containers on a calendar. The setting itself invites encounters that are ceremonial, conversational, or exploratory, with the environment reinforcing the purpose of each interaction.\nArt and repurposed furniture appear throughout, encouraging discovery and familiarity. These details ensure the space rewards repeated visits. The design suggests a corporate culture that values curiosity and ongoing engagement rather than routine.\nThe open stair, with its suspended installation, connects these layers of activity. From above, guests glimpse the energy of teams at work. Samples are spread out, catalogues are open, and ideas are tested in real time. The architecture deliberately exposes processes, linking hospitality and productivity, image and making.\nOn the co-creation floor, materials and project knowledge remain accessible. The Atelier is not a showpiece but a working environment, where teams can debate, compare, and rearrange ideas alongside the tools of their trade. Activity is not staged; it is lived, as the design adapts to changing needs and spontaneous collaboration.\nThe dialogue between the two floors gives the headquarters its authenticity. One welcomes with poise, the other reveals the ongoing process behind decisions. Their relationship, kept visible through the open stair, suggests that a company’s identity is shaped as much by daily work as by the image it presents to the world.\nIn a moment when the workplace is being reimagined across industries, BLUE FRONT SHIBAURA offers a compelling model. In this environment, architecture and behaviour reinforce each other, boundaries are porous, and the company’s story is told through action as much as image. The project points toward a future where openness, context, and collaboration define what a headquarters can be.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/nomura-real-estate-development-group-headquarters-nikken-sekkei-ltd", "Official Company Website": "https://www.nikken.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000003.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000004", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA202601000102", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "The Yard Hotel Shanghai", "metadata": { "Project": "The Yard Hotel Shanghai", "Location": "Shanghai, China", "Project type": "Interior Design — Hotel and Resort / 88-room Boutique Hotel", "Designer/company": "Haptic Elemental Research Office: HERO", "Additional credits": "Romeo Ming Fung Chang", "Client/collaborators": "The Yard Hotel", "Completion": "27 March 2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "The Yard Hotel Shanghai designed by Haptic Elemental Research Office: HERO, utilizes timber-clad structures and designs inspired by camping to maximize space efficiency and ensure guest privacy within a dense urban environment.", "editorial": "The Yard Hotel in Shanghai distinguishes itself from conventional hospitality experiences by blending wilderness camping with urban living. Designed by Haptic Elemental Research Office / HERO, the hotel aims to foster a connection with nature in a compact setting. With 88 guest rooms, a working lounge, a gym, and a garden café, The Yard emphasizes its unique experience over traditional amenities.\nCamping serves as a relevant analogy, reshaping our understanding of comfort. The camping experience involves limited protection that allows individuals to immerse themselves in their surroundings through sounds, light, and temperature. The architecture of The Yard reflects this connection, utilizing natural materials to provide shelter while ensuring visibility to the surroundings. Timber screens offer partial views, creating a balance between privacy and openness. HERO incorporates vertical timber panels and deep eaves to manage the scale of the four-story structure, establishing a physical division between guest rooms and the neighbourhood while still engaging with the natural environment.\nThe lobby reinforces this theme with timber louvers that provide visibility while ensuring privacy. This design creates a versatile area where visitors can enjoy communal spaces without complete exposure, which has become increasingly important in modern hospitality. The social implications of this design are crucial. While community spaces are essential, personal retreats also hold significant value. The Yard features various privacy options through screens, planted borders, and carefully arranged furniture, allowing guests to feel comfortable yet engaged with their surroundings.\nGuest room designs echo this sheltering philosophy, with configurations that enclose sleeping areas in timber for cozy spaces or use textured plaster and wooden louvers to create fluid boundaries between areas. These innovative layouts enhance guests' psychological comfort. The garden café complements this concept, overlooking a serene Japanese-inspired courtyard that invites both local visitors and hotel guests. Along with the working lounge and gym, this positions The Yard as a neighbourhood hub and a temporary sanctuary for travellers.\nIntegration with the local community holds great importance. Rather than being an isolated enclave, the hotel promotes connection with the city through its tranquil courtyard and welcoming café, contributing a soothing presence amidst urban life. Ultimately, The Yard Hotel offers a fresh perspective on nature, skillfully balancing shelter and openness while employing materials that enhance this interaction. This approach encapsulates the essence of enjoying a secure environment while remaining aware of the world beyond its boundaries.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/theyardhotelshanghai-designedby-hapticelementaleserachofficehero", "Official Company Website": "https://haptic-elemental.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000004.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000005", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA202601000103", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Kawayu Midoriya", "metadata": { "Project": "Kawayu Midoriya", "Location": "Kawayu, Kumano, Wakayama, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Green & Sustainable Design", "Designer/company": "Mitsui Designtec Co., Ltd", "Additional credits": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Client/collaborators": "Not specified in supplied source", "Completion": "27 December 2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Near the Kumano Kodo, Kawayu Midoriya gives an established riverside hotel new life through retained timber, calibrated contrasts, and rooms that keep forest, water, and weather close, designed by Mitsui Designtec Co., Ltd. from Japan.", "editorial": "Near the World Heritage site of the Kumano Kodo in Wakayama, an established riverside destination has found new life. The view at Kawayu Midoriya is not an object inside the hotel. It is the green wall of the Kumano forest framed by a guest-room window, where the river remains close enough to shape the day’s light and pace. The studio has renewed this landmark by treating the landscape and the building’s own history as the primary luxury.\nMitsui Designtec Co., Ltd. calls this approach New Nostalgia. The phrase implies a selective method. Original wooden lattice ceilings and pillars are retained, cleaned, and brought into new relationships. Their age gives the public rooms gravitas, while new counters, lighting, and furniture sit beside them with enough distinction to be understood as contemporary additions.\nArrival is calm. A curved reception counter glows at its base beneath the low timber ceiling, while stone-like surfaces and soft pools of light guide the eye and maintain the older structural rhythm. The lobby opens laterally, avoiding a monumental axis. Guests move among columns, seating, and views, discovering smaller territories suited to waiting, conversation, or looking towards the garden.\nOpposites define the narrative: vintage and modern, Japanese and Western, river ripple and fire. These pairings appear through the atmosphere. One finds the reflection of light along a dark counter, the warmth of a lamp against old timber, a contemporary chair placed on tatami-like flooring, or a restrained artwork whose cracked surface suggests currents, embers, or the accumulated marks of time.\nGuest rooms extend this logic to a domestic scale. Light timber, pale flooring, and low furniture create a quiet field around the existing architectural frame. A Western bed and sofa coexist with Japanese proportions, screens, and alcove-like display areas. The rooms offer contemporary comfort while retaining the measured horizontality and material warmth associated with the region’s hospitality.\nWindows serve as destinations in their own right. A writing desk faces the forest view; a bench invites guests to sit close to the glass; in the bath and sauna areas, timber-lined thresholds lead towards water and greenery. Little additional decoration is required when landscape is given sufficient presence. Forest colour becomes part of the interior palette, shifting with the weather.\nReuse grants the project environmental credibility. Retaining lattice ceilings and pillars reduces waste, but the more lasting benefit is cultural. Returning guests recognize the building they once knew. The renovation celebrates previous life while positioning new hospitality requirements around it.\nKawayu Midoriya demonstrates that renewal can be generous. This New Nostalgia is neither an immaculate period set nor a generic nature resort. It is a dialogue among a building, its returning visitors, and the Kumano landscape, in which contemporary design provides comfort and clarity, allowing the forest, river, and existing timber to carry a deeper sense of place.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/2026/7/20/kawayu-midoriya-by-mitsui-designtec-coltd", "Official Company Website": "https://www.mitsui-designtec.co.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000005.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000006", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA202601000104", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "NTTDATA OFFICE & LOUNGE", "metadata": { "Project": "NTTDATA OFFICE & LOUNGE", "Location": "Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office / Workplace", "Designer/company": "KOKUYO Co., Ltd.", "Designers": "Tomoki Iwasa and Masayuki Ugawa", "Client/collaborators": "NTT DATA; two commissioned video artists working through physical and digital projection methods", "Completion": "September 2025" }, "excerpt": "KOKUYO transforms NTT DATA’s workplace into a high-impact collision of digital innovation and physical tradition, blending raw timber, dark metal, and cinematic projections to define a new corporate identity.", "editorial": "A corporate interior typically aims to convey its identity through repeated displays of a logo. In contrast, the NTTDATA OFFICE & LOUNGE adopts a more nuanced approach. Crafted by KOKUYO Co., Ltd., this project translates the organization’s character into a series of material experiences, juxtaposing the reliability of a long-established institution that supports social infrastructure with the dynamic energy of digital services that continue to expand in scale and significance.\nKOKUYO articulates this relationship as “DUALITY,” with the design transcending a simplistic division between old and new. Both elements coexist symbiotically. The office seeks to express continuity without descending into nostalgia and exhibits technological ambition while avoiding the sterile polish characteristic of showrooms. The solution lies in the recurring architectural strategy of a revealed cross-section, transforming hidden dimensions into the central visual narrative of the project.\nA key feature of the design is a long, rounded structure serving multiple functions: a meeting counter, a canopy, and an oversized piece of furniture. Its warm timber façade conveys density and a sense of accumulated time, while dark metallic surfaces emerge at the cut or folded edges, revealing another identity beneath its surface. This meticulous attention to detail renders the project’s proposition tangible prior to any corporate messaging.\nAdditionally, a vertical media surface disrupts the horizontal form. This feature allows colour, reflection, and imagery to permeate the meeting area rather than being contained within a screen. The commissioned work, developed by two video artists, synergizes physical and digital methods, permitting messages to interact within the space. The ultramarine associated with NTT DATA manifests as a dynamic motif traversing timber and metal, functioning less as an emblem affixed to the architecture and more as an energetic current coursing through it.\nThe design creates a distinctly cinematic environment within the central meeting space. Viewed head-on, the composition appears nearly symmetrical, with a spacious table and organized seating positioned beneath the hovering timber structure, while the illuminated media column denotes the center. From oblique angles, the object extends into perspective, showcasing varying surfaces. The space accommodates collective engagement and individual exploration.\nBeyond the darker presentation and meeting environments, the workplace transitions into brighter areas. Light-colored joinery, integrated workstations, and plantings sit near the windows, incorporating views of the city into daily activities. These spaces are quieter and possess a more intimate scale, allowing staff to work, relax, or engage in informal meetings, balancing the dramatic central area with the functional rhythms characteristic of an office environment.\nThe contrasts within the design remain meticulously controlled. Dark rooms retain elements of warm timber, while bright lounges preserve refined metallic details and cooler blue-grey tones. Curvilinear forms recur in counters, ceiling perimeters, and furniture, softening technological aesthetics and facilitating movement without reliance on corridors marked by signage. The outcome is a workplace whose identity is experienced through atmosphere, tactile engagement, and spatial progression.\nThe NTTDATA OFFICE & LOUNGE compellingly conceptualizes brand identity as an architectural inquiry. Trust and innovation transform into qualities that can be experienced spatially. Timber evokes a sense of memory, metal suggests an engineered essence, plant life introduces tranquillity, and dynamic imagery maintains vibrancy. Collectively, these layers deliver a persuasive portrait of a company rooted in its foundational achievements while animated by aspirations for the future.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/nttdata-office-lounge-designedby-kokuyo", "Official Company Website": "https://www.kokuyo.com/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000006.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000007", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA202601000105", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "MITAMACHI TERRACE CONFERENCE and SENQ TAMACHI", "metadata": { "Project": "MITAMACHI TERRACE CONFERENCE and SENQ TAMACHI", "Location": "Tamachi–Mita, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office", "Designer/company": "KOKUYO Co., Ltd.", "Additional credits": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Client/collaborators": "Not specified in supplied source", "Completion": "19 September 2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "At MITAMACHI TERRACE, a pale-blue workers’ lounge and a warm, grounded SENQ hall turn the language of stations and boat landings into a workplace for exchange.", "editorial": "Tamachi–Mita pulses with the cadence of the rail line. It is a district defined by Tokyo's velocity, a place where business and urban life intersect at speed. Inside MITAMACHI TERRACE, KOKUYO Co., Ltd. captures this transit culture and gives it a new purpose. The conference facilities and SENQ incubation lounge serve as a contemporary junction, providing a stage for professional connections that feel as vital as the city outside.\nTransport references appear through spatial behaviour. Platforms, thresholds, and long counters echo the architecture of a station or a boat dock. Tables serve as grounding elements for focused work. Perimeter benches invite a pause. Clear sightlines maintain order during busy hours. The space borrows the social utility of an interchange to create a setting where people naturally find their rhythm.\nTwo distinct zones form a deliberate pair. The Workers’ Lounge offers an airy, expansive character. A cool blue wash extends across the high ceiling, echoed in the bespoke artwork and carpeting that evokes water. Light timber, grey upholstery, and rows of adaptable tables provide a neutral backdrop for conferences and gatherings. It is a room designed for the bright, outward energy of the working day.\nSENQ Tamachi offers the counterpoint. The ceiling descends. The light shifts to an amber glow. Furniture gathers into protected clusters. A broad communal table anchors the room, while banquettes and lounge chairs foster the intimacy of a private hall. Suspended metal elements hover beneath the ceiling, giving the warm interior a subtle technical edge. It is a space for the quieter, focused work that builds partnerships.\nMoving between these zones creates a perceptible shift in pace. The blue lounge supports collective energy, while SENQ encourages conversation and contemplation. Lighting orchestrates this transition. In the lounge, concealed illumination opens the ceiling plane and gives walls a cool horizon. In SENQ, perimeter lighting compresses the room into an intimate field, captured by brass pendants and the central table. A restrained grey passage acts as a pause, a sequence that makes each atmosphere distinct.\nThe most compelling material gesture surfaces in the commissioned artwork for SENQ. Surplus tile, flooring, and brass baseboards from construction are crushed, melted, and reconfigured. Remnants mix with water-based resin to create panels that preserve chips and grains within graphic fields shaped around the SENQ identity. Waste returns to the site as both ornament and historical record.\nThis approach connects sustainability to memory. The artwork acknowledges that a new office build leaves a residue. By allowing the process of making to remain visible, the design gives those remains a social position. Installed among meeting areas, the pieces serve as conversation starters, small material histories embedded within a program dedicated to connection.\nMITAMACHI TERRACE Conference and SENQ Tamachi succeed as a cohesive pair. One space is airy and adaptable. The other is concentrated and atmospheric. Together, they provide tenants with a wider vocabulary for professional life, from presenting and meeting to solitary thought. The project turns mobility into hospitality, making the workplace junction a destination worth staying in.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/mitamachiterrce-conference-amp-senq-tamachi-designed-by-kokuyo-co-ltd", "Official Company Website": "https://www.kokuyo.com/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000007.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000008", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA202601000108", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "ISHIDAYA", "metadata": { "Project": "ISHIDAYA", "Location": "Central Hanoi, Vietnam", "Project type": "Interior Design — Bar and Restaurant / Japanese Dining and Bar", "Designer/company": "DESIGN & CREATIVE ASSOCIATES", "Client/collaborators": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Completion": "April 2025" }, "excerpt": "ISHIDAYA, located in central Hanoi, combines traditional Japanese timber craftsmanship with Art Deco design through a modern Taisho Roman perspective. This interior design project exemplifies cultural synthesis by merging Western architectural heritage with the elegance of Japanese hospitality.", "editorial": "At ISHIDAYA, designed by DESIGN & CREATIVE ASSOCIATES in Hanoi’s central district, two cultural worlds meet. The building’s original architecture draws from Western decorative traditions, while the restaurant’s soul is unmistakably Japanese, reflected in both cuisine and hospitality. The designers found common ground in Taisho Roman—a sensibility that emerged in early twentieth-century Japan, when national traditions encountered Western modernity.\nTaisho Roman is remembered for its fashion, illustration, and richly layered interiors, but its importance lies in how it reflects a society adapting to outside influences while holding onto its identity. This dynamic feels especially relevant in Hanoi, where architecture, commerce, and daily life bear the imprint of Vietnamese, French, and global cultures.\nThe restaurant’s character emerges from this blend. Japanese identity is clearly present, yet never isolated from its context. Western architectural details are woven into the whole, resulting in a setting shaped by many places and times. The interior expresses a designer’s deep familiarity with Japanese culture, combined with an awareness of how it can be thoughtfully reimagined beyond its place of origin.\nA suspended timber framework at the heart of the restaurant embodies this cultural negotiation architecturally. Its construction draws upon Japanese timber craft, while its layered geometry reflects the graphic discipline of Art Deco. Concealed lighting separates the structure from the dark ceiling, giving it the presence of an installation above the counter.\nThe design matters because the reference is expressed through construction rather than applied as ornament. The framework establishes scale around the bar, focuses attention on service, and provides the room with a recognizable centre. Latticework introduces a refined dimension of timber craft, while deep red surfaces, dark stone, and washi-inspired lighting create an atmosphere suited to the gradual pace of an evening.\nThe restaurant is also organized around proximity. Counter seating brings guests near preparation and service, preserving the direct relationship between host, food, and diner that is central to Japanese hospitality. Elsewhere, tables and private rooms allow conversation at a different pace. The interior transitions between the focus of the counter and the privacy of a salon, accommodating dining and drinking within the same social environment.\nThe private room reveals another aspect of the project. Patterned walls, dark wainscot, and a formal pendant evoke domestic interiors associated with the Taisho period, when Western furnishings entered Japanese life through selective adoption. Japanese artwork and restrained table settings maintain the room’s connection to the restaurant’s cultural identity, while the existing building provides an authentic architectural setting for these references.\nColour plays a particularly important role. Red first appears as a threshold, marking the transition from the lighter circulation spaces to the deeper atmosphere of the restaurant. Within the dining rooms, it reappears in cabinetry and textured walls, set against black surfaces and warm timber. The effect concerns the gradual adjustment of the senses as guests move away from the street and into the evening, rather than theatrical drama.\nISHIDAYA exemplifies how cultural sensibilities can be thoughtfully expressed in new contexts. Rather than relying solely on decorative references, the design foregrounds the essential elements of Japanese hospitality—careful spatial choreography, nuanced transitions, and a harmonious interplay of light and material. This approach fosters a genuine sense of place, demonstrating how core values can be meaningfully translated across borders.\nHanoi remains equally present. The building’s Western inheritance is preserved, the restaurant responds to the city’s increasingly international dining culture, and the design recognizes cultural diversity as fundamental to its context. Taisho Roman gains relevance precisely because it resulted from a similar process of encounter and reinterpretation.\nISHIDAYA is best understood as the work of a Japanese designer whose practice has been shaped by experience in Vietnam. It brings Japanese history to Hanoi while remaining fully integrated with the city. Through timber construction, Art Deco geometry, controlled lighting, and the rituals of dining, DESIGN & CREATIVE ASSOCIATES has created an interior formed by the experience of belonging to one culture while building a life in another.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/ishidaya-designedby-design-creative-associates", "Official Company Website": "https://dreamcomesasia.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000008.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000009", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA202601000111", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "HIKU designed by OFT × UNION", "metadata": { "Project": "HIKU designed by OFT × UNION", "Location": "Japan / Hong Kong", "Project type": "Product Design — Architectural Hardware / Door Lever and Pull Handle Collection", "Designer/company": "OFT Studio and UNION Japan", "Client/collaborators": "UNION Japan", "Completion": "2025" }, "excerpt": "HIKU, designed by OFT Studio and UNION Japan, merges sculpture with functional hardware. This door collection disrupts traditional geometry, revealing molten metal textures that transform every entry point into a tactile design experience.", "editorial": "**HIKU: Transforming the Everyday Door Handle into Artware**\n \nA door handle is often overlooked as a mere utilitarian component of a building. However, HIKU, created by OFT Studio in collaboration with UNION Japan, seeks to elevate this commonplace item into an expressive and artistic experience. The designers refer to HIKU as “Artware,” a fusion of engineering, ergonomics, and sculpture that engages users on multiple levels.\n \nAt its core, each lever or pull begins with the fundamental shape of a rectangular block. This block features straight edges and controlled surfaces, ensuring a clear and functional relationship with the door. The form appears as if it has been torn apart from opposing directions, revealing a texture reminiscent of molten metal beneath its meticulously crafted exterior.\n \nThis distinct rupture is central to the collection's visual identity. The interplay of polished and textured surfaces creates an interruption at the point of contact, suggesting that physical force has been permanently integrated into the object. This stable structure captures a moment of deformation while preserving its essential functionality.\n \nThe name \"HIKU,\" derived from the Japanese word meaning “to pull,” profoundly influences both the design and the user experience. The handle invites interaction, evoking the sensation of an object pulled from either side, leaving an energetic trace within the material. By starting with this action, HIKU consciously moves away from conventional decorative motifs. The ergonomic qualities of the handle are equally noteworthy. The changing contour of the torn area provides a natural grip for the palm and fingers, clearly differentiating the touch zone from the rigid outer surfaces. This design ensures that visual contrast and tactile orientation coalesce in one intuitive space.\n \nIn the lever model, this concept is condensed into a horizontal object. While retaining the recognizable features of standard hardware—a rectangular base and bar—the center morphs into a fluid depression where the thumb and palm naturally make contact before applying force to the mechanism. Meanwhile, the pull-handle models extend this gesture across a longer span, with variations featuring ruptures placed strategically along their lengths. Some designs present a twist between fixing points, affecting the reflection and grip, thereby making the relationship between opposing forces and material transformation explicit.\n \nSurface finish plays a pivotal role in the design's impact. Controlled matte or polished planes meet sharply defined, irregular textures, creating striking contrasts. Light interacts dynamically with the deformed areas, enhancing depth and ensuring that the hardware remains visually distinct from every angle. Inspiration for HIKU draws from contemporary sculpture, particularly the bronze works of artists like Romain Langlois. The design encapsulates the idea of a rigid exterior revealing a fluid interior, resulting in a handle that can withstand repeated physical contact—a sculptural reference that is continuously tested through use.\n \nUNION Japan's manufacturing expertise provides practical credibility to the concept, ensuring that the hardware accommodates fixation, torque, surface durability, and frequent operation while maintaining precise tolerances. The apparently spontaneous nature of the torn texture is achieved through rigorous controlled production.\n \nThe synergy between concept and manufacturing marks a significant strength of the project. OFT Studio offers an expressive proposition, while UNION refines the design into functional hardware. Each aspect of the collaboration is essential: without the engineering precision, the form would remain an abstract concept; without the visual rupture, it would be just another generic component.\n \nUltimately, HIKU transforms the perception of door hardware. While typical hardware often goes unnoticed until after the larger door is acknowledged, HIKU commands a concentrated moment of attention at the threshold. Users are drawn to the object before engaging with it, thereby completing the design through the simple act of opening. The design’s scale is significant; it captures attention while remaining discreet enough to harmonize with its environment, avoiding competition with surrounding elements. When installed on a minimalist door, HIKU serves as a tactile focal point, eliminating the need for a larger decorative system.\n \nIn essence, HIKU illustrates how an everyday component can embody narrative and artistry without sacrificing practicality. The geometry interacts with the user’s palm, force translates into movement, and the object consistently registers the presence of the individual. Each opening of the door embodies and reinforces the original design concept, establishing HIKU as a powerful example of how functional design can elevate the commonplace into the extraordinary.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/hiku-designedby-oft-studio-hong-kong-union", "Official Company Website": "https://www.oft.studio/", "Collaborating Company Website": "https://www.artunion.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000009.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000010", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA202601000112", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "The Timber Afterlight Lounge", "metadata": { "Project": "The Timber Afterlight Lounge", "Location": "Hong Kong", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial / Sales Gallery", "Designer/company": "OFT", "Additional credits": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Client/collaborators": "The MVP, Emperor Properties", "Completion": "2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "OFT transforms The MVP sales office into a cinematic private club, where deep timber, burgundy textiles, a listening salon and precisely controlled light give the property presentation the atmosphere of an established cultural interior.", "editorial": "The Private Club as a Sales Narrative\nProperty sales galleries are usually designed for immediate clarity: bright light, polished surfaces and an abundance of information. OFT gives The MVP a more seductive beginning. Conceived as a sequence of cinematic rooms, the 644-square-metre sales office exchanges commercial brightness for shadow, deep timber and the measured glamour of a private club. Its mood feels established rather than newly manufactured, as though the interior has already acquired its own rituals and memories.\nArrival is choreographed as a change of pace. Visitors descend from the glare of Hong Kong through a staircase lined with slender timber fins and narrow bands of light. The compressed ceiling and intermittent illumination allow the eye to adjust gradually, turning an ordinary transition between floors into the opening scene of the experience. At its base, the plan expands and the atmosphere becomes more theatrical: burgundy textile walls, dark joinery, warm metal and precisely illuminated steps introduce the development through anticipation rather than display alone.\nThe interior’s sense of permanence is built through detail. Recessed timber coffers give the ceiling depth and rhythm. Curved upholstered panels meet timber bases through fine metallic trims; textured glass glows from concealed light sources; polished fittings catch small flashes of reflection against the darker surfaces. A suspended composition of glass forms creates a brighter moment above the entrance, recalling the sparkle of a historic cinema foyer without reproducing one literally. Character accumulates through repeated junctions, controlled colour and the way each material receives light.\nDeeper inside, the spatial language softens. Rounded walls, fluted upholstery and low, generous seating create rooms with the privacy of a members’ lounge. Burgundy, tobacco brown, cream and muted gold carry a cultivated, faintly nostalgic elegance, while velvet and carpet temper sound for quieter conversations. These are practical decisions for a sales environment, yet they also give the project its emotional register: clients are invited to linger, imagine and discuss a future home without feeling hurried through a transaction.\nThe circular presentation room brings the concept into focus. A luminous, textured-glass counter sits beneath concentric ceiling lines, surrounded by individually framed records, screens and turntables. The room reads partly as an archive, partly as a listening salon and partly as stage. It gives The MVP a cultural personality beyond conventional property branding, connecting architecture with music, collecting and the pleasure of private leisure.\nOFT’s achievement lies in making a sales office feel less temporary than the function usually implies. Its cinematic character comes from sequence and timing; its quiet luxury comes from material weight, acoustic comfort and exacting workmanship. The project sells no single decorative style. It presents a way of living, private, cultivated and rich in atmosphere, hen allows visitors to imagine themselves entering the story.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/the-timber-afterlight-lounge-designed-by-oft-studio", "Official Company Website": "https://www.oft.studio/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000010.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000011", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA202601000114", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Volumetric Fluidity – The Vertical Light-Core Sanctuary", "metadata": { "Project": "Volumetric Fluidity – The Vertical Light-Core Sanctuary", "Location": "Hong Kong", "Project type": "Interior Design — Residential / Private Residence", "Designer/company": "in Him's interior design", "Client/collaborators": "Not provided", "Completion": "Not provided" }, "excerpt": "\"Volumetric Fluidity\" reimagines Hong Kong's dense residential constraints. By harnessing natural light and creating seamless spatial transitions, In Him’s interior design transforms restricted urban footprints into luxurious living spaces, demonstrating how precise architecture crafts an expansive sanctuary.", "editorial": "In the dense urban landscape of Hong Kong, domestic architecture requires a sophisticated approach to spatial negotiation. The project \"Volumetric Fluidity,\" designed by In Him’s studio, addresses these constraints by creating a continuous flow that allows light, movement, and daily life to penetrate the residence. The interior follows a rhythmic internal logic in which the living, dining, and kitchen areas merge into a cohesive social space. Long sightlines and a carefully chosen material palette define this environment. Sheer curtains soften natural light, pale wall finishes help distribute this illumination throughout the space, and deep terrazzo flooring anchors the shared living areas, establishing a sense of home that is both composed and serene.\nSpatial generosity is achieved through a deliberate arrangement of volumes, where each area transitions smoothly into the next. The living room maintains a visual connection to the dining and kitchen zones, supported by low-profile, rounded furniture that preserves an open perspective. At the center of this space, a circular dining table serves as an intimate gathering point, illuminated by a sculptural pendant light that introduces a vertical element to the architectural design.\nThis openness is carefully controlled. A linear ceiling grille runs through the main rooms, seamlessly integrating essential ventilation and technical services into the structure's design. Storage solutions, doorways, and media components are cleverly concealed within the architecture, ensuring that functional requirements do not compromise the interior's visual clarity.\nA striking staircase serves as the vertical pivot of the residence. Timber treads ascend within a bright, white-walled enclosure, framed by a slender black balustrade that defines the space while maximizing light. This transition point elegantly connects the lower social level to the private quarters, turning circulation into an architectural highlight.\nOn the upper level, the atmosphere takes on a more intimate and tactile quality. Herringbone timber flooring unifies the circulation path, while flush door designs ensure seamless continuity across surfaces. The transition from public areas to private sanctuaries is achieved through a refined orchestration of light, proportion, and material depth.\nThe primary suite exemplifies this sanctuary concept. A custom timber structure envelops the sleeping area, featuring curved edges that soften the room's geometric constraints. Integrated bedside elements minimize visual distractions, while a partial partition provides privacy without blocking daylight from illuminating the entire floor plan. The result is a room of profound tranquillity.\nArtistic expression within the space is executed with quiet restraint. White relief art pieces animate the walls through subtle shifts in shadow and texture, revealing their depth as daylight moves through the space. This understated presence mirrors the broader character of the residence: a home where details are gradually discovered over time.\nFor the resident, the design offers a natural framework for the varied rhythms of daily life: gathering, dining, resting, and retreating. For professionals, this project exemplifies a disciplined synthesis of planning, service integration, and furniture, all conveyed through a cohesive architectural language. \"Volumetric Fluidity\" achieves a rare sense of spatial generosity within a precise form, creating a home where boundaries are balanced to maintain connections without disrupting the flow of living.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/volumetric-fluidity-designedby-inhimsinteriordesign", "Official Company Website": "https://inhims.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000011.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000012", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100014", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "THE DINING by KAMAGAYA BATH CLINIC", "metadata": { "Project": "THE DINING by KAMAGAYA BATH CLINIC", "Location": "Kamagaya, Chiba, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Healthcare Hospitality and Workplace", "Designer/company": "JOKE Inc.", "Client/collaborators": "KAMAGAYA BATH CLINIC", "Completion": "June 2025" }, "excerpt": "JOKE Inc. is constructing a two-story timber annex for Kamagaya Bath Clinic, which will include a patient restaurant and a versatile clinician workspace. The design utilizes a 1,620mm structural grid to enhance daylight and improve floor plan efficiency within the healthcare environment.", "editorial": "Healthcare is influenced by more than just consultation rooms and treatment schedules. The moments between appointments, the atmosphere during shared meals, and the quality of staff breaks all play a significant role in shaping a hospital experience. At Kamagaya Bath Clinic, JOKE Inc. emphasizes these quieter aspects of care through thoughtful architectural design.\nThe dining area comprises a two-story timber annex with a patient restaurant on the ground floor, and the upper level includes a flexible office for clinicians and on-call accommodations. This layout integrates patients and medical staff into the same architectural narrative, acknowledging the interconnectedness of nourishment, conversation, work, and rest as essential components of a functional healthcare environment. One of the building’s qualities is its abundant daylight. The structure reaches the maximum height allowed by regulations and is enclosed by a high-performance glazed façade, which opens both floors to the sky and the surrounding landscape. For patients, mealtime becomes a chance to enjoy a brighter and more spacious setting. For clinicians, the same natural light enhances meetings, administrative tasks, and breaks between shifts.\nJOKE Inc. employs timber construction to imbue these everyday moments with warmth and permanence. Visible columns and beams connect the scale and rhythm of the building’s construction with its users. The building's frame establishes character through its proportions, grain, and repetition, allowing the architecture to feel cohesive without relying on additional decorative elements.\nThis integrated approach has professional significance as well. The project was developed with a holistic design process that coordinated architectural structure and interior elements, considering column placements and beam configurations as part of a single design strategy. This means that the structure itself serves as finish, spatial organization, and material identity, reducing the need for extensive surface treatments while maintaining clear architectural expression. The restaurant offers a space where care can be experienced in a social context. Dining in natural light, sharing a table, and looking beyond the immediate medical surroundings provide a different rhythm to the day. Above the restaurant, the flexible office space encourages collaboration and adapts to changing work patterns, while on-call accommodations offer a space for recovery during demanding schedules.\nTimber also supports the building's emotional and environmental goals. Its insulating and humidity-regulating properties enhance comfort, while the material's renewable nature and carbon-storing capabilities align with the project's environmental responsibility. Timber is valuable because its performance, atmosphere, and construction logic work in harmony. THE DINING showcases healthcare architecture by highlighting the ordinary moments that sustain both patients and staff. JOKE Inc. has designed a building where meals, conversations, and restful breaks receive the same level of care as the clinical programs surrounding them. Its true value lies in making wellbeing visible through daylight, timber, and the simple dignity of a thoughtfully designed space.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/thediningbykamagayabathclinic-designedby-jokeinc", "Official Company Website": "https://jokedesign.xyz/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000012.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000013", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100015", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Sienna One Sales Gallery and Clubhouse", "metadata": { "Project": "Sienna One Sales Gallery and Clubhouse", "Location": "Jiaxing, China", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office / Sales Gallery and Clubhouse", "Designer/company": "ARTTA Concept Studio", "Additional credits": "Arthur Tang, Rio Law, Natalie Chan, Judith Chu, Haiji Lai, Joseph Hui and Miranda Chu", "Client/collaborators": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Completion": "August 2025", "Area": "3,550 m²", "Photographer": "Ingallery / ARTTA Concept Studio" }, "excerpt": "In Jiaxing, Sienna One pairs a residential sales gallery with a multi-generational clubhouse. ARTTA Concept Studio employs a \"Refined Harmony\" philosophy, using French Alpine-inspired curves, a signature marble staircase, and seasonal amenity zones to create a durable community setting.", "editorial": "In many residential developments, the clubhouse is where the idea of home truly begins to take shape. Before a buyer enters a private apartment, the shared spaces offer a glimpse into daily life: the rhythm of arrival, the quality of light, the texture underfoot, and the atmosphere that exists just beyond the front door. At Sienna One in Jiaxing, ARTTA Concept Studio presents this moment through a thoughtfully designed 3,550-square-metre sales gallery and clubhouse that embodies the idea of refined luxury.\nThe concept of \"Refined Harmony\" draws inspiration from the landscape and seasonal essence of the French Alps, evoking images of open air and a life balanced between activity and tranquillity. ARTTA Concept Studio translates these impressions into curved architecture, warm whites, bronze accents, natural marble, and timber, creating a calm environment amid the pace of contemporary residential life.\nThis expression of luxury prioritizes ease and comfort. Spaces feel generous yet approachable, with materials chosen for how they engage with light, touch, and movement. This atmosphere invites prospective residents to experience the development as much through sensory engagement as through presentation.\nThe entrance features a darker, more intimate setting, with curved ceiling fins and bronze details providing a transitional moment before opening into a luminous reception space. Here, pale marble and warm white surfaces create a serene backdrop for art and furnishings. This shift in brightness offers a gentle sense of ceremony, marking the transition from the city's hustle to the clubhouse's tranquil social environment.\nNear the reception, small hospitality touches create a personal touch. A high table, orange stools, and clustered globe lights invite brief pauses, whether for a meeting or a casual drink. These elements suggest the potential for future interactions among members, establishing a polished yet familiar ambiance.\nAt the heart of the project, the Fluid Arc Staircase embodies the understated luxury envisioned for Sienna One. Carved from solid marble, it sweeps beneath an oval skylight, infusing the space with natural light and generous volume. Its refined design enhances the journey between floors, transforming everyday movement into a composed experience. The staircase serves as a central feature, visible from various points within the clubhouse, enhancing awareness of activities in surrounding areas and fostering a sense of community.\nThe lounges reflect a contemporary understanding of shared living, allowing members the option to connect with the surrounding life while enjoying moments of solitude. ARTTA Concept Studio has tailored each facility to embody a seasonal character. The gym, inspired by winter, features cool tones and timber to evoke a mountainous feel, while the ball court channels summer's vibrancy through energetic colours and lighting. Spring is embodied in the children's playground with soft forms and colours, and autumn finds its place in the changing rooms through rich timber and warm hues.\nMembers experience the clubhouse as a series of environments, each attuned to various times of the day, unified by material consistency. Natural marble is arranged in flowing patterns, creating a sense of continuity across the floors. Hand-finished wall surfaces interact with varying daylight, and brushed metals add warmth to the pale interiors, enriching the overall sensory experience.\nSienna One reflects the growing importance of the residential clubhouse in Chinese cities, where shared amenities redefine concepts of home, community, and individual wellbeing. These spaces facilitate a gentle merging of private life and social engagement, nurturing connections among neighbours through shared activities and everyday interactions. With inspiration from the French Alpine landscape, ARTTA Concept Studio envisions a harmonious living environment that seamlessly integrates art, leisure, craftsmanship, and comfort, elevating luxury to encompass everyday life through thoughtful attention to light, space, and materials.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/skr-sda2026/sienna-one-sales-gallery-artta-concept-studio-jiaxing/sienna-one-sales-gallery-and-clubhouse-designed-by-artta-concept-studio-hong-kong", "Official Company Website": "https://www.arttaconcept.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000013.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000014", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100018", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "OMO5 Hakodate by Hoshino Resorts", "metadata": { "Project": "OMO5 Hakodate by Hoshino Resorts", "Location": "Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Hotel and Resort / Urban Hotel Renovation and Extension", "Designer/company": "fan Inc.", "Additional credits": "Fumihiko Fujii, CEO / Designer", "Client/collaborators": "Hoshino Resorts", "Completion": "May 2024; opened 6 July 2024", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "OMO5 Hakodate by Hoshino Resorts: An urban hotel renovation by fan Inc. blending local port culture with Goryokaku design elements to create an immersive destination experience.", "editorial": "Hakodate has long welcomed travellers, blending trains, ferries, and market streets that lead to its harbour, gradually rising toward Mount Hakodate. One standout option for visitors is OMO5 Hakodate, conveniently located across from the train station. The hotel serves as a gateway to the city, allowing guests to immerse themselves in its atmosphere before they even unpack.\nRenovated by fan Inc. for Hoshino Resorts, OMO5 is inspired by the concept of \"120% Hakodate.\" This approach transcends simply showcasing local landmarks, focusing instead on how guests can connect with the city, where they gather, what they notice, and how the hotel encourages exploration beyond its doors.\nUpon arrival, guests are greeted by a large stained-glass piece at the reception. This artwork, featuring the star-shaped Goryokaku and scenic depictions of the harbour and surrounding landscape, establishes a strong sense of place. Below, the reception desk is designed with calm precision. \nThe hotel’s public spaces adopt a more casual, urban vibe. OMO Base reflects the character of Hakodate’s port and warehouse architecture, providing comfortable furniture designed for conversation and relaxation. Its greatest asset is the neighbourhood knowledge it offers. Available maps and local recommendations make the lobby a living guide to the city, inviting guests to discover markets, independent shops, and everyday local life. This connection gives OMO5 Hakodate its unique charm; it’s not just about showcasing the destination but about inviting travellers to engage with it, whether wandering through the market in the morning or exploring the harbour in the afternoon.\nDining adds another layer to the Hakodate experience. Inspired by the geometry of Goryokaku, the restaurant’s live kitchen features maritime elements like fishing nets and squid, tying it closely to the city’s culture. These details introduce humour and familiarity while enhancing the dining experience.\nThe dining atmosphere varies, transitioning from the open feel of the new dining hall to the cozier ambiance of existing rooms, mirroring the hotel’s daily rhythm. Whether it's a quick breakfast, a lively dinner with friends, or a serene return after a day of exploration, each meal captures the essence of Hakodate’s spirit.\nIn the guest rooms, the connection to Hakodate deepens. Personal touches, such as illustrations of Mount Hakodate’s stunning night view and subtle squid motifs, reward attentive guests while maintaining a peaceful atmosphere. For design professionals, this project offers insight into how regional identity can inform hospitality design without simply serving decorative purposes. Each design element is functional: stained glass signals arrival, maps guide exploration, the live kitchen shares local lore while fostering social interaction, and room details extend the city's character into personal spaces.\nFor travellers, the experience feels intuitive. OMO5 Hakodate encapsulates the essence of the city, making it approachable, relatable, and filled with potential. Fan Inc. has crafted a hotel that integrates seamlessly with Hakodate, inviting guests to explore its stories and encouraging them to return to the streets with a deeper understanding of their surroundings.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/omo5hakodate-hoshinoresorts-fan-inc", "Official Company Website": "https://fan-inc.com/index.html" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000014.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000015", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010002", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "REXON SPACE", "metadata": { "Project": "REXON SPACE", "Location": "Not provided", "Project type": "Office and exhibition showroom", "Designer/company": "ByoArc Studio", "Client/collaborators": "REXON", "Completion": "Not specified in supplied source" }, "excerpt": "ByoArc Studio turns an 80-square-metre office and showroom into a fluid setting for work, display and reception, centred on a concrete column, a six-metre display table and movable timber modules.", "editorial": "An Office Built to Keep Moving\nFor a company, a showroom is expected to present a finished image; an office must accommodate the less orderly business of daily work. REXON SPACE brings both conditions into an 80-square-metre interior, adding reception, meetings and product launches to an already compressed brief. ByoArc Studio resolves the overlap through a single open room whose identity changes with use.\nThe starting point was subtraction. Non-load-bearing partitions were removed, the suspended ceiling was stripped away and the entrance was repositioned to face the lift lobby. Visitors now arrive directly into the company’s public narrative, following a loop of displays around the room while office activity remains visible within it. Exhibition and work are no longer allocated separate territories; they share a circulation system and a common architectural address.\nAn existing concrete column becomes that address. Left rough and exposed, it is wrapped with a stainless-steel grid carrying detachable shelves, then extended into a six-metre timber platform. Drawers hold products, concealed power supports work and events, and a built-in water bar allows the surface to serve anything from an ordinary meeting to a coffee salon or launch. A structural obstruction is converted into display infrastructure and the social centre of the plan.\nTwo movable timber volumes provide a second level of adjustment. The taller box combines storage with corporate display; the smaller brings together a tea table and additional storage. Shifted across the floor, they create semi-private, fully open or mixed configurations without changing the architecture. Privacy becomes a matter of degree, produced through position and occupation rather than a closed room.\nThe material register is deliberately limited. White-painted services retain the full ceiling height and give the exposed construction a quiet industrial consistency. Timber lends the long central element a furniture-like warmth, while black metal mesh sharpens the display system without adding visual weight. Perimeter graphics, samples and digital information are held within a measured band, leaving the centre available for handling products, meeting visitors and working together.\nFlexibility is often used to describe spaces that are merely empty. REXON SPACE is more exact: its fixed elements organise circulation and services, while a small number of mobile components alter enclosure and programme. Reusable timber panels, detachable metal fittings and shared facilities also reduce the material duplication that would come with separate office, showroom and reception rooms.\nByoArc Studio has treated the company’s workplace as an evolving piece of communication. REXON is represented not by a static display set apart from its staff, but through a room where products, people and conversation occupy the same field. The compact interior gains generosity from this overlap, turning adaptability into a visible part of the brand rather than a promise hidden in the plan.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/rexon-space-designed-byoarc-studio", "Official Company Website": "http://www.byo-arc.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000015.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000016", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100021", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Toscana in Discovery Bay Sales Gallery", "metadata": { "Project": "Toscana in Discovery Bay Sales Gallery", "Location": "Discovery Bay, Hong Kong", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office / Residential Sales Gallery", "Designer/company": "ARTTA Concept Studio", "Additional credits": "Arthur Tang, Natalie Chan, Louisa Tong, Miranda Chu and Judith Chu", "Client/collaborators": "Residential development client", "Completion": "July 2025", "Area": "1,500 m²", "Photographer": "Steven Ko" }, "excerpt": "ARTTA Concept Studio sets a new standard for property marketing in Discovery Bay. Toscana transforms the traditional sales office model into a Mediterranean sanctuary, utilizing natural stone and biophilic design to enhance buyer engagement.", "editorial": "Toscana in Discovery Bay serves as a sanctuary designed by ARTTA Concept Studio, transforming the 1,500-square-meter site into a welcoming, home-like atmosphere for potential residents. The design orchestrates a journey for families, outlining their possible daily routines.\nArches form the core of the layout. The reception thresholds and meeting room doors echo this archway design in various sizes, establishing a cohesive rhythm that soothes pedestrian movement. Material choices play a crucial role in the overall aesthetic. Grey leather pairs with camel upholstery, while limestone and Italian marble delineate edges, providing depth and tactile variety that enhance visual interest. The Tuscan inspiration permeates the environment, capturing the essence of a home.\nUpon arrival, visitors are presented with a framed experience. Bronze and stone anchor the work desk, while curved openings direct attention toward the central model area. Soft lighting graces the floor, ensuring that models are displayed at precise heights to illustrate site relationships effectively. Circulation flows smoothly, allowing groups to gather comfortably.\nA café and outdoor patio extend the visitor experience, incorporating hospitality within the same narrative as the models. Guests are encouraged to linger, and exterior connections create a shift in ambiance. Digital renderings transition into tangible outdoor access, while the gym concept introduces an active element. Biophilic exercise equipment enables visitors to engage with proposed wellness features, transforming concepts into physical interactions.\nA dedicated corridor leads to the VIP quarters, where patterned carpets and warm timber create a more intimate atmosphere, indicating a shift from public information to private discussions. The VIP rooms utilize leather wall coverings and carefully selected furniture to create a contained and comfortable setting. These rooms serve a sales purpose while allowing prospective residents to envision their own privacy.\nThe gallery succeeds in balancing aspiration with practical information. Models and consultation areas are kept separate, while the café and exercise facilities introduce familiar rituals that the development aims to promote. Toscana offers more than just a property; it provides a sequence of experiences that convey a desirable lifestyle. Each stage reveals tangible evidence of the life prospective buyers could lead. Arches impose a sense of order, natural materials foster tranquillity, and outdoor amenities link the sales experience to daily living, allowing prospective buyers to preview the community they might become a part of.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/toscana-in-discovery-bay-sales-gallery-designed-by-artta-concept-studio-hong-kong", "Official Company Website": "https://www.arttaconcept.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000016.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000017", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100022", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "ABE galerie TOKYO", "metadata": { "Project": "ABE galerie TOKYO", "Location": "Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office / Gallery and Showroom", "Designer/company": "ODS / Oniki Design Studio", "Additional credits": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Client/collaborators": "Abe", "Completion": "October 2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "ABE Galerie TOKYO by ODS (Oniki Design Studio) features artisan wooden doors and artwork within a plaster-lined office in Shinjuku. This gallery design emphasizes focus, creating a rhythmic architectural experience that showcases kumiko latticework and curated paintings.", "editorial": "In celebration of its 80th anniversary, Abe’s Shinjuku office has collaborated with ODS / Oniki Design Studio to create a space that reflects a long-standing tradition of craftsmanship without reducing this history to a simple commemorative display. ABE Galerie TOKYO combines wooden doors featuring kumiko latticework, gold leaf, and urushi lacquer with paintings by artists with disabilities, establishing a cohesive environment where craftsmanship and artistic expression coexist.\nThe project, named ABE Galerie TOKYO by Oniki, focuses on directing visual attention. Five plaster-finished wing walls are arranged parallel to the façade, each rising elegantly toward the ceiling. This setup offers a sequential experience, allowing viewers to encounter the gallery piece by piece rather than all at once. Individual elements- a door, a painting, or a fragment of a nearby composition- reveal themselves in a manner that gives each its own moment within the space.\nThis intentional rhythm is vital for emphasizing workmanship. The precision needed for kumiko lattice, the depth of urushi layers, and the subtle variations in gold leaf based on light gain significance when given visual space. ODS ensures that the paintings hold equal importance, cultivating a relationship that goes beyond mere decoration. This strategy encourages a broader dialogue regarding techniques, the role of craftsmanship, and personal expression.\nThe architectural design is intentionally simple, which allows these distinctions to stand out. The plaster from the wing walls flows seamlessly onto the floor tiles, creating a cohesive material palette with a distinct hand-finished quality. This environment shares similarities with the objects it showcases: its value lies in the quality of execution and intricate details that invite careful observation.\nAt the end of the gallery, a mirrored surface extends the rhythm established by the five partitions, providing reflective views of previously encountered pieces. In this compact setting, the effect is about continuity rather than visual expansion. Earlier experiences resurface from different perspectives, and the movement through the space becomes essential to understanding the collection.\nAt ABE Galerie TOKYO, ODS has translated an 80-year history into a contemporary architectural language defined by focus, material sensitivity, and careful curation. The gallery does not lean on nostalgia for its significance; rather, its relevance comes from promoting direct relationships between various forms of craftsmanship and allowing the interior to engage meaningfully in this dialogue. The outcome is an environment where architecture acts as a subtle mediator among craft, art, and the core values that the organization strives to uphold.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/abe-galerie-tokyo-designed-by-ods-oniki-design-studio-japan", "Official Company Website": "https://oniki-design-studio.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000017.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000018", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100023", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Authentic Residence", "metadata": { "Project": "Authentic Residence", "Location": "Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Residential / Large Private Residence", "Designer/company": "Yokobori Architect & Associates", "Additional credits": "", "Client/collaborators": "Private client", "Completion": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Area": "Tokyo", "Photographer": "Nacása & Partners" }, "excerpt": "Yokobori Architect & Associates transforms the ancient Hare and Ke concept into a high-performance residential reality. This Tokyo residence merges a ceremonial car display, traditional craftsmanship, and fluid living spaces into one cohesive architectural statement.", "editorial": "Authentic Residence reimagines the ancestral Japanese philosophy of Hare and Ke, a concept describing the rhythmic interplay between the ceremonial and the everyday, through a refined architectural lens. Yokobori Architect & Associates challenge the conventional domestic hierarchy that relegates formal spaces to static, \"staged\" settings. In response, they have composed a sequence of fluid, atmospheric thresholds that unite exceptional hospitality with the intimacy of daily living. The design orchestrates the transition between these conditions with masterful attention to materiality and light, rather than simply dividing them.\nOn the ground floor, the Hare condition is expressed through a curated car lounge that elevates functional storage into a space for quiet contemplation. Expansive glazing and a tranquil reflecting pool frame the owner’s automobile collection as sculptural art, capturing the shifting sky and garden foliage. This area transitions effortlessly to the entrance hall, creating a sense of arrival that is simultaneously grand and personal. The formal living, cigar, and dining rooms extend this narrative of elegance; these rooms are subtly offset and defined by movable elements, introducing visual intrigue and allowing the architecture to adapt to gatherings of varying scale.\nIn contrast, the Ke spaces, considered the heart of family life, emphasize a serene, tactile sensibility. These rooms are defined by warmth and comfort, with flexible connections to the kitchen that support the unhurried rituals of daily living. Traditional spatial strategies, including sliding doors, allow the residence to expand or contract, ensuring long-term sustainability and comfort. This duality culminates in the master suite, where a leather-lined niche and custom partitions balance the need for privacy with a sense of openness. The integration of traditional gold leaf and paulownia wood within contemporary forms honours Japanese craftsmanship without resorting to pastiche, resulting in a residence that is both intellectually rigorous and tranquil. This approach assumes particular importance in the context of a large private residence. Whereas many grand homes relegate domestic life to secondary service areas to prioritize formal reception spaces, this project reverses that hierarchy, granting equal architectural significance to both Hare and Ke.\nThe formal program extends into the living, cigar, and dining rooms. These areas, thoughtfully offset and defined by movable elements, create visual depth and accommodate gatherings of varying sizes, ensuring that large events remain cohesive yet intimate. The adaptability of these sliding boundaries enables the residence to host hospitality without an air of perpetual staging.\nThe family living and dining areas embody the Ke condition, offering a contrast to the formal spaces. These rooms maintain a close connection to the kitchen, feature a subdued material palette, and encourage informal circulation, allowing daily routines to unfold with ease. Traditional Japanese spatial strategies, including sliding doors and flexible connections, are used to ensure long-term sustainability without depending solely on visual effect.\nThis duality also negotiates the balance between privacy and openness. Public gathering spaces can be activated while family quarters remain secluded, maintaining a sense of unity and cohesion throughout the residence.\nThe master suite seamlessly integrates these two sensibilities. The bed is oriented toward an open view, while a custom partition carefully manages sightlines to ensure privacy. A leather-lined niche envelops the bed, offering a sense of enclosure and tactile comfort that brings together the refinement of Hare and the intimate needs of daily living embodied by Ke.\nMateriality serves as a bridge, with gold leaf and paulownia wood inlaid into contemporary doors. This measured approach prevents the residence from evoking a historical setting while honouring the distinctiveness of Japanese tradition. Ultimately, Authentic Residence succeeds by infusing conventional residential planning with cultural depth. By conceiving room function as an alternating rhythm of life rather than a fixed category, the project delivers a residence that is both adaptable and refined.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/authentic-residence-designed-by-yokobori-architect-amp-associates-japan", "Official Company Website": "https://yokobori-aa.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000018.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000019", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100023N", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "BANDAI HOBBY CENTER PLAMO DESIGN INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE MUSEUM", "metadata": { "Project": "BANDAI HOBBY CENTER PLAMO DESIGN INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE MUSEUM", "Location": "Shizuoka, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Institution / Museum and Showcase Factory", "Designer/company": "CIC, NOMURA Co., Ltd.", "Additional credits": "©SOTSU・SUNRISE, ©BANDAI SPIRITS, ©BANDAI SPIRITS 2021", "Client/collaborators": "©SOTSU・SUNRISE, ©BANDAI SPIRITS, ©BANDAI SPIRITS 2021", "Completion": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "©SOTSU・SUNRISE, ©BANDAI SPIRITS, ©BANDAI SPIRITS 2021" }, "excerpt": "Witness the mechanics behind Japanese model-making. CIC, NOMURA Co., Ltd. turn a working Bandai factory into a public laboratory, blending live production lines with a 4,000-piece fan gallery. See how industrial engineering meets creative design in this ZEB-certified manufacturing showcase.", "editorial": "Plastic models are not just toys; they embody a profound cultural phenomenon in Japan. These creations begin as industrial products but become deeply personal expressions in the hands of builders who cut, assemble, paint, and reinterpret them with ingenuity and patience. The Bandai Hobby Center takes this concept to new heights with its PLAMO DESIGN INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE MUSEUM, a space that elegantly intertwines the artistry of model-making with the very factory where these iconic pieces are born.\nCrafted by CIC, NOMURA Co., Ltd., this museum offers visitors a captivating journey from concept to creation. It immerses them in the intricacies of production, revealing moulds, forming machines, runners, and production tools that showcase the precision and engineering behind the models they admire. This experience redefines plastic modelling as a harmonious blend of engineering, design, and individual creativity.\nThe museum's innovative setting enhances this understanding by featuring an operational factory. Visitors can witness the scale, machinery, and disciplined processes of manufacturing, lending authenticity to a narrative that often remains hidden behind the polished final product. A striking full-scale plastic model façade invites guests into this evocative space, communicating in a language they instinctively grasp. The enlarged panels, joints, and assembly lines transpose model kit logic into architectural form. What may initially seem playful also sharpens the eye to observe how components connect, how surfaces interact, and how construction influences overall form.\nInside, authentic moulding equipment and runner formations demystify the production sequence, guiding visitors through the transformational journey from creative concepts to precise metal dies and reproducible components. The museum artfully bridges the worlds of design and manufacturing, making every step of this evolution visible. Engagement is key to this experience. Guests can step into the shoes of a plastic model designer, tasked with applying the insights and ideas they've encountered throughout the exhibition. This shift from passive observation to active creation reinforces the dynamic relationship between technical expertise and imaginative expression.\nFor younger visitors, the familiarity of plastic models serves as a direct gateway into the world of manufacturing culture. Through these objects linked to play and popular culture, they can grasp concepts of precision, material behaviour, and planning. The museum is a nurturing ground for curiosity, inviting exploration, comparison, and experimentation. A highlight of the exhibit is the stunning installation of 4,000 models crafted by enthusiasts, a powerful testament to the diverse interpretations within the fan community. Each model is a unique reflection of its builder's choices, underscoring how a standardized product can inspire a multitude of personal expressions once it leaves the factory.\n\n\nThis intricate dialogue between producers and users gives the museum its unique essence. Bandai supplies the engineering, components, and systems, while builders contribute their time, skill, and individuality. Together, they create a shared culture that celebrates plastic models.\nComplementing this narrative are the factory’s sophisticated environmental systems, which integrate modern manufacturing practices. The ZEB certification and energy-efficient technologies underscore a commitment to sustainability, allowing visitors to experience firsthand how these innovative operations connect production with environmental stewardship. They originate as industrial products, but their true meaning is shaped at home, where builders cut, assemble, paint, and reinterpret them using patience and creativity. The Bandai Hobby Center features the PLAMO DESIGN INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE MUSEUM, which bridges these two worlds, showcasing the culture of model-making alongside the very factory where they are produced.\nDesigned by CIC, NOMURA Co., Ltd., the museum invites visitors to trace the journey from concept to finished model. Moulds, forming machines, runners, and production tools reveal the precision behind objects that we often encounter only after they hit the shelves. This experience reframes plastic modelling as a convergence of engineering, design, and personal creativity.\nThis shift in perspective gives the museum broader cultural significance. A model, while small enough to fit in one hand, embodies decisions about proportion, movement, colour, tooling, and assembly. Each component must integrate into a larger whole, requiring the same clarity of thought found in many areas of industrial design.\nThe museum's setting amplifies this understanding, as production remains ongoing. It is organized around an operational factory, allowing visitors to witness the scale, machinery, and discipline of manufacturing as part of the exhibition. This presence lends credibility to a narrative that might otherwise remain concealed behind a finished product.\nA full-scale plastic-model façade introduces visitors to the experience in a language they readily understand. Enlarged panels, joints, and assembly lines transform the logic of model kits into architecture. What appears playful at first also trains the eye to notice how parts connect, how surfaces are divided, and how construction shapes form. Inside the exhibition, authentic moulding equipment and runner formations simplify the understanding of the production sequence. Creative concepts evolve into metal dies, precise tolerances, and repeatable parts before returning to the builder’s hands. The museum makes this transformation visible, seamlessly connecting design and manufacturing.\nParticipation completes this journey. Visitors can assume the role of a plastic model designer, applying the ideas they've encountered throughout the exhibition. Observation becomes a foundation for creation, reinforcing the relationship between technical knowledge and individual imagination.\nFor younger visitors, the familiarity of plastic models offers a direct entry point into manufacturing culture. Concepts of precision, material behaviour, and planning can be grasped through objects linked to play and popular culture. The museum fosters an environment where technical curiosity can flourish through hands-on experiences, comparison, and experimentation.\nThe contributions of the fan community are also prominently displayed. An installation composed of 4,000 models made by enthusiasts unifies individual interpretations into a collective work. Each piece embodies its builder's decisions, demonstrating how a standardized product can support myriad expressions once it leaves the factory. This dialogue between producer and audience gives the museum its distinctive character. Bandai provides the engineering, components, and systems, while builders contribute time, skill, and personality. The museum acknowledges that the culture surrounding plastic models belongs to both.\nThe new factory’s environmental systems introduce a contemporary layer to the narrative. ZEB certification, energy-saving and energy-generating equipment, automation, and labour-saving technologies are showcased as part of modern manufacturing practices. Visitors encounter sustainability through the facility's operations, linking production quality with resource awareness and future responsibility.\nCIC, NOMURA Co., Ltd. has created a museum where scale constantly shifts. The architecture resembles a model kit; a tiny component reveals the logic of an industrial system; and thousands of completed works form a collective landscape. These changes in scale allow professional knowledge and popular enthusiasm to converge within the same experience.\nThe PLAMO DESIGN INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE MUSEUM provides plastic modelling with a public cultural platform. It celebrates the ingenuity behind manufacturing, the joy of creation, and the community that continues to give each model a life beyond the production line.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/bandai-hobby-center-plamo-design-industrial-institute-museum-designedby-cicnomura", "Official Company Website": "https://www.nomurakougei.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000019.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000020", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100024N", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Panasonic Group Pavilion “The Land of NOMO”", "metadata": { "Project": "Panasonic Group Pavilion “The Land of NOMO”", "Location": "Expo 2025 Osaka, Yumeshima, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Exhibition / Experiential Pavilion", "Designer/company": "NOMURA Co., Ltd.", "Additional credits": "Developed with Panasonic Group and children through long-term workshops", "Client/collaborators": "Panasonic Group", "Completion": "2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "The Land of NOMO at Expo 2025 Osaka: A sensory-driven pavilion by NOMURA for Panasonic. This experiential space eliminates fixed paths, utilizing light, sound, and biodegradable architecture to engage 470,000 visitors, including 115,000 schoolchildren, in unscripted discovery.", "editorial": "At Expo 2025 Osaka, Panasonic’s pavilion, *The Land of NOMO*, is a captivating celebration of the company’s vision, inviting visitors to step into a vibrant world filled with movement, sensation, and the thrill of personal exploration. Created by the innovative team at NOMURA Co., Ltd., this stunning pavilion, under the inspiring theme “Unlock Your Nature,” draws upon the beauty of forests, ancient trees, and crystals to craft an extraordinary landscape that comes alive through touch, light, mist, and sound.\nThis imaginative concept takes root from the ideals of Panasonic's founder, Konosuke Matsushita, who wholeheartedly believed in the unique talents that reside within each person. NOMURA has beautifully brought this philosophy to life by designing a space that encourages open-ended exploration, allowing visitors to set their own paths and make choices that shape their journey.\nCentral to this pavilion's charm is a spirit of openness. The custom floor tiles mimic the natural, uneven surfaces of a forest floor, while tree-like structures and crystal-inspired forms create an inviting atmosphere that feels both familiar and ripe for individual interpretation. With the help of advanced computational design and digital fabrication, the pavilion breathes with branching geometries that evoke organic growth, steering clear of a literal representation of nature.\nAs guests wander through the pavilion, they will be surrounded by a harmonious interplay of light, sound, and mist, creating an atmosphere responsive to their movements and presence. The integration of technology enhances the experience by igniting curiosity and fostering emotional connections, elegantly woven into the environment without overshadowing its natural essence.\nThroughout their exploration, visitors will find their actions observed, culminating in a personalized narrative that reflects their unique journey. Integrating mirrors within the tree-like forms offers a moment of self-recognition, allowing guests to connect their sensory experiences with personal insights.\nThe design brilliantly caters to diverse styles of participation. With a focus on engaging the senses through texture, movement, sound, and light, everyone can immerse themselves in the experience without needing extensive verbal or written instructions. A calming room is thoughtfully positioned along the pathway for those seeking a quieter space, providing a sanctuary to recharge and rejoin the experience at their own pace.\nBeyond the enchanting design, Panasonic emphasizes sustainability through mindful material choices. Elements crafted from leaf-like mesh and tree structures are made using Kinari, a biodegradable cellulose-fibre resin tinted with compostable pigments. The design minimizes waste and ensures modular floor tiles can be repurposed after the Expo, demonstrating our commitment to our planet.\nYears of dedicated workshops and a focus on observed behaviour have shaped this inspiring environment. The design enables discovery without dictating outcomes, celebrating sensation and movement as meaningful pathways to understanding.\nWelcoming an audience of 470,000, including 115,000 enthusiastic schoolchildren, *The Land of NOMO* showcased Panasonic’s human-centred philosophy to a wide array of visitors. This pavilion harmoniously intertwines technology, inclusivity, and environmental responsibility into a cohesive experience, illustrating how architecture can inspire attention, choice, and personal interpretation.\n \nNOMURA has created a pavilion that is truly defined by its openness. *The Land of NOMO* offers a carefully crafted environment that evolves with each visitor, allowing them to create unique memories, experiences, and meanings within its enchanting landscape.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/the-land-of-nomo-designed-by-nomura-co-ltd-japan", "Official Company Website": "https://www.nomurakougei.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000020.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000021", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100024", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Shinjuku Gyoemmae Residence (ZOOM SHINJUKU GYOEMMAE)", "metadata": { "Project": "Shinjuku Gyoemmae Residence (ZOOM SHINJUKU GYOEMMAE)", "Location": "Shinjuku Gyoenmae, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Architecture — Residential and Urban Design / Interior Design — Residential", "Designer/company": "KEY OPERATION INC. / ARCHITECTS", "Additional credits": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Client/collaborators": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Completion": "September 2024", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "How does a Tokyo apartment achieve privacy in a dense urban intersection? The Shinjuku Gyoemmae Residence by KEY OPERATION INC. uses a high-performance, dual-layer aluminum façade to redefine compact living.", "editorial": "Tokyo's compact apartments are often measured in square meters, but the experience of living in them is equally influenced by factors such as light, privacy, and the relationship with the city outside. At Shinjuku Gyoemmae Residence, KEY OPERATION INC. / ARCHITECTS carefully considers all three aspects through a layered façade, which gives this prominent urban building a calmer collective identity while enhancing the everyday living experience for its residents.\nThe residence is situated at a notable intersection between Shinjuku’s bustling commercial skyline and the quieter neighbourhoods leading towards Yotsuya. This location places the building at the intersection of two contrasting versions of Tokyo: one characterized by towering structures, movement, and infrastructure, and the other by a more domestic street scale. The architecture responds to both contexts, presenting a distinctive metropolitan presence while maintaining the privacy expected of a residence.\nKEY OPERATION starts with the practical considerations of Japanese apartment design. Essential features such as balconies, air-conditioning units, and shared evacuation routes are integrated into a cohesive system within the building's façade. Dark grey aluminum panels form a deeper background layer that keeps these services accessible while providing a more organized visual structure. The outer layer is composed of champagne-grey aluminum louvres, which wrap around the building in a fine rhythm and connect with the extended floor slabs. This establishes a sense of scale that resonates with the surrounding intersection. From the street, the residence appears as a singular civic figure, while subtle variations in depth hint at the individual homes within.\nThe distance between the two aluminum layers significantly contributes to the façade's character. Sunlight filters through the louvres, casting shadows on the darker panels behind, while the metallic tones shift with the weather. The building’s appearance evolves naturally over time and from different viewpoints, creating depth without relying on separate decorative elements.\nFor residents, the louvre system fosters a more comfortable relationship with the city. It filters direct sunlight, moderates solar heat, and ensures privacy while still allowing outward views. The façade creates a buffer zone between the interior and the street, enabling large openings to maintain a connection with Tokyo. This threshold is particularly valuable in compact homes. A generous view can make a small floor area feel linked to a broader landscape, while a degree of screening allows that openness to be practical throughout the day. The façade thus shapes both the building's public identity and the private atmosphere of each apartment. Inside, loft-style layouts use vertical space creatively to enhance the living experience. Living, working, sleeping, and storage areas can occupy different levels within a compact footprint, providing residents with varied spatial conditions without requiring many enclosed rooms.\nShared coworking spaces on the lower floors extend this flexibility beyond individual apartments. They acknowledge the blending of domestic and professional life, offering residents an alternative space for work and social interaction within the building. While the private units serve as homes, the shared areas contribute valuable space to the broader residential environment.\nThe accuracy of the building envelope was achieved through digital simulation and value engineering. The density and positioning of the louvres were tested to ensure visual continuity, optimal solar performance, and cost-effective construction. Layered finishes applied to the exposed concrete slabs connect the structural edges with the two aluminum tones, allowing the entire elevation to read as a singular material composition. For architects, this project serves as a disciplined example of how functional requirements can shape architectural identity. For residents, the benefits include filtered light, increased privacy, city views, and adaptable interiors that accommodate a range of daily activities. For the neighbourhood, the residence adds a unified presence at an intersection where urban scales continuously shift.\nShinjuku Gyoemmae Residence exemplifies metropolitan housing as a relationship between individual life and collective form. KEY OPERATION INC. / ARCHITECTS has crafted a façade that belongs to the city while creating a measured layer of separation for the homes behind it, allowing density, views, and privacy to coexist within a singular architectural system.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-final-shortlisted-architecture/shinjuku-gyoemmae-residence-zoom-shinjuku-gyoemmae-designed-by-key-operation-inc-architects", "Official Company Website": "https://www.keyoperation.com/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000021.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000022", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100025", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Ambientec Gallery Tokyo", "metadata": { "Project": "Ambientec Gallery Tokyo", "Location": "AXIS Design Center, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Retail Design / Lighting Gallery", "Designer/company": "ODS / Oniki Design Studio", "Additional credits": "Modular display system developed with Ambientec in 2023", "Client/collaborators": "Ambientec", "Completion": "May 2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Oniki Design Studio transforms retail lighting at Ambientec Gallery Tokyo, pairing a high-precision modular display system with intimate, domestic-scale rooms to reveal the atmospheric potential of portable light.", "editorial": "Portable lighting occupies a distinctive role within the realm of design. It possesses a physical materiality, yet its true essence becomes apparent when it influences the surrounding environment. For the Ambientec Gallery Tokyo, ODS / Oniki Design Studio has artfully constructed an interior that embodies this duality, allowing Ambientec's lighting to be appreciated both as meticulously crafted objects and as instruments for atmospheric transformation.\nSituated in the AXIS Design Center in Roppongi, this gallery represents Ambientec’s inaugural directly managed space in Tokyo. Its strategic location, facing the building’s atrium, ensures significant public visibility, while ODS has curated an intimate setting suitable for experiencing the entirety of the brand's lighting collection.\nThe principal display is designed as a large-scale cabinet that showcases individual pieces. Modular fixtures developed in collaboration with Ambientec in 2023 create a grid of compartments, each uniquely proportioned to accommodate a single lamp or a small grouping. The framework is painted black to harmonize with the adjacent walls and ceiling, allowing the illuminated objects to command attention. Each light source generates its own halo, reflection, and shadow, rendering variations in color temperature, diffusion, and intensity discernible throughout the broader composition.\nThe arrangement reflects a meticulous curatorial precision. Small portable lights are afforded the spatial significance typically reserved for larger objects, while the repetition of the grid enhances the visibility of subtle differences. Observed from the atrium, the illuminated wall presents a cohesive installation; however, upon closer inspection, the focus shifts to individual pieces and the distinctive quality of light each emits.\nODS has also modified the viewing conditions. Beyond the main exhibition area, two more subdued rooms feature plaster and timber accents, complemented by a high counter and a round dining table. These spaces contextualize the products within familiar dimensions of occupancy, enabling visitors to comprehend how portable lighting interacts with furniture and architectural elements. The transition from display to inhabited space is vital to the gallery experience, as the perception of lighting is influenced not only by the fixture itself but also by the surrounding surfaces, spatial relationships, and levels of darkness.\nAs a result, the gallery functions across two modes of engagement. One mode presents Ambientec’s collection with the clarity reminiscent of an archive, while the other reveals the intimacy that underscores the everyday relevance of portable lighting. ODS adeptly connects these two experiential modes through carefully calibrated darkness, allowing light to serve as the primary medium that visitors perceive as they navigate the space.\nAmbientec Gallery Tokyo encapsulates a fundamental principle of lighting design: while an object may be aesthetically refined in isolation, its greater significance is found in its capacity to influence the environment beyond its physical presence. Through considerations of scale, darkness, and dynamic display modes, ODS articulates this often-invisible territory with architectural expression.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/abe-galerie-tokyo-designedby-onikidesignstudio", "Official Company Website": "https://oniki-design-studio.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000022.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000023", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100028", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "HAKUSAN MEGANE SHANGHAI", "metadata": { "Project": "HAKUSAN MEGANE SHANGHAI", "Location": "Zhang Yuan, Shanghai, China", "Project type": "Interior Design — Retail Design / Eyewear Boutique", "Designer/company": "Each Design", "Additional credits": "Crafted furniture and fixture system developed with specialist wood fabricators", "Client/collaborators": "Hakusan Megane", "Completion": "14 July 2024", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Each design redefines the Hakusan Megane Shanghai flagship store. By translating eyewear hinge mechanics into custom iron and reclaimed elm joinery, the retail interior connects Japanese craftsmanship with the historic Zhang Yuan district.", "editorial": "A pair of glasses is one of the most personal items a person can wear. It sits close to the face, alters the way the world is perceived, and gradually becomes part of an individual's identity. For Hakusan Megane, a company with a history dating back to 1883, opening its first store in mainland China meant creating a space where that intimacy could merge with a new city.\nThe boutique in Shanghai is situated in Zhang Yuan, a late-nineteenth-century garden complex that has been restored into a cultural and commercial quarter. Each Design approached the project with a focus on continuity: they aimed to preserve the atmosphere and display style associated with Hakusan Megane’s Japanese stores while allowing Shanghai's materials and history to influence the new location. The retail design draws inspiration from the construction of eyewear itself. Hinges and temples are small, almost invisible components, yet they determine how a frame opens, closes, and adapts to the wearer. Each Design expanded this concept into a system of joints for shelves, tables, and cabinets, giving the interior a character that directly relates to the product. This approach creates a subtle brand identity: Hakusan Megane is recognized by how its elements connect, rotate, and support one another. The store doesn’t rely on oversized graphics to convey its identity; instead, the precision of an eyeglass frame is echoed in the furniture and display system.\nThe layout follows the display logic of Hakusan Megane’s Shibuya store, maintaining a familiar order across the brand. In Shanghai, this system is reinterpreted using materials selected for their age, texture, and connection to Zhang Yuan. The outcome connects the two locations through construction methods rather than visual replication. Reclaimed elm is used for the tables and cabinets; salvaged from older timber buildings, this wood retains variations in grain, colour, and surface, giving each piece a sense of history. Hundreds of smaller sections are joined using mortise-and-tenon finger joints, allowing the craftsmanship of construction to remain visible.\nThe same joining principle applies to solid iron. Eight-millimetre panels are crafted into wall shelving with thoughtfully integrated connections, lending the heavy material a lighter appearance. Timber and metal share a common language of precision, while their weathered surfaces place them within a shared material history. Water-corrugated glass, also used in other Hakusan Megane stores, introduces a delicate optical element. Light dances across its rippled surface, casting shifting shadows over the frames and materials behind them. The glass fosters a direct relationship with vision, allowing clarity and distortion to enhance the display experience.\nFor visitors, the atmosphere unfolds through careful observation. The grain of reclaimed elm, the oxidation of iron, the edges of joints, and the silhouettes of frames all offer rewards at a smaller scale. The store reflects the process of choosing eyewear: through proportion, comfort, detail, and the gradual recognition of what feels right. The protected building provides a setting imbued with memory. New fixtures are integrated within an inherited shell, allowing the boutique to connect with Zhang Yuan without simply duplicating its past. Japanese craftsmanship and Shanghai history converge through material, touch, and construction.\nHakusan Megane Shanghai represents international expansion as a thoughtful act of translation. Each Design has carried the brand’s values into a new city through the mechanics of eyewear, a disciplined display, and materials shaped by time. The store feels distinctly like Hakusan Megane while remaining inseparable from the local context in which it now resides.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/hakusan-megane-shanghai-designed-by-each-design-china", "Official Company Profile": "https://www.instagram.com/each_design/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000023.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000024", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100029", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Sou", "metadata": { "Project": "Sou", "Location": "Japan", "Project type": "Industrial Design — Office Furniture / Street Furniture", "Designer/company": "soell inc. / Tomoki Doi", "Additional credits": "Integrated fabrication by Mizushima Manufacturing", "Client/collaborators": "Mizushima Manufacturing / Iha", "Completion": "April 2025", "Area": "Not applicable", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Sou redefines urban social landscapes through a modular aluminum seating system. Designed by soell inc., these three varied heights support diverse postures, from low-level resting to high-perch leaning—merging Japanese spatial heritage with high-precision industrial fabrication.", "editorial": "Public spaces take on meaning through small acts: deciding where to pause, sitting near someone without joining their conversation, or finding a comfortable spot for a few unplanned minutes. Sou begins with these ordinary decisions and offers greater freedom.\nDesigned by soell inc. for Iha, the new public-space brand of Mizushima Manufacturing, Sou is a family of three aluminum elements set at different heights. Together, they create a low, hill-like landscape that accommodates sitting, leaning, gathering, and brief occupation without prescribing a specific posture for every user.\nThe concept of \"layers\" goes beyond the physical arrangement of the three pieces; it also describes the various ways a shared space may be occupied throughout the day. A lower surface may suit a child or someone who prefers sitting closer to the ground, while a higher level may accommodate a shorter pause or a more upright position. Users can choose based on their body, age, mood, and relationship with those around them.\nThis choice is seamlessly integrated into the furniture design. There is no separate language for inclusion, and no visual hierarchy between users. Differences are accommodated through proportion, allowing various forms of comfort to coexist within the same object.\nThe varying heights also influence the social dynamics of the setting. People can sit beside one another, face a height change, lean briefly, or occupy a single piece while still being connected to the larger group. Sou creates the conditions for gathering while leaving the form of that gathering up to the users.\nIts Japanese sensibility is reflected in its scale and construction. The design intentionally diverges from the standard 420-millimetre bench height, introducing lower and higher positions informed by Japan’s long history of floor-level sitting. Traditional temple architecture inspires details in the legs, giving the furniture a cultural character that remains understated.\nThe aluminum surfaces are composed of evenly spaced L-shaped sections. This construction reduces weight, supports drainage, and allows sunlight to create shifting shadows across the furniture. Viewed from one angle, the pieces appear as calm horizontal planes; from another, the depth and rhythm of their profiles become more evident.\n\n\nCustom-extruded edges soften points of contact with hands, legs, and clothing. Fibre-laser welding and Mizushima Manufacturing’s integrated production system ensure precise joints, marrying industrial capability with everyday comfort.\nSou also marks an important stage in the company’s development. Founded as a retailer of cleaning supplies, Mizushima Manufacturing transformed into a producer of mats, benches, and other public-space products. Following a generational transition, the company launched Iha in 2024 and started collaborating with designers to develop original products through its own factory. Sou is the first outcome of this new direction.\nThis background adds significance to the project beyond the physical object itself. The furniture demonstrates how an established manufacturer can leverage existing skills, new welding technology, and production knowledge to create a design-led brand with an international outlook. Its presentation at Milan Design Week introduced Sou as both a product and a statement of intent.\nIha describes its ambition as “Good Place Making.” Sou gives this phrase a practical application. It can stand alone in a garden or on a balcony, or be incorporated into a larger arrangement in a university, office, civic building, or commercial setting. In each case, its role is to support the social life that is already forming around it.\nSou invites users to choose, pause, and share space on their own terms. Through three simple heights, soell inc. and share space on their own.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/sou-designedly-soellinc", "Official Company Website": "https://soell-inc.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000024.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000025", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010003", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "PETSROCK", "metadata": { "Project": "PETSROCK", "Location": "Grand Canal Hang Steel Park, Hangzhou, China", "Project type": "Interior Design — Pet-friendly Restaurant and Retail Space", "Designer/company": "Falab", "Additional credits": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Client/collaborators": "Not provided", "Completion": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Falab recasts an industrial shell in Hangzhou as a pet-centred restaurant and retail environment, using modular yellow furniture, robust finishes and carefully calibrated distances to support shared occupation by people and dogs.", "editorial": "PETSROCK occupies the ground floor of an industrial building in Hangzhou’s Grand Canal Hang Steel Park. Falab retains the robust character of the shell and fills it with a lighter, more agile system of yellow frames, timber boxes and movable seating. The result is a commercial interior organised equally around human routines and canine behaviour.\nThe generous glazed perimeter keeps the park in view and gives dogs continuous visual contact with the exterior. Inside, the restaurant and retail floor remains broadly open. Seating modules are wider than a conventional single place, giving a dog room to settle beside its owner without becoming an obstacle in the aisle. Sliding elements allow the distance between groups to change as social conditions demand.\nBright yellow mesh frames act as screens, display supports and attachment points. Their openness preserves sightlines between owners and animals, while orange-brown cushions bring warmth to the industrial palette of exposed red structure, grey service volumes and pale flooring. Timber counters and storage units introduce a second tactile register without disguising the building’s original character.\nThe furniture is conceived as a set of replaceable parts. Metal, tile and plywood accommodate the harder wear expected in a pet environment; panels, seat backs and display pieces can be removed or renewed. Mobile trolleys, clipped accessories and modular shelving allow the operation to evolve without rebuilding the room.\nA long service core gathers the cashier, counter, kitchen and support spaces. Retail, pet-friendly dining, multifunctional display and activity areas occupy the public frontage, while storage, sterilisation, shipping and staff facilities sit behind. This clear separation keeps the commercial floor open and legible.\nPETSROCK is persuasive because its pet-centred claims are visible in ordinary details: leash points integrated into tables, low beds positioned beside seats, washable perforated surfaces, open sightlines and space for a dog to choose proximity or distance. Falab turns coexistence into a practical spatial system, framed by the memory of the industrial site.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/petsrock-designed-by-falab", "Company Reference Profile": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/petsrock-designed-by-falab" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000025.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000026", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100030", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "NANEI Nishiki Building", "metadata": { "Project": "NANEI Nishiki Building", "Location": "Nishiki, Nagoya, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Lighting Design / Façade Renovation", "Designer/company": "MR STUDIO Co., Ltd.", "Additional credits": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Client/collaborators": "NANEI Nishiki Building", "Completion": "May 2024", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "MR STUDIO crafts a rhythmic facade for the NANEI Nishiki Building in Nagoya, layering aluminum louvres with precision-integrated LEDs to evoke the district’s historic brocade textiles.", "editorial": "Nishiki comes alive after dark. Its restaurants, bars, and late-night streets create one of Nagoya’s most recognizable urban scenes, where buildings are remembered not just for their daytime outlines, but for how they interact with the evening atmosphere.\n \nThe newly renovated NANEI Nishiki Building embodies this ambiance by referencing the district’s name. \"Nishiki\" means brocade, a richly woven textile made of gold and silver threads celebrated in Japanese culture and poetry. MR STUDIO translates this idea into a contemporary expression of place, giving the building a unique identity inspired by Nishiki itself.\nThe result is less of a static graphic image and more of a dynamic presence. The façade features silver-toned aluminum and warm lighting that overlap, reminiscent of the layered brilliance of woven threads. As people walk along the street, different fragments of the building become visible, align, and fade, allowing the façade to be experienced over time.\nThis relationship with movement feels natural in a district characterized by constant arrival and departure. Nishiki is rarely experienced from a single fixed position; instead, it unfolds through passing views, reflections, doorways, and illuminated details. The building contributes to this rhythm, gradually revealing itself to pedestrians and drivers alike.\nThe cultural reference also imbues the renovation with significance beyond mere visual renewal. The story of brocade connects the contemporary nightlife district with a richer tradition of craftsmanship, colour, and seasonal imagery. MR STUDIO carries that memory forward through its choice of materials and use of light, giving a familiar name a new architectural significance.\nDuring the day, the metallic screen adds depth and shadow to the structure. In the evening, warm light glows between its layers, creating a sense of gold shimmering through silver. This effect changes with distance and perspective, ensuring that the building remains connected to the vibrancy of the street life. \nFor those familiar with Nishiki, the façade offers a contemporary reflection of the district’s character. For visitors, it introduces a cultural significance that might otherwise remain hidden within the name. The building becomes a part of the area's identity, linking language, history, and modern urban life. \nThe NANEI Nishiki Building serves as a new nighttime landmark, shaped by its own identity. Through the imagery of brocade, MR STUDIO transforms the façade into a point of intersection between cultural memory and Nagoya's dynamic energy after dark.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/nanei-nishiki-building-designedby-mrstudio", "Official Company Website": "https://www.mrstudio.biz/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000026.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000027", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100031", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Rose Gallery", "metadata": { "Project": "Rose Gallery", "Location": "Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office / Exhibition Gallery", "Designer/company": "WJ STUDIO / Hu Zhile", "Additional credits": "Liu Yu’ao, Zhan Yuming and Wang Ying; woodwork by Wumusuo", "Client/collaborators": "Rose Gallery", "Completion": "September 2025", "Area": "105 m²", "Photographer": "Yida, Rose Gallery and WJ STUDIO" }, "excerpt": "WJ STUDIO reimagines the traditional exhibition space with Rose Gallery, showcasing a masterclass in minimalist design. By combining ancient porcelain artistry with an innovative ‘house-within-a-house’ layout, this gallery in Hangzhou creates a sensory-rich environment that transforms our perception of high-end commercial design.", "editorial": "In a culture used to fast-paced exhibitions, Rose Gallery invites visitors to engage with a different kind of attention. The 105-square-meter gallery in Hangzhou is dedicated to ancient Chinese porcelain, and its defining feature is the space surrounding each piece. WJ STUDIO draws inspiration from Laozi’s notion that absence enhances presence, allowing a bowl, glaze, or trace of age to take center stage in the room without visual distractions.\nThe gallery's title, \"A World in One Object,\" conveys the intimacy of this experience. Each piece of ancient porcelain embodies the memory of earth, fire, craft, and serendipity within a remarkably compact form. Rose Gallery provides the time and distance needed for these qualities to surface, encouraging visitors to look closely enough so that a single piece reveals a much larger cultural landscape.\nWJ STUDIO reimagined the existing concrete structure as a \"house within a house.\" The original beams and solitary columns remain visible within a new arrangement of pale enclosures, introducing the layered sense of progression associated with traditional Chinese architecture. Visitors move slowly through the interior, discovering each object within a setting shaped by depth, pause, and gradual revelation.\nThe near-monochrome architecture evokes the appearance of unglazed bisque, the quiet state of ceramic before colour and firing transform its surface. Against this pale mineral backdrop, the collection's glazes become more vibrant. The soft blue of Ru ware, the iridescent depth of Jianzhan, and the accumulated patina of older pieces create the room's visual dynamism.\nLight enhances this experience. Diffused illumination gently surrounds the displays, reminiscent of sunlight filtered through timber lattice. As the eye adjusts, colour, shadow, and texture gradually become apparent. The porcelain seems integrated into the surrounding atmosphere, with every edge and reflection responding to the gallery's changing brightness.\nRose Gallery also promotes a more personal viewing experience. Visitors can sit with a select group of pieces and interact with them as they are carefully unwrapped by hand. This gesture creates a moment of anticipation, allowing the observer to consider the weight, glaze, and individual marks of each object up close.\nThis slower interaction embodies the spirit of the Chinese literati tradition of \"seeing the large in the small.\" A single bowl can encapsulate the character of a kiln, the instincts of its maker, and the passage of centuries. The gallery provides a spatial context for this concentration, surrounding each work with the stillness necessary for personal memory and interpretation to enrich the experience.\nBespoke timber elements add another layer of craftsmanship. Their proportions and joinery support display, seating, and movement with quiet precision, while the contrast between the original concrete structure and the light interior insertion gives the gallery a sense of depth and history.\nRose Gallery presents the act of collecting as an intimate cultural exchange. The space serves as a vessel in which light and shadow reveal each object's surface, allowing them to carry their own narratives. WJ STUDIO has created a gallery where ancient porcelain can be appreciated with patience, proximity, and the rare pleasure of undivided attention.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/rose-gallery-designed-by-wj-studio-china", "Official Company Website": "https://www.wjstudio.cn/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000027.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000028", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100032", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "CAPELLAMORPH — Flexible Metal Sheet", "metadata": { "Project": "CAPELLAMORPH — Flexible Metal Sheet", "Location": "Japan", "Project type": "Industrial Design — Home Decor Accessories / Architectural Surface Material", "Designer/company": "SOL style", "Additional credits": "Manufactured by Sirius Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "Sirius Co., Ltd.", "Completion": "1 September 2024", "Area": "Sheet width up to 950 mm; length up to 3,500 mm", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Transform interiors with CAPELLAMORPH: the next generation of high-performance metal sheeting. This innovative material combines gradient powder coating with structural flexibility, enabling designers to create responsive walls and ceilings that dynamically interact with light and shadow.", "editorial": "Materials typically enter a project after the initial spatial concept has been established. CAPELLAMORPH encourages designers to begin with the surface itself, considering color, light, and geometry as one cohesive architectural decision. Developed by SOL style in collaboration with Sirius Co., Ltd., this aluminum-composite sheet combines low weight, ease of workability, and a proprietary powder-coating process. Its significance lies in how these qualities work together. A single panel can carry a gradient, hold a fold, catch changing light, and extend across walls or ceilings as part of a broader spatial composition.\nThe material's colour is never entirely fixed; gradients shift depending on the viewing angle, surrounding light, and the shape of the sheet itself. A fold can intensify one hue while deepening another into shadow, creating a new visual experience as people move through the space. The visual effect evolves with ordinary shifts in position and the passage of time. This gives CAPELLAMORPH an architectural character that goes beyond mere surface decoration. The colour comes from the coating, while depth is derived from the formed metal and its interaction with light. Features such as wrinkling, embossing, curves, and folds introduce additional variation, allowing a static material to create a dynamic atmosphere.\nFor designers, the appeal of CAPELLAMORPH is both practical and aesthetic. The sheet can be shaped into sculptural forms while still allowing for manageable fabrication and installation. Custom lengths and seamless joining allow several panels to read as a single continuous surface, transforming the material from a singular feature into an architectural element. Its lightweight nature expands the range of potential applications, making ceilings, elevated walls, temporary installations, and larger suspended forms easier to handle and support. Additionally, its modularity allows sections to be replaced or updated, making the system adaptable to evolving interiors and event environments.\nThe material is particularly effective in spaces where atmosphere is as important as function. For instance, a retail interior might use a gradual shift in colour to guide movement, while an exhibition setting could leverage the same surface to change between daylight and evening illumination. In a public space, a series of repeated folded panels could establish a rhythm without relying on screens or digital effects.\nCAPELLAMORPH also incorporates environmental considerations into its material system. The powder coating process reduces VOC emissions, aluminum offers a well-established recycling route, and the lower weight minimizes transport demands and the need for secondary support structures. These qualities link visual expression with efficiencies in fabrication, installation, and future replacement.\nThe broader relevance of this material lies in its ability to consolidate functions. One surface can provide colour, texture, reflection, and three-dimensional form while remaining integral to a practical construction process. It offers architects and interior designers a material that can shape a room's atmosphere through shifting light and movement.\nCAPELLAMORPH transforms metal from a background finish into an active spatial medium. Its identity is defined by the interaction of colour, form, and time, giving designers a new way to create interiors that continue to evolve after installation.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/capellamorph-designby-solstyle", "Official Company Website": "https://www.sol-style.info/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000028.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000029", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100033", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "VILLA 49", "metadata": { "Project": "VILLA 49", "Location": "China", "Project type": "Architecture — Residential and Urban Design / Private Villa", "Designer/company": "Kris Lin International Design", "Additional credits": "Integrated architecture, landscape, interior and soft-furnishing design", "Client/collaborators": "Private residence", "Completion": "November 2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Discover how VILLA 49 transforms a basement into a sunlit lounge using a transparent acrylic pool and glass-walled dining room. A bold architectural statement by Kris Lin International Design.", "editorial": "A home of this scale is seldom defined by a single lifestyle. It encompasses quiet mornings, family routines, lengthy evenings with friends, and occasions where social gatherings expand without sacrificing privacy. At VILLA 49, Kris Lin International Design embraces this evolving rhythm as the residence's guiding principle.\nThis four-story villa seamlessly integrates private rooms, social spaces, gardens, and riverside views into a cohesive experience. The architecture, landscaping, interiors, and furnishings were developed in harmony, allowing the home to transition naturally between intimate family life and larger social events.\nThe dining room exemplifies this concept most clearly. Enclosed on three sides by high-transparency glass, it opens up to lush plantings, water features, and the distant river. Pillar-free corner glazing preserves the expansive view, while oversized movable panels enable the room to adapt to various weather conditions, seasons, and occasions. Whether hosting a family meal or a larger gathering, the dining area can transition fluidly between different degrees of openness. This adaptability enhances the house's lifestyle, fostering hospitality with spaces that can expand informally while preserving private areas through folding doors and movable partitions.\nThe swimming pool also plays a significant role in connecting daily life with the natural environment. Located in the ground-level garden above the basement, its transparent acrylic structure allows daylight to filter through the water into the social spaces below. This creates reflections that dance across walls and ceilings, maintaining a link to the garden even when the horizon is out of sight.\nFor anyone spending time in the villa, the effects are immediate. The basement absorbs sunlight, the dining room captures changing river views, and the circulation throughout the house remains intimately connected to water, greenery, and fresh air. The landscape permeates the residence at different levels, extending beyond mere windows. Kris Lin International Design employs transparency with precision. Glass staircases offer a light visual experience, while folding bedroom doors allow private spaces to open onto terraces and broader views. These boundaries are adjustable, granting occupants control over how much of the home they wish to share at any time.\nThe choice of interior materials supports this sense of continuity. Expansive surfaces of stone, timber, and glass create a calming atmosphere across the spacious rooms, while slender frames, slim drawers, and large curtains maintain a sense of visual lightness. This refinement is experienced through both proportion and touch, keeping the villa’s scale composed. This project is particularly significant in the context of contemporary ideas about luxury, showcasing how space can facilitate the way people gather, retreat, rest, and coexist. VILLA 49 imbues its generosity with purpose by making the house responsive to these varied moments.\nIThe home’s most notable feature is the interaction of natural elements throughout the space. Water brings light to the basement, glass walls expand the dining area into the garden, and adjustable rooms allow for both social interaction and privacy, adapting to the rhythm of the day.VILLA 49 exemplifies a way of living where architecture does more than frame a landscape; it actively participates in creating one. Kris Lin International Design designs a residence where light, water, community, and solitude each find their rightful place.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-final-shortlisted-architecture/villa-49-designed-by-kris-lin", "Official Company Website": "http://www.klid.com.cn/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000029.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000030", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100034", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Lei — In Praise of Shadows", "metadata": { "Project": "Lei — In Praise of Shadows", "Location": "Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Retail Design / Fragrance Shop", "Designer/company": "SOL style", "Additional credits": "Construction: Masazumi Adachi; urushi tabletops: Tasuku Murose; sound design: Justin North; photography and film: Koya Yamashiro; inventions: Yasuyuki Nagato", "Client/collaborators": "Lei", "Completion": "20 December 2024", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Koya Yamashiro" }, "excerpt": "Experience the dark, meditative world of Lei—a fragrance shop where SOL style skillfully combines urushi lacquer, Japanese hinoki, and candlelight to transform luxury retail through sensory immersion.", "editorial": "Fragrance is typically experienced through scent, but how it is discovered also depends on factors such as pace, attention, and atmosphere. At Lei, the SOL style transforms the act of selecting a fragrance into a more intimate sensory experience. Inspired by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s *In Praise of Shadows*, the space explores how darkness can enhance awareness of materials, reflections, and scents.\nThe experience begins outside on the street, where a dark film covers the glass façade, with only Lei’s circular “0” serving as an entry point. Passers-by can catch a glimpse of a narrow band of light and the flicker of candle flames within. This partial view creates an initial impression of the interior while maintaining an air of anticipation. Upon crossing the threshold, perceptions begin to shift. The ambient light diminishes, making the candles and illuminated mirrors the primary sources of light. As visitors' eyes adjust to the room, small variations in surfaces, movements, and reflections become more noticeable.\nThis carefully crafted atmosphere allows fragrances to unfold gradually. Scent is experienced through focused attention and proximity, supported by an interior that encourages visitors to appreciate subtle differences. The shop serves as a space for discovery, where light, wood, and lacquer contribute to the overall character of the experience.\nJapanese cypress and ginkgo wood form the display surfaces. Hinoki is chosen for the central counter, evoking the fine fragrance and cultural significance of timber long used in sacred architecture. Ginkgo, known for its smooth grain, provides a more delicate setting for the fragrance products.\nBoth types of wood are hand-finished with traditional urushi lacquer. Candlelight and mirror reflections dance across the deep gloss, gradually revealing the wood grain as visitors shift their positions. The surfaces appear different from various angles, offering the interior a subtle sense of movement. The black bases of the fixtures blend into the shadows, allowing the lacquered tops, fragrance bottles, and reflected flames to appear visually suspended in the room. Raw concrete walls absorb light, introducing a mineral texture alongside the polished wood.\nThis interplay between gloss and roughness adds material depth to the shop. Hinoki, ginkgo, urushi, and concrete are experienced through their responses to limited light, allowing traditional craftsmanship to take on a contemporary role within the fragrance environment. The circular opening in the façade encapsulates the project's broader concept. Lei reveals its interior gradually, inviting visitors to follow a path from one illuminated fragment to a fuller sensory experience. Curiosity begins outside and continues through the evolving reflections within the room.\nThe SOL style has created a shop where shadows play an active role in hospitality. It slows down the experience, enhancing attention to scent and touch, and gives the selection of fragrance a personal sense of ceremony. At Lei, luxury is felt through the time and concentration devoted to a single, carefully observed moment.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/leishopdesignedbysolstyle", "Official Company Website": "https://www.sol-style.info/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000030.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000031", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100035", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "A Residence", "metadata": { "Project": "A Residence", "Location": "Central Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Residential / Penthouse Renovation", "Designer/company": "YTD", "Additional credits": "Yuto Takahashi and project team", "Client/collaborators": "Private client", "Completion": "1 August 2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "YTD addresses the penthouse privacy paradox in this Tokyo residence by combining Japanese hikido sliding doors with switchable glass technology. This design allows for quick transitions between expansive 120-meter skyline views and fully enclosed, private quarters.", "editorial": "Living high above Tokyo transforms the concept of privacy. At 120 meters above the city, the skyline becomes an integral part of daily life, visible from morning until night. In A Residence, YTD has designed the penthouse to allow this extraordinary view to flow throughout the home while ensuring that each room maintains the intimacy necessary for everyday living.\n \nThe full renovation begins with a simple idea: the apartment can adapt to the time of day. During daylight hours, the living, dining, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom areas form a continuous sequence. In the evening, the same interior transforms into a series of private rooms, each with its own unique atmosphere.\n \nYTD achieves this transformation using hikido, the sliding doors traditionally associated with Japanese architecture. Their movement allows rooms to connect and separate easily, giving residents control over how much of the home remains open at any given moment. When the doors are drawn aside, the view extends from the living and dining areas toward the bathroom and bedroom. Daylight follows this same path, reaching deeper into the space and allowing the changing sky to become part of various daily rituals. Activities such as bathing, resting, and moving through the apartment all occur within a broader awareness of the city beyond the glass.\n \nThis openness gives the penthouse a harmonious rhythm during the day. The rooms feel interconnected through light and perspective, with the skyline visible across multiple spaces at once. Moving through the home reveals different alignments among the buildings, sky, and horizon, allowing the view to evolve depending on where the resident stands. Privacy is easily restored through the same architectural system. Closing the sliding doors re-establishes the independence of the bedroom, bathroom, and living areas. Instant-dimming glass adds another layer of control, shifting from transparency to opacity whenever more enclosure is needed.\n \nThe combination of sliding doors and switchable glass blends traditional spatial thinking with contemporary technology. Both elements respond seamlessly to use, accommodating changes in privacy without disrupting the interior's clarity. After sunset, the residence's character becomes more intimate. Indirect lighting replaces the expansive brightness of the day, highlighting shadows, depth, and the boundaries between rooms. Though the metropolitan view remains, the interior adopts a calmer, more enclosed atmosphere.\n \nFor the resident, this adaptability creates a home that supports various lifestyles. The apartment can open fully for socializing and then close for more private bathing, resting, or quiet concentration. This choice is available throughout the day, allowing the interior to respond naturally to changing routines.\n \nA Residence demonstrates that the appeal of a panoramic home extends beyond the view itself. YTD has made openness adjustable, giving residents the freedom to enjoy the Tokyo skyline while deciding when to share it across the home and when to draw the rooms gently inward.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/a-residence-designed-by-ytd", "Company Reference Profile": "https://architectureprize.com/winners/2025_hm.php?level=pro" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000031.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000032", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100036", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "HOTEL GRANVIA HIROSHIMA SOUTH GATE", "metadata": { "Project": "HOTEL GRANVIA HIROSHIMA SOUTH GATE", "Location": "Hiroshima Station, Hiroshima, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Hotel and Resort / Station Gateway Hotel", "Designer/company": "TAKASHIMAYA SPACE CREATE CO., LTD.", "Additional credits": "Chikako Tateyama and project design team", "Client/collaborators": "Hotel Granvia Hiroshima", "Completion": "24 March 2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Hotel Granvia Hiroshima South Gate welcomes travellers to the Setouchi region with immersive, nature-inspired interiors. Discover a masterclass in sustainable design, featuring reclaimed local timber, sculptural forms, and breathtaking views that capture the shifting light of the Inland Sea.", "editorial": "Setouchi unfolds beautifully through movement, revealing islands across the water, distant mountain ridges, and the gentle play of light on the Inland Sea. Hotel Granvia Hiroshima South Gate, strategically located above Hiroshima Station, provides travellers with a unique perspective of this stunning regional landscape right from the city's heart.\nDesigned by Takashimaya Space Create, the hotel serves as a gateway to Setouchi, drawing inspiration from the Shimanami and Yamanami, elements that represent the layered profiles of the region's islands and mountains. This design not only offers an early glimpse of the enchanting landscapes beyond Hiroshima but also creates a tranquil atmosphere for those who opt to stay within the city. The interior reflects this regional essence through soft lighting and flowing forms, evoking a connection among sea, islands, and mountains without resorting to direct depictions of the scenery.\nPositioning above Hiroshima Station enhances the overall experience. Guests arriving at this central transportation hub enjoy breathtaking views of both sea and mountains from their windows. The interior design skillfully incorporates these vistas, making the natural landscape a fundamental part of the hotel’s identity. Artwork inspired by the winds of the Seto Inland Sea adds to the regional feel, while natural materials like rock salt and wood grain bring texture and depth, echoing the elemental beauty of water, land, and climate.\nAdditionally, furniture made from reclaimed timber, sourced from trees that once lined the streets, fosters a direct connection to the site. This material carries with it a piece of the former streetscape, preserving a physical memory of the area as Hiroshima Station evolves. Such details enhance the hotel’s regional character, shaped by its materials, atmosphere, and outlook. Guests can feel Setouchi in the soft light, the movement suggested by the design, and the natural elements woven into the artwork and furnishings.\nHotel Granvia Hiroshima South Gate stands as an introduction to its surroundings. From its vantage point above the station, the hotel bridges the urban center of Hiroshima with the expansive landscapes of the Inland Sea, providing travellers with a composed first experience of the region's light, mountains, and coastal charm.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/hotelgranviahiroshimasouthg-takashimaya-space-create-coltd", "Official Company Website": "https://www.ts-create.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000032.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000033", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100038", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Higeta Building", "metadata": { "Project": "Higeta Building", "Location": "Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Visual Communication Design — Signage and Environmental Graphics", "Designer/company": "MR STUDIO Co., Ltd.", "Additional credits": "Environmental graphics, signage and lighting integration", "Client/collaborators": "Higeta Shoyu Co., Ltd.", "Completion": "May 2025", "Area": "Headquarters entrance and floors 1–7", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "How does 400 years of brewing history transform modern corporate wayfinding? MR STUDIO redefines the Higeta Shoyu headquarters in Tokyo, merging traditional barrel-craft motifs with high-performance environmental graphics.", "editorial": "A company with a rich history spanning more than four centuries faces a distinct design challenge: how to showcase its heritage while creating a modern workplace for employees and visitors alike. At Higeta Shoyu’s new headquarters in Nihonbashi, MR STUDIO masterfully strikes this balance with an environmental graphics system that utilizes hues, light, and the traditions of soy sauce production.\nFounded in Chōshi in 1616, Higeta Shoyu revolutionized its brewing process by introducing wheat in 1697, paving the way for the development of modern koikuchi soy sauce and establishing a legacy of innovation. Drawing on this rich heritage, MR STUDIO enhances everyday experiences within the building, allowing tradition to shape arrival, orientation, and movement.\nVisitors are first greeted at the entrance, where a narrow band of HIGETA Yellow is embedded in the wall. This luminous element serves as a striking point of recognition while upholding the professionalism expected in a corporate setting. As visitors proceed, a double border creates a subtle moiré effect, giving the edges a shimmering appearance.\nThis design encapsulates the essence of Higeta’s story: a company steeped in centuries of craftsmanship that continues to evolve. The entrance symbolizes the delicate interplay between continuity and progress, allowing history to be experienced through movement before being articulated in words.\nDifferent shades play a pivotal role in guiding individuals throughout the headquarters. Blue signifies Takara Shoyu on floors two to five, while HIGETA Yellow marks Higeta Shoyu on floors six and seven. These tones, applied to walls, floors, and signage, enable intuitive navigation and foster a sense of place within the shared environment.\nFor employees, this creates a cohesive workplace identity encountered repeatedly throughout the day. For visitors, it offers immediate orientation within the building. This unified visual language transforms navigation and corporate identity into memorable experiences. The square geometry of the historic Higeta logo serves as the foundation for signage, floor indicators, and directional elements. MR STUDIO adapts this familiar shape, incorporating integrated illumination and controlled depth to provide a contemporary architectural presence while preserving a connection to the company’s established identity.\nThe art of brewing adds another layer to the design narrative. Traditional wooden soy sauce barrels, constructed with curved staves, inspire the building’s pictograms, directional signs, and floor numbers. Each numeral from one to seven is designed with segmented linear elements boasting gentle curves. These details forge a tactile connection to the production process, with the references to barrels evident in their shape and construction. This brings the knowledge and craftsmanship of brewing into the everyday workplace orientation spaces, where functional graphics quietly remind occupants of the expertise accumulated over generations.\nThe connection to wheat extends from the interior to the building’s façade. Golden louvres evoke fields swaying in the wind, subtly alluding to the key ingredient that laid the foundation for Higeta’s koikuchi soy sauce. Inside, complementary patterns and linear forms further this narrative on a more intimate scale. This project exemplifies how corporate heritage can thrive in daily working life. Higeta’s history is reflected in the entrance each visitor experiences, the guiding tones that lead them to their respective floors, and the signage throughout the building. Every element serves a practical purpose, clarifying this narrative through repeated engagement.\nMR STUDIO has crafted an identity system that connects Higeta Shoyu’s storied origins with its contemporary presence in Nihonbashi. References to wheat, wooden barrels, the historic logo, and HIGETA Yellow contribute to an understanding and remembrance of the headquarters. Four centuries of history are seamlessly woven into the simple acts of arriving, finding one’s way, and navigating the workday.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/higetabuilding-designedby-mrstudio", "Official Company Website": "https://www.mrstudio.biz/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000033.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000034", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100041", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Villa Infinity", "metadata": { "Project": "Villa Infinity", "Location": "Chiba, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Residential / Luxury Private Villa", "Designer/company": "EY DESIGN / Studio del Sol LLC", "Additional credits": "Architect: Katsuma Tai Architect & Associates; interior architecture: Tai and Associates; lighting: Light Collab Japan; construction: Sasahara Corporation", "Client/collaborators": "Private client", "Completion": "31 October 2025", "Area": "Site 3,159 m²; total floor area 1,100 m²", "Photographer": "Koji Fujii / TOREAL Inc.; Seiichi Ohsawa" }, "excerpt": "Villa Infinity: A luxury residential design by EY DESIGN. Perched above Tokyo Bay, this private retreat reimagines quarry geology through an infinity-loop circulation, creating a seamless connection between industrial history and high-end living.", "editorial": "Experiencing a home of this calibre goes beyond merely exploring its rooms; it involves understanding its layout, appreciating the landscape, and witnessing how life unfolds within the space. At Villa Infinity in Chiba, EY DESIGN successfully integrates these elements by honouring the land’s history. Located about an hour from central Tokyo, the villa is perched on an elevated site that offers breathtaking views of Tokyo Bay and the surrounding mountains. The 3,159-square-meter grounds were once a quarry that supplied stone for the city’s architecture, with visible remnants of this history adding to the property’s unique story.\nEY DESIGN’s interior concept, “Memory of the Quarry,” draws inspiration from the stone-cutting processes. This theme is reflected in mineral textures, fault-like lines, and sculptural shapes that convey the site’s heritage without literal reconstruction. It influences the entire 1,100-square-meter home, encompassing spatial planning, custom furniture, and lighting, thereby creating a cohesive character while allowing for versatile room functions.\nThe property consists of a Main House and an Annex, connected by corridors and elevated walkways that form a fluid figure-eight path throughout the villa. This design enhances the overall experience, offering views of water, rock, and mountains while leading to areas intended for gathering and relaxation. This thoughtful circulation brings coherence to the villa’s diverse uses, allowing the experiences of weather, light, and elevation to integrate with daily life. Each pathway gradually reveals the home, emphasizing its connection with the landscape.\nInside the Main building, expansive views enrich the living spaces. The infinity pool appears to extend towards Tokyo Bay, serving as a backdrop for meals and relaxation that change with the light throughout the day. These views are woven into daily life, rather than confined to specific areas. The quarry narrative connects spaces of varying functions, with mineral tones and geometric designs providing a solid foundation, while timber, textiles, and controlled lighting introduce warmth. This balance between the site’s robust character and livability creates a welcoming atmosphere.\nEY DESIGN’s involvement began in the planning stages, collaborating on all aspects of interior design, lighting, custom cabinetry, furniture selection, art direction, and final styling. This comprehensive participation ensured that the architectural and domestic components merged into a singular creative vision. Factors such as light, sound, water, fire, and climate contribute to the villa’s sensory experience. Pools and fireplaces offer warmth and movement, while thoughtful acoustic design and adaptable lighting create varied atmospheres throughout the day. Automated controls allow the environments to shift seamlessly in response to seasonal changes and daily activities.\nThese systems enhance comfort without overshadowing the design, enabling the villa to transition effortlessly from a lively gathering space to a peaceful retreat. Technology supports a relaxed lifestyle while maintaining a consistent material and spatial identity. Villa Infinity intricately weaves the legacy of a former quarry into modern living. Elements of stone, water, light, and movement forge a connection to the land, while the continuous flow between the Main House and Annex fosters a harmonious rhythm within the home\nThrough “Memory of the Quarry,” EY DESIGN has crafted a residence that emerges from its site, showcasing a cohesive identity throughout its interior. This home offers a lasting sense shaped by geology, remaining adaptable to the evolving practices, seasons, and personal stories that will enrich it over time.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/villa-infinity-designedby-ey-design", "Official Company Website": "https://eydesign.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000034.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000035", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100042", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "lyf Shibuya Tokyo", "metadata": { "Project": "lyf Shibuya Tokyo", "Location": "Organ-zaka, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Hotel and Resort / Lifestyle Hotel", "Designer/company": "Takashimaya Space Create Co., Ltd.", "Additional credits": "Yurika Nakashimaya and project design team", "Client/collaborators": "lyf Shibuya Tokyo", "Completion": "19 December 2024", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Step inside the kaleidoscope at lyf Shibuya Tokyo. Discover an award-winning lifestyle hotel on Organ-zaka where chrome, vivid colour, and urban energy redefine the Tokyo hospitality experience.", "editorial": "Shibuya is a place full of fleeting moments like reflections caught in shop windows, flashes of colour above the streets, and crowds gathering before dispersing down smaller lanes. This constant movement rearranges the district and serves as an inspiring starting point for lyf Shibuya Tokyo.\nLocated on Organ-zaka, opposite Shibuya PARCO, the hotel occupies one of Tokyo’s most vibrant intersections of fashion, music, entertainment, and contemporary culture. Takashimaya Space Create channels this urban energy into a social interior designed with colour, reflection, and the dynamic presence of its guests in mind. \nThe design concept, “Kaleidoscope,” is inspired by the childhood optical toy in which mirrors and coloured fragments create new patterns with every turn. This concept serves as a metaphor for understanding Shibuya itself, where people, objects, light, and activities come together, briefly part ways, and then come back together.\nChrome surfaces reflect this movement throughout the shared spaces, capturing partial reflections of guests, furniture, and the city outside the windows. As the room fills and empties throughout the day, these surfaces create new images, and the interior becomes more complete through its occupation, with each new arrival subtly altering what others see.\nVivid colours provide a stronger rhythm to these reflections. Saturated surfaces and furnishings change appearance based on distance, angle, and light, fostering an atmosphere that continues to evolve as guests navigate through the communal areas. Colour also gives each section of the open interior a distinct character, helping guests orient themselves within this energetic visual environment.\nThis interplay between visibility and movement aligns perfectly with the social essence of lyf. Guests can work, eat, meet, and engage in informal events all within the same shared environment. Larger gathering areas coexist with more intimate spaces, allowing the hotel’s atmosphere to develop organically around different levels of activity.\nThe result captures a familiar quality of Shibuya, where its wide streets and monumental buildings intermingle with narrow alleys, independent shops, and unexpected encounters. Takashimaya Space Create mirrors this shift in scale indoors, enabling open communal life and smaller personal moments to exist harmoniously within a single continuous experience.\nLighting adds another dimension to the interior as it changes throughout the day. Highlights dance across chrome surfaces, while softer illumination accentuates the depth of the colored elements. Daylight, evening light, and varying patterns of activity create new combinations within the same architectural framework.\nFor visitors, the hotel offers an opportunity to engage with Shibuya’s culture from the inside. The district envelops guests through reflections, colour, and the flow of people, while the communal spaces foster connections between international visitors and the local community. The hotel thus becomes part of the neighborhood’s daily rhythm, extending the lively atmosphere of Organ-zaka beyond the street.\nAdditionally, the design reflects a crucial aspect of contemporary travel: memorable stays are increasingly shaped by the people one encounters, the shared atmosphere, and the unexpected moments that arise between planned activities. At lyf Shibuya Tokyo, these experiences become integral to the hotel's visual identity.\nTakashimaya Space Create has designed a versatile space for lyf that evolves with each gathering. The blend of chrome, vibrant colours, and shifting lighting creates a dynamic atmosphere that feels both cohesive and alive, enriched by the guests who bring it to life. Mirroring the energy of the surrounding district, the hotel provides a one-of-a-kind experience that is always distinct, ensuring that every visit offers something new and unforgettable.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/lfyshibuyatokyo-designedbytakashimaya-space-create-co-ltd", "Official Company Website": "https://www.ts-create.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000035.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000036", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100044", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Lost Villa. Huanglong Island Lighthouse Hotel", "metadata": { "Project": "Lost Villa. Huanglong Island Lighthouse Hotel", "Location": "Huanglong Island, Zhoushan, Zhejiang, China", "Project type": "Architecture — Hotel and Resort / Island Hospitality", "Designer/company": "WJ STUDIO / Hu Zhile", "Additional credits": "Jin Yiran, Yang Xi, Liu Yu’ao and Huang Shufei; interior design by SZ-Architects; conceptual planning by Urban Fabric", "Client/collaborators": "Zhoushan Shengsi Lost Villa Hotel Management Co., Ltd.", "Completion": "2025", "Area": "5,000 m²", "Photographer": "Tian Fangfang and Zhang Xi" }, "excerpt": "Lost Villa. Huanglong Island Lighthouse Hotel steps lightly across a dramatic island site, preserving native reefs while framing seasonal sunrise and coastal life.", "editorial": "Reaching Huanglong Island is an integral part of the experience. The ferry journey from Zhoushan's main island takes about two and a half hours, creating a stretch of open water that sets visitors apart from their daily routines. At Dongjutou Cape, the island's easternmost point, the Lost Villa Huanglong Island Lighthouse Hotel offers an invitation to explore the terrain, weather, and coastal life of the Zhoushan archipelago.\nHuanglong Island is also undergoing demographic changes. An aging population and declining local vitality have prompted new ideas about how tourism can benefit its future. The hotel is an early step in this broader development, aiming to create a destination rooted in the island's inherent qualities: its remote setting, native vegetation, exposed reefs, and strong relationship with the sea.\nThe hotel site slopes down by nearly thirty meters towards the coast, featuring three protected reef formations embedded in the terrain. WJ STUDIO has utilized this topography to design the hotel as a series of interlocking, stair-like volumes. Independent foundations allow the buildings to settle among the rocks, while rooms, roofs, and terraces follow the changing elevation of the ridge.\nThis design creates an experience of movement for guests. An outdoor walkway descends between Block A and Block B, incorporating the shifting slope, sea air, and surrounding vegetation into the journey between shared spaces and guest rooms. The island remains ever-present throughout the day, encountered not only through the views but also through each transition.\nBlock A centers around an open rock hall where the original reef is still visible beneath the building. The architecture extends above it like a canopy, providing shelter while allowing visitors to closely approach the weathered stone. This hall introduces the landscape's history through direct experience, making the reef's textures and scale integral to the hotel's arrival experience.\nThis interaction gives the project a distinctive sense of place. The rock bears the marks of wind, water, and time, connecting the contemporary hotel with a geological story that predates tourism on the island. Guests are encouraged to notice the ground beneath them before turning to the horizon.\nBlock B houses the accommodations within three separate volumes inspired by the dispersed arrangement of Huanglong Island's existing villages. This composition grants the hotel the character of a small settlement along the ridge, with each building having its own relationship to the landscape.\nThe windows are designed to respond to the seasonal movement of sunrise, framing different angles of light during winter and summer. Morning becomes part of the spatial experience, allowing the atmosphere of each room to shift with the time of year. The architecture offers guests a way to connect with the island through light, weather, and repeated observations.\nThe layout also emphasizes outdoor movement as a central aspect of the stay. Walking between buildings provides moments of exposure to wind and sea before reaching the next sheltered interior. These short journeys foster a strong connection with the landscape, enriching daily activities from breakfast to returning to a room.\nSpanning 5,000 square meters, the hotel accommodates a substantial program, yet its clustered form aligns with the ridge's scale and pattern. The separate volumes create a varied silhouette across the site, allowing the reef, vegetation, and changes in elevation to remain clearly visible.\nThis relationship between hospitality and place gives the project significance beyond its architectural design. Visitors come to Huanglong Island to experience the unique character of travel, distance, and the coastal environment. The hotel provides comfort and facilities for an extended stay while introducing guests to the island's existing terrain and settlement culture.\nTourism also fosters a new connection between visitors and the local community. As Huanglong Island contemplates its future, the hotel establishes a contemporary destination that highlights the island's landscape and encourages ongoing engagement with it. The long-term narrative will develop through the people who work there, the guests who return, and how the destination integrates into local life.\nLost Villa Huanglong Island Lighthouse Hotel presents the island through an evolving connection with rock, slope, wind, and seasonal light. WJ STUDIO has created a place where the journey across the water continues after arrival, guiding guests deeper into the coastal landscape and fostering a more thoughtful experience of time spent on Huanglong Island.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-final-shortlisted-architecture/lost-villa-huanglong-island-lighthousehotel", "Official Company Website": "https://www.wjstudio.cn/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000036.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000037", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100045", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Lakeside Villa", "metadata": { "Project": "Lakeside Villa", "Location": "Shanghai, China", "Project type": "Interior Design — Residential / Private Residence and Art Gallery", "Designer/company": "WJ STUDIO / Hu Zhile", "Additional credits": "Liu Yu’ao and Zhou Shuyi; construction by Shanghai Liaobo Construction", "Client/collaborators": "Private client", "Completion": "June 2025", "Area": "550 m²", "Photographer": "BIJISPACE and Zhang Xi; additional imagery credited to Zhu Hai / AD Magazine" }, "excerpt": "WJ STUDIO’s Lakeside Villa redefines luxury residential architecture in Shanghai. By eliminating the boundaries between private gallery and home, this fluid, light-filled masterpiece offers a blueprint for modern collectors seeking to house art within the daily rhythm of life.", "editorial": "A personal art collection often reflects more than just artistic taste; it encapsulates moments from one's life, whether recalling a journey, a relationship, or the time when an object first gained significance. At Lakeside Villa in Shanghai, WJ STUDIO has designed a home where these memories are integrated into the fabric of daily life.\nKnown as \"My Gallery Home,\" this 550-square-meter residence was created for an experienced collector whose works had been in storage for years. The design reintroduces these pieces, allowing art, daily living, and the surrounding landscape to form an evolving composition.\nThe experience begins at the entrance, where a glass pavilion serves as a private gallery adjacent to the garden. Selected pieces are illuminated by natural light, enhanced by reflections of greenery and changes in the seasons. This pavilion offers each visitor a moment of reconnection, inviting them to engage with the collection before returning to the home's more intimate areas.\nThe pavilion's transparency alters the character of the display. Art is observed alongside plants, water features, and shifting weather, allowing the setting to evolve throughout the day. The gallery seamlessly integrates into the landscape and becomes part of the resident's daily experience.\nMoving deeper into the home, WJ STUDIO eliminates conventional door frames, aligning openings throughout the space. Living areas, corridors, and display spaces flow into one another, enabling art to coexist naturally with furniture and familiar pathways used for conversation and relaxation.\nThis spatial continuity mirrors how personal collections are formed over time through individual encounters. Each piece tells its own story while remaining connected to the life surrounding it. Lakeside Villa grants the collection a similar freedom, allowing individual works to capture attention without isolating them from the broader context of the home.\nDaylight plays a crucial role in this relationship. Skylights bring natural light into the deeper areas of the house, creating a connection between the upper and lower floors through shifting patterns of brightness. As the sun moves, colours, textures, and shadows transform, offering new perspectives on familiar artworks.\nThe interior colour palette maintains a serene atmosphere for the collection while preserving the warmth of a private residence. Wood, textiles, and familiar domestic objects introduce softness to the rooms, ensuring that the art remains part of an inhabited environment characterized by comfort, conversation, and daily use.\nViews of the garden and lake add another dimension of change. The landscape follows its own seasonal rhythm, providing a living counterpart to the objects collected over many years. Art, architecture, and nature engage in a continuous dialogue, each offering a different measure of time.\nWJ STUDIO emphasizes the relationship between viewing and living. The entrance pavilion provides a focused experience with select pieces, while the interior allows the collection to accompany the resident throughout the day. A specific piece may be observed formally at one moment and noticed casually from a familiar chair at another. This proximity gives the house an emotional character. The collection is seen as part of the owner's life story, embodying memories and experiences in the present. The architecture creates a setting where these connections can continue to grow as new works and new chapters in life are added.\nLakeside Villa illustrates collecting as a dynamic and personal way to shape a home. Through light, openness, and the gradual movement between gallery, living space, and garden, WJ STUDIO has crafted a residence where art is continually rediscovered within the changing patterns of everyday life.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/lakeside-villa-designed-by-wj-studio", "Official Company Website": "https://www.wjstudio.cn/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000037.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000038", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100046", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "La villa Hiro-o", "metadata": { "Project type": "Interior Design — Leisure and Wellness / Beauty Clinic", "Location": "Hiro-o, Tokyo, Japan", "Designer / company": "Old Kan Inc.", "Client / collaborators": "La villa Hiro-o", "Completion date": "19 August 2024" }, "excerpt": "La villa Hiro-o replaces the conventional clinical mood with the lightness and reassurance of a private resort, making hospitality central to the patient experience.", "editorial": "La villa Hiro-o is a beauty clinic that borrows the emotional pacing of a private resort. Old Kan Inc.'s 'Comfortable Soft Resort' concept responds to a basic reality of cosmetic medicine: before treatment begins, the interior has already influenced whether a patient feels exposed, reassured or cared for.\n\n\nArrival is designed as a decompression from central Tokyo. Airy boundaries, softened light and restrained finishes evoke the sensation of a gentle breeze, replacing the hard brightness and procedural cues associated with conventional clinics. The atmosphere reflects the doctor's warm manner while establishing the privacy and composure expected of a professional practice.\n\n\nThe resort reference is deliberately non-literal. There is no attempt to reproduce a destination; instead, a quiet sequence and light material presence give patients time to settle before consultation. Hospitality becomes operational, helping the clinic manage anticipation and emotional vulnerability.\n\n\nWithin a competitive wellness market, the project distinguishes the practice through care rather than spectacle. Its design proposition is simple but pertinent: clinical confidence can coexist with softness, and reassurance is a functional requirement.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/la-villa-hiro-o-oldkan", "Official Company Website": "https://old-kan.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000038.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000039", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100047", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "CREVA OKUMA - KUMA SUN TERRACE", "metadata": { "Project type": "Interior Design — Institution", "Location": "Okuma, Japan", "Designer / company": "FIELD FOUR DESIGN OFFICE", "Client / collaborators": "Private institutional client", "Completion date": "2025" }, "excerpt": "CREVA OKUMA / KUMA SUN TERRACE uses daylight, approachable materials and varied shared spaces to support community and everyday comfort.", "editorial": "At Ono Station in Okuma, CREVA OKUMA and KUMA SUN TERRACE occupy ground that was once the town centre, then remained inaccessible after the nuclear accident until restrictions were lifted in 2022. FIELD FOUR DESIGN OFFICE approaches the site as more than a new municipal facility: it is an attempt to restore the ordinary settings in which a community meets, works and remembers.\n\n\nThe architecture is organised around a central plaza open to both station and town square. Its split volumes are rotated against the surrounding roads, a measured adjustment that resolves changes in level and creates barrier-free routes through the site. A long, single-pitch roof recalls the profile of the Abukuma Mountains, while artificial-turf mounds, water, native planting and movable furniture give the plaza enough informality for lunch breaks, festivals or an unplanned conversation.\n\n\nCREVA OKUMA builds a civic programme vertically around this shared ground. The first-floor hall can open for events; an atrium lounge is anchored by tapestry art; coworking areas, an open pantry and rental offices occupy the second level; and a rooftop garden extends public life above. Photographs and objects from before the disaster are placed within these contemporary rooms, allowing memory to remain present without turning the building into a memorial.\n\n\nThe material choices reinforce that balance. Chestnut, ash and larch sourced locally support regional forestry and reduce environmental impact, while the wider development forms part of Okuma's ambition for a zero-carbon town powered by local renewable energy. Here, reconstruction is expressed through access, shade, workspaces and places to sit—the modest but essential apparatus of daily life.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/cervaokuma-kumasunterrace-designedby-fieldfourdesignoffice", "Official Company Website": "https://www.field4.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000039.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000040", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100048", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Anicom Holdings New Hub Project — Phase 1", "metadata": { "Project": "Anicom Holdings New Hub Project — Phase 1", "Location": "Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Healthcare / Veterinary Hospital and Dental Clinic", "Designer/company": "SPACE CO., LTD. / Daichi Hayashihara", "Client/collaborators": "Anicom Insurance Inc. / Anicom Holdings Group / Anicom Healthy Life Extension Foundation", "Completion": "October 2025 — Phase 1" }, "excerpt": "SPACE CO., LTD. is designing the Anicom Holdings New Hub in Tokyo, which merges advanced veterinary diagnostics and human dental care within a single, transparent clinical facility. This project establishes a scalable architectural model for delivering pet-inclusive healthcare.", "editorial": "In traditional healthcare, the paths of veterinary and human medicine often diverge, each operating within distinct clinical protocols and systems. Veterinary practices have developed independently, just as human medicine has, creating separate domains for patient care, equipment, and treatment environments. However, Anicom Holdings’ innovative new hub in Tokyo challenges this longstanding separation by integrating advanced veterinary services with a human dental clinic, thereby revolutionizing our approach to holistic wellbeing.\n\n\nDesigned by SPACE CO., LTD., this ambitious project reflects Anicom Holdings’ vision of health as a shared concern for both humans and animals. The first completed phase successfully connects the JARVIS Animal Medical Center Tokyo with the Anicom Healthy Life Extension Foundation's dental clinic. Future expansions plan to incorporate research, education, and corporate functions, paving the way for a comprehensive health institution.\nThe significance of co-locating these services transcends clinical efficacy; it addresses a profound social need. As companion animals increasingly take center stage in family dynamics, their presence influences emotional wellbeing and healthcare decisions. By allowing patients to attend dental appointments alongside their pets, the facility not only acknowledges the bond between humans and animals but also marks a significant shift in how healthcare environments can adapt to contemporary lifestyles.\nJARVIS sets a high bar for veterinary care, equipped with cutting-edge technology including MRI, CT, endoscopy, and robotic-assisted surgery, complemented by intensive care and 24/7 emergency services. The architectural design must seamlessly incorporate this advanced technology, ensuring infection control while facilitating efficient clinical workflows, all in a setting that remains welcoming to pet owners during vulnerable times. SPACE CO., LTD. has crafted a cohesive architectural language that harmonizes these diverse care modalities. A palette of pale surfaces, metal, glass, and continuous lighting fosters visual continuity across the lower levels. Each service area retains its identity through differentiated access and clinical zoning, allowing the building to function as a singular institution without sacrificing the unique needs of veterinary and human healthcare.\nTransparency is a foundational principle in this design. Treatment and imaging areas are strategically located to be visible from common circulation spaces, making advanced medical technologies and specialized veterinary care integral to the experience. While technology enhances the treatment environment, it does so without overwhelming visitors; rather, it makes expert capabilities tangible and accessible. This transparency is particularly crucial in veterinary settings, where pets cannot express their ailments, often heightening their owners’ anxiety. By demystifying diagnostic and treatment processes through thoughtful design, the hub fosters a reassuring atmosphere for both animals and their caregivers, while ensuring privacy for sensitive procedures.\nLighting further reinforces the emotional and functional narrative of the space. Clinical areas are brightly illuminated for precise treatment and imaging, while reception and waiting areas cultivate a warmer, quieter ambiance. Green lighting accents certain medical zones, creating a distinctive visual identity, while at night, the building becomes a captivating feature in Tokyo’s urban landscape. The serene aesthetic is meticulously supported by rigorous technical specifications, including antibacterial and antiviral finishes, durable surfaces, recycled flooring, and carefully delineated circulation paths, all of which contribute to a safe and comfortable environment for diverse types of care. Looking ahead, the project is designed with scalability in mind. Above the clinical floors, future plans include dedicated spaces for research, education, and corporate functions, enabling the building to evolve into a comprehensive platform for knowledge, treatment, and collaboration. Thus, the hub begins as a dynamic medical institution while retaining flexibility to expand Anicom’s ecosystem in the future.\nUltimately, the Anicom Holdings New Hub embodies a reimagined healthcare environment where human dentistry and advanced veterinary medicine coexist, sharing an address and an institutional identity, while fostering a deeper understanding of collective wellbeing. SPACE CO., LTD. has established a spatial framework that emphasizes clarity, visibility, and meticulously managed clinical infrastructure.\nThis innovative project illustrates a modern interpretation of care, where the health of both people and animals is increasingly recognized as interconnected and essential to daily living.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/2026/8/3/uu85mupq3rij8og5pqfkk16ac9lhf9", "Official Company Website": "https://www.space-tokyo.co.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000040.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000041", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010005", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Grid Coffee in Sanyuanli Market", "metadata": { "Project Type": "Coffee shop interior design", "Location": "Sanyuanli Food Market, Beijing, China", "Designer / Design Company": "B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio", "Design Team": "Shuhei Aoyama, Yoko Fujii, Yichen Wang, Jingyuan Li, Jinglin Feng", "Client": "Grid Coffee", "Gross Area": "25 square metres", "Photography": "Runzi Zhu" }, "excerpt": "B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio fits a 25-square-metre Grid Coffee into Beijing’s Sanyuanli Food Market, pairing rough aggregate concrete with hand-worked copper and a sculptural counter shaped for stand-and-sip service.", "editorial": "Coffee at the Market Threshold\n\n\nAt the northern entrance to Beijing’s Sanyuanli Food Market, Grid Coffee occupies only 25 square metres yet holds two public faces. One addresses the street through a deep concrete portal; the other opens directly into the market through a compact selling window. B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio treats both edges as active pieces of the neighbourhood.\n\n\nThe street entrance is framed in rough, ribbed concrete and closed with hand-assembled copper doors. Their warm, irregular surface catches the light against the weight of the mineral surround. Inside the market, a hammered copper shutter operates at the scale of a stall: open, it becomes a counter for exchange; closed, it reads as a quiet metal panel set within the textured wall.\n\n\nA near-right-angled bar organises the narrow interior. Ordering, preparation and standing consumption follow its two arms, while recessed ledges give customers a place to pause without introducing conventional seating. The pale aggregate counter contains coffee beans from the brand’s own supply, turning the working surface into a material record of the product.\n\n\nThe palette is deliberately compact. Sand-faced cement and exposed aggregate establish a muted field; oxidised and hammered copper bring depth; elm and other woods soften the points touched by hand and body. Small timber signs identify coffee varieties in a manner borrowed from the market’s changeable price labels.\n\n\nThis is a coffee shop shaped by the tempo of buying, tasting and moving on. Its windows extend the transactional life of the neighbouring stalls, while its crafted surfaces provide a moment of concentration amid the market’s colour and noise. The project’s modest scale gives each junction unusual weight: door, shutter, bar, ledge and display all participate in the exchange between coffee culture and everyday commerce.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/2026/7/18/1eskqca1j0gu346azipcrjxxmgn1pe", "Official Company Website": "https://b-l-u-e.net/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000041.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000042", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100050", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "xLINK Marunouchi Bldg.", "metadata": { "Project": "xLINK Marunouchi Bldg.", "Location": "Marunouchi Building, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office / Flexible Workplace", "Designer/company": "BINGE DESIGN & SPACE CO., LTD.", "Additional credits": "Workplace planning, bespoke lighting and tenant identity system", "Client/collaborators": "Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd.", "Completion": "1 April 2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Discover xLINK Marunouchi Building, a premier flexible workspace in Tokyo designed by BINGE DESIGN & SPACE. Featuring adaptable offices, bespoke lighting, and integrated private lounges, this high-performance environment empowers businesses to scale rapidly within the iconic Marunouchi district.", "editorial": "For many companies, establishing a new office involves an extensive preparation period. This includes selecting furniture, installing networks, planning meeting rooms, and translating a working culture into physical space. xLINK Marunouchi Building streamlines this process by providing fully equipped workplaces within one of Tokyo’s most prominent business addresses.\nOperated by Mitsubishi Estate and designed by BINGE DESIGN & SPACE, xLINK occupies the Marunouchi Building, offering desks, chairs, storage, and network infrastructure that are already in place. It features private offices, lounges, and shared meeting rooms, allowing companies to start operations soon after moving in while retaining the flexibility to adjust the workplace as teams and priorities evolve. This readiness reflects the fast-paced nature of business in Marunouchi. Companies can establish a presence in Tokyo, collaborate on project teams, or expand their operations before their longer-term needs are fully defined. As a result, the workplace must feel complete from day one while remaining open to future changes.\nThe design concept, “Un-Veil,” balances these elements within the interior. It respects the history and significance of the Marunouchi Building while enabling each tenant's identity to emerge gradually. The architecture fosters a composed shared environment, allowing the companies within it to shape the space over time. Glass partitions and curtains create an adaptable relationship between private rooms and the broader workspace. Daylight and visual connections can be maintained during regular work hours, while curtains provide added privacy or support concentration when needed. This level of control is crucial in a flexible office, as teams seldom operate in just one consistent mode. A typical workday may shift from focused individual tasks to internal discussions, online meetings, and sensitive conversations. The interior design accommodates these transitions without requiring occupants to change rooms or alter the foundational architecture.\nShared lounges expand the working environment beyond private offices. They provide spaces for informal discussions, quick meetings, and breaks between scheduled tasks. Tailored lighting gives these areas a distinct character while the high-floor views reconnect the workplace with central Tokyo. These views give xLINK a strong sense of location. The office is not defined solely by its postal address; it integrates with the surrounding city, placing each company within one of Japan's most recognized centers of commerce and professional life.\nA dedicated design wall allows tenants to display their own signage within the common areas, giving each company a visible presence while maintaining continuity throughout the interior. Corporate identities become part of a shared architectural setting, expressed clearly without disrupting the overall environment. Furniture and layouts can be reorganized as needs evolve, supported by components chosen for durability and ease of maintenance. Shared meeting rooms also provide tenants with access to diverse settings without necessitating that every function be confined to their leased space.\nBINGE DESIGN & SPACE has approached flexibility as a fundamental working condition. Readiness, privacy, corporate identity, shared resources, and long-term adaptability are seamlessly integrated into an environment that suits the Marunouchi Building.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/xlink-marunouchi-bldg-designed-by-binge-design-amp-space-co-ltd", "Company Reference Profile": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/xlink-marunouchi-bldg-designed-by-binge-design-amp-space-co-ltd" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000042.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000043", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100053", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "UNIVERSAL MUSIC STORE HARAJUKU", "metadata": { "Project": "UNIVERSAL MUSIC STORE HARAJUKU", "Location": "Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Retail / Pop-Up and Concept Store", "Designer/company": "SPACE CO., LTD.", "Additional credits": "Adaptable fixture, signage, lighting and wrapping system", "Client/collaborators": "Universal Music", "Completion": "20 October 2023", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Discover how SPACE CO., LTD. revolutionized retail architecture with the Universal Music Store Harajuku. This cutting-edge, adaptive design features a dynamic open-façade layout, movable fixtures, and high-impact signage, setting a new global standard for immersive, fan-focused music concept stores.", "editorial": "Music now reaches audiences instantly, but some of its most memorable moments still rely on the physical presence of fans. A music release becomes a significant event when fans gather, an artist appears, and the culture surrounding the record takes shape. The UNIVERSAL MUSIC STORE HARAJUKU provides a permanent venue for these encounters in one of Tokyo's most influential youth and fashion districts.\nDesigned by SPACE CO., LTD., the store was envisioned as a space where music can be integrated into everyday life. Its offerings encompass retail, exhibitions, artist collaborations, and fan events, allowing each new project to create its own atmosphere while still being part of the broader Universal Music identity. This adaptability mirrors the rapid pace of contemporary music culture. Albums, visual campaigns, and collaborations emerge quickly, while audiences engage with artists through sound, fashion, moving images, and social media simultaneously. A permanent store that supports this culture must be able to shift its focus without losing its sense of identity.\nSPACE features an adaptable framework centred around an open frontage, movable fixtures, variable signage, linear lighting, and surfaces that can accommodate temporary graphics. These elements enable the space to transition seamlessly between product launches, exhibitions, and live programs, ensuring that each artist has a strong visual presence that enhances the immediate experience.\nThe open façade connects the activity directly to Harajuku, making displays, gatherings, and new releases visible from the street. This visibility allows the store's energy to flow into the surrounding neighbourhood, enabling visitors to engage with the program before entering, and making the movement of fans part of the district's public life. The layout is designed to shift easily between different uses. Movable fixtures allow the space to be reconfigured depending on the scale of each event. Merchandise can be presented densely for a major release, while a more open arrangement can support an exhibition, performance, or direct interaction between artists and fans. The space adapts to the needs of each program while maintaining an underlying sense of order.\nLighting plays a crucial role in transformation, adding depth to the environment. Linear elements create direction, rhythm, and focus on the floor, enhancing artwork, products, or live activities, tailored to the unique character of each collaboration. Signage and graphic surfaces further amplify the temporary identity of the space, allowing campaign imagery to take center stage for a limited time. The retail store’s permanent identity is rooted in its ability to change. Its character is defined by the quality of its framework and the diverse voices it accommodates. Universal Music is represented through the interactions it fosters between artists, releases, and audiences.\nThis approach gives physical retail a renewed cultural significance. While music can be streamed anywhere, a shared experience remains tied to specific times and places. An exhibition can unveil the visual world behind an album, a launch can unite a fan community, and a visit can create lasting memories connected to an artist at a particular moment in their career.\nHarajuku is an ideal setting for this exchange, as the district has a long history of linking music with fashion, design, and emerging forms of self-expression. The UNIVERSAL MUSIC STORE HARAJUKU actively participates in this culture, evolving its appearance alongside the artists it features.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/universal-music-store-harajuku-designed-by-space-co-ltd", "Official Company Website": "https://www.space-tokyo.co.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000043.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000044", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100055", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Fukuoka International Airport — International Terminal Renewal", "metadata": { "Project": "Fukuoka International Airport — International Terminal Renewal", "Location": "Fukuoka, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Transportation and Hub", "Designer/company": "SEMBA Corporation", "Client/collaborators": "Fukuoka International Airport", "Completion": "28 March 2025" }, "excerpt": "Fukuoka International Airport's terminal renewal, designed by SEMBA Corporation, integrates Fukuoka's cultural identity with operational efficiency. By blending traditional crafts, festival-inspired installations, and seasonal gardens, the design redefines the international transit experience, transforming it into a destination.", "editorial": "Airports function as hubs of constant transition, facilitating the arrival and departure of numerous individuals who engage in activities such as waiting, shopping, dining, meeting, transferring, and preparing for subsequent stages of their journeys, often within the same few hours. At Fukuoka International Airport, SEMBA Corporation approaches the renewal of the terminal by considering this entire cycle of movement, expanding capacity while enhancing the passenger experience's connection to Fukuoka and the Kyushu region.\n \nBy the year 2018, the number of international passengers had increased to approximately 2.9 times the level recorded at the terminal's opening in 1999. This considerable growth exerted pressure on departure and arrival facilities, retail areas, services, and waiting spaces. The renewal initiative seeks to address this growth by posing a critical question: how can an international terminal maintain operational efficiency while simultaneously providing travellers with a pronounced sense of place?\n \nThe response to this inquiry manifests differently throughout the airport. In the pre-departure commercial areas, design elements inspired by Yame lanterns and festival floats have been transformed into large architectural installations, creating strong visual landmarks. These features are intended to be readily recognizable within the expansive concourse, accommodating the rapid pace of passenger movement among shopping, dining, security, and boarding gates.\n \nConversely, the quieter lounges incorporate regional crafts such as Hakata dolls, Okawa kumiko, Hakata textiles, and Koishiwara pottery. These crafts are integrated into furniture, screens, decorative elements, and washbasins, enriching the ordinary moments of waiting and rest. Passengers are thus afforded the opportunity to appreciate the materials, textures, and finer details of these local crafts.\n \nThe food and retail areas within the airport offer a more dynamic representation of local culture. Timber structures, lanterns, graphics, and references to Hakata street life contribute to a vibrant social atmosphere, effectively transforming dining and shopping into integral components of the terminal experience rather than merely secondary activities between flights.\n \nAdditionally, small tsuboniwa gardens introduce a serene rhythm to the airport environment. The gardens, featuring stone, moss, and plantings, provide visual pauses and moments of tranquillity amidst the more demanding phases of travel. Their presence also brings a sense of seasonality to an otherwise continuously operating environment.\n \nThe arrival spaces are characterized by clarity and restraint. A continuous ceiling feature crafted from locally sourced timber establishes a strong directional flow around information points, transport connections, and onward movement. While this material adds warmth, its primary function is to organize various routes at critical points, helping passengers quickly comprehend the terminal's layout.\n \nThis deliberate variation in design across departure, waiting, retail, dining, and arrival areas contributes to the overall character of the renewal project. SEMBA opts against applying a single visual identity uniformly throughout the terminal; rather, cultural references are adjusted in scale and intensity according to the duration of passenger stay, movement pace, and engagement in particular activities.\n \nAt Fukuoka International Airport, regional identity is intricately integrated into the practical travel experience. Passengers encounter regional crafts at close range, while festival culture leaves a noticeable impression on the larger concourses. Gardens create spaces for respite, and the use of local timber enhances spatial clarity. This comprehensive design approach serves both directions of travel, ensuring that Fukuoka is present from initial check-in and departure through arrival and onward travel.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/fukuokainternationalairport-designedby-sembacorporation", "Official Company Website": "https://www.semba1008.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000044.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000045", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100056", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Gifu-Jo Rakuichi", "metadata": { "Project": "Gifu-Jo Rakuichi", "Location": "Gifu Park, Gifu, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Leisure and Wellness / Tourism Hub and Public Space", "Designer/company": "SEMBA Corporation", "Client/collaborators": "Gifu-Jo Rakuichi", "Completion": "26 April 2025" }, "excerpt": "Gifu-Jo Rakuichi designed by SEMBA Corporation transforms Gifu Park into a bustling tourism and hospitality hub, increasing visitor dwell time through a strategic network of timber pavilions and communal gathering spaces.", "editorial": "Gifu Castle has historically served as one of the most recognizable landmarks within the city, positioned atop Mount Kinka and intrinsically linked to Oda Nobunaga. The castle draws nearly one million visitors annually. Nevertheless, the experience at ground level has been markedly brief, with approximately 80 percent of visitors departing the area within one hour due to a lack of dining, relaxation, and engaging spaces prior to continuing their journey. In response to this disparity between cultural significance and everyday experience, SEMBA Corporation has developed Gifu-Jo Rakuichi.\n \nThis initiative is grounded in the philosophy of “Savouring Gifu and enjoying OMOTENASHI hospitality.” Its objectives are as civic as they are touristic: to revitalize Gifu Park into a venue where visitors, residents, historical context, and contemporary commerce can interact seamlessly at the entrance to Gifu Castle.\n \nSEMBA's design approach draws inspiration from the site’s historical role as a transportation hub. The project features a dispersed array of single-storey timber structures arranged along existing park pathways, evoking the vibrant character of a Sengoku-period castle town. This arrangement fosters an open environment that allows mature trees, Mount Kinka, the three-storey pagoda, and vistas of Gifu Castle to enhance the visitor experience.\n \nThis urban composition emphasizes the importance of time spent in the area, rather than merely facilitating transit. The layout includes shops, food vendors, seating areas, and shaded spots to encourage visitors to pause between destinations. This intention is equally applicable to local residents, who may utilize the park as an integral part of their daily lives rather than as a mere tourist attraction. SEMBA characterizes this space as a “town living room,” where the activities of tourism and local community life can converge.\n \nThe architectural design supports this informality. With deep eaves, timber frames, and open shopfronts, each pavilion maintains a distinct identity while contributing to a cohesive visual ensemble. Lawns and trees intersperse the buildings, and the circulation pattern remains sufficiently open to allow individuals to navigate freely among retail areas, food options, historical landmarks, and open spaces without being confined to a singular commercial route. Moreover, the scale of the project imparts a broader lesson. Gifu-Jo Rakuichi does not rely on an imposing visitor center to communicate the city’s heritage; rather, historical narratives are woven into the very fabric of the environment: the dispersed layout, pedestrian-friendly streets, connection to the mountain, and the atmosphere of a small settlement beneath the castle.\n \nSEMBA's engagement in this project encompassed consulting, master planning, design criteria, supervision, interiors, and signage, ensuring that the commercial program and public realm developed as an integrated system.\n \nGifu-Jo Rakuichi introduces a new social dynamic to Gifu Park. Visitors may still arrive for the castle, yet the journey now accommodates opportunities for dining, conversation, shopping, rest, and repeated visits.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/gifu-jo-rakuichi-designdby-sembacorporation", "Official Company Website": "https://www.semba1008.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000045.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000046", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100058", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "WOLFGANG’S STEAKHOUSE TAKANAWA", "metadata": { "Project": "WOLFGANG’S STEAKHOUSE TAKANAWA", "Location": "Takanawa, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Bar and Restaurant", "Designer/company": "SEMBA Corporation", "Client/collaborators": "Wolfgang’s Steakhouse", "Completion": "12 September 2025" }, "excerpt": "Wolfgang’s Steakhouse Takanawa, operated by SEMBA Corporation, redefines high-end dining 150 meters above Tokyo. This project combines classic steakhouse materials such as walnut, marble, and copper with stunning skyline views, creating a unique elevated restaurant experience.", "editorial": "Wolfgang’s Steakhouse establishes a distinct sense of formality at each new location, characterized by dark timber, white tablecloths, an extensive wine program, and the assuredness typical of a New York institution. The Wolfgang’s Steakhouse Takanawa, situated 150 meters above Tokyo, exemplifies SEMBA Corporation's ability to extend the brand’s well-known identity into an unparalleled environment, distinguishing it within the brand's portfolio. This elevation transforms the relationship between the dining room and the city, endowing the traditional steakhouse ambiance with a renewed metropolitan scale.\n \nThe restaurant operates within a high-rise commercial complex, where elements such as greenery, sound, and dining are conceived as interconnected parts of a comprehensive experience. SEMBA’s design philosophy seeks to uphold the brand’s dignified character while imparting a lighter, more contemporary aesthetic that aligns with its elevated position. Traditional materials such as walnut, mosaic, marble, and brass detailing are retained while being complemented by glass features, modern lighting, and an enhanced engagement with the skyline.\n \nThe arrival experience is meticulously designed. A prolonged approach, flanked by marble and illuminated by indirect lighting, gradually distills the restaurant from the surrounding commercial environment. Carefully curated glimpses of the interior reveal wine storage, chandeliers, and occupied dining tables, leading guests to an expansive view of Tokyo.\n \nThis heightened sense of anticipation is essential, as the view serves more than a mere backdrop. Floor-to-ceiling windows integrate the cityscape directly into the dining experience, while the recessed ceiling and warm chandeliers create an intimate atmosphere. Throughout the evening, the space shifts between the vast expanse of Tokyo beyond the glass and the closeness of a steakhouse centred on service, conversation, and ritual.\n \nThe wine cellar is integral to this experience, positioned as a glass-enclosed island that serves as a prominent focal point within the dining room while preserving long views. The interplay of bottles, reflections, and the illuminated urban landscape creates a layered effect, allowing the cellar to function as storage, threshold, and visual anchor.\n \nIn the bar area, the ambiance becomes richer and more concentrated. The use of Italian marble, polished timber, and copper contributes to a sophisticated environment under a warm ceiling adorned with an extensive collection of bottles. SEMBA has incorporated flexible copper panels on the counter façade, designed to withstand continuous use while retaining its aesthetic integrity over time. This material choice harmonizes durability with elegance, thus avoiding any perception of compromise.\n \nGlass partitions featuring integrated indirect lighting facilitate seamless transitions between the bar, lounge, and dining areas. The soft illumination adjusts subtly after dark, imparting a different rhythm to the interior as the city's ambiance changes from dusk to night. Moreover, private and executive circulation routes are thoughtfully planned to provide an enhanced level of discretion within an otherwise vibrant dining environment.\n \nDespite its new context, the visual identity of the restaurant remains unequivocally Wolfgang’s. Elements such as walnut panelling, mosaic borders, leather seating, and white table linens reflect the confidence of the original New York steakhouse, while the incorporation of height, glazing, and contemporary detailing firmly establishes the Takanawa location within Tokyo's unique landscape. This synthesis provides returning guests with a familiar touch while allowing the restaurant to distinguish itself.\n \nAt Wolfgang’s Steakhouse Takanawa, the theatrical aspects of a classic steakhouse are adeptly reimagined against one of Tokyo's most panoramic urban vistas. SEMBA Corporation successfully infuses the brand’s material opulence and formal hospitality into a vertical context, where the cityscape becomes an intrinsic component of the dining experience, from arrival to the final course.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/wolfgangsteakhousetakanawa-designedby-sembacorporation", "Official Company Website": "https://www.semba1008.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000046.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000047", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100059", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "RYUBO FOOD HALL", "metadata": { "Project": "RYUBO FOOD HALL", "Location": "Naha, Okinawa, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Bar and Restaurant / Department-Store Food Hall", "Designer/company": "SPACE CO., LTD.", "Additional credits": "Senior Planner: Eiichi Ishii; planning, design, construction and leasing support by SPACE CO., LTD.", "Client/collaborators": "Ryubo Department Store", "Completion": "2025", "Area": "Second floor of Ryubo Department Store", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Ryubo Food Hall by SPACE CO., LTD. redefines Naha commercial interiors. A strategic lighting design shifts this department store floor from a high-efficiency lunch hub to a polished evening dining destination.", "editorial": "A department store often reflects the rhythm of the city surrounding it, bringing together shopping, dining, conversation, and everyday encounters under one roof. On the second floor of Ryubo Department Store, the RYUBO FOOD HALL enhances this role with a contemporary dining space that connects to the working and social life of Naha.\nSPACE CO., LTD. transformed the former retail floor into a food hall that evolves throughout the day. Lunchtime buzzes with energy from nearby offices and department store activities, while afternoons offer a more relaxed atmosphere. In the evening, the space takes on a warmer character, focused on dining and drinks. These overlapping rhythms integrate the hall into Naha's daily routine. The project is guided by the concept of \"Contrast,\" which is demonstrated through the changing interplay of light, time, and atmosphere. Natural daylight and even illumination provide clarity to the interior during the day, while indirect lighting and pendant lamps introduce a greater warmth in the evening, allowing the architecture to adapt without losing its identity.\nThis transformation gives the food hall a unique temporal quality, as the interior responds to the city's rhythm, carrying the brightness of the workday into a more intimate evening setting. Light becomes an integral part of the hospitality experience, influencing how the space is perceived as the hours change. Design Team involvement encompassed planning, design, construction, and leasing support. This comprehensive approach enabled the development of a cohesive environment for tenant composition, circulation, seating, service requirements, and visual identity. The food hall was designed as a complete destination within the department store, integrating commercial planning with spatial experience.\nEach tenant maintains a distinct presence, while a unified material and graphic language provides continuity throughout the floor. This balance allows various culinary offerings to remain visible within a consistent setting, enhancing the collective identity of RYUBO FOOD HALL. The atmosphere combines the composure and consistency of traditional department-store hospitality with a more contemporary social setting. Clear sightlines, well-measured lighting, and an organized spatial layout contribute to a sense of ease throughout the space.\nThis setting reflects the essence of Okinawa, particularly as it relates to present-day Naha. The food hall caters to those who work, shop, meet, and spend time in the city, offering visitors a glimpse into its everyday urban culture. Local identity is shaped through the use of the space, quality of service, and the varying pace of daily life.\nAs a result, Ryubo assumes a broader role within the city. Dining and conversation extend the department store's function beyond retail, creating a space where different segments of Naha's community can come together throughout the day. The Ryubo Food Hall showcases department-store renewal as a unified hospitality experience. Through thoughtful design in lighting, service, tenant planning, and brand identity, SPACE CO., LTD. has developed a dining area that seamlessly transitions with Naha's rhythm, from the bustling energy of lunchtime to the inviting warmth of the evening.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/ryubofoodhallbyspaceco-japan", "Official Company Website": "https://www.space-tokyo.co.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000047.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000048", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010006", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "AMAMI HOUSE", "metadata": { "Project": "AMAMI HOUSE", "Location": "Amami Ōshima, Kagoshima, Japan", "Project type": "Architecture — Residential and Urban Design", "Designer/company": "SAKAI ARCHITECTS / Kazunori Sakai", "Additional credits": "Not stated in the accessible editorial brief", "Client/collaborators": "Private residence", "Completion": "August 2024", "Area": "Not stated in the accessible editorial brief", "Photographer": "Not stated in the accessible editorial brief" }, "excerpt": "AMAMI HOUSE brings off-grid resilience and Amami Ōshima’s communal traditions together in a five-volume family home shaped by climate, circular living and connection.", "editorial": "On Amami Ōshima, Kazunori Sakai has used his own family home to test a demanding proposition: can a house for four operate without grid electricity or air conditioning in a humid subtropical climate with limited solar yield? AMAMI HOUSE answers through vernacular intelligence, resource cycles and a social life as important as its energy performance.\n\n\nFive separate volumes reinterpret the island’s buntō tradition, assigning functions such as sleeping, bathing and storage to distinct roofs. The spaces between them become the home’s generous shared rooms, extending towards verandas and gardens. Corrugated metal and irimoya-like profiles, deep eaves, layered insulation, raised construction and cross-ventilation temper sun, wind and sudden rain.\n\n\nSelf-sufficiency is embedded in daily routines. Construction offcuts fuel a wood-fired sauna; kitchen waste returns as compost; and garden produce comes back to the table. These are modest loops, but together they make consumption visible to the household and reduce dependence on distant systems.\n\n\nThe house remains open to the gatherings that define Amami as an “Island of Ties”. Sakai connects environmental autonomy with yui, the culture of mutual cooperation: resilience here does not mean retreating from neighbours, but creating a place capable of supporting them.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-final-shortlisted-architecture/amami-house-by-sakai-architects", "Company Reference Profile": "https://www.archdaily.com/1035877/amami-house-sakai-architects" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000048.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000049", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100061", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "DAIKYO ANABUKI FUDOSAN Banchō Residence Salon", "metadata": { "Project": "DAIKYO ANABUKI FUDOSAN Banchō Residence Salon", "Location": "Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office / Residential Sales and Asset-Management Salon", "Designer/company": "SPACE CO., LTD.", "Additional credits": "Direction and project management: Hajime Misumi; design: Daiki Mishima and Mana Yamaguchi; creation and construction: Tatsuya Doi and Keiju Taya", "Client/collaborators": "DAIKYO ANABUKIFUDOSAN INC.", "Completion": "March 2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Kenji Masunaga / masphoto" }, "excerpt": "SPACE CO., LTD. redefines the high-end residential sales experience in Tokyo. The Banchō Residence Salon guides visitors through a dramatic transition from a narrow black geometric passage into an expansive, light-filled interior overlooking the city.", "editorial": "The process of purchasing a home or engaging in the long-term management of property typically does not commence with the transaction itself. Instead, there exists a preliminary phase characterized by a shift in focus, increased specificity in inquiries, and a transition in dialogue from possibility to commitment. In this context, DAIKYO ANABUKI FUDOSAN Bancho Residence Salon, designed by SPACE CO., LTD., embodies this interval through architectural innovation.\n\n\nInaugurated in March 2025 in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, the salon caters to a company involved in high-end residential sales and asset management. SPACE approaches the client meeting environment with a distinctive level of spatial choreography, employing variations in scale, light, and enclosure to establish a sense of progression prior to the consultation.\n\n\nThe most prominent architectural feature is a jet-black passage, inspired by the letter “D.” However, its significance transcends mere corporate symbolism. Situated between the luminous public entrance and the more secluded interior, this passage momentarily diminishes visual distance and compresses the user’s spatial perception. Consequently, the brand becomes a physical experience through movement before it is comprehended graphically.\n\n\nThis moment of darkness fundamentally alters the perception of subsequent spaces. SPACE designates the following area as the “Corridor of Light,” where the interior once again opens towards the Bancho streetscape. The reintroduction of daylight and the outside view becomes markedly more impactful due to the preceding enclosure, allowing light to play a critical role in the pacing of the appointment and facilitating a transition from arrival to a more serene and private state.\n\n\nThe selection of materials effectively supports this progression without competing for attention. Glossy dark surfaces enhance reflections within the compressed passage, while pale stone, white walls, and translucent curtains temper the brightness in other areas. In the meeting rooms, the incorporation of timber, deeper carpeting, and focused lighting brings the scale closer to the table and the conversations that occur around it. Curvilinear forms recur throughout the openings and ceiling structures, fostering continuity without overtly emphasizing the company’s initials.\n\n\nThis project advances beyond a mere exercise in branding. SPACE utilizes identity as an organizing principle, subsequently allowing it to recede into the background. Visitors are likely to remember the shift in atmosphere more vividly than the literal form of the \"D.\" This deliberate restraint confers upon the salon a character that is commensurate with a business centred on making personal, financial, and often long-term decisions.\n\n\nDAIKYO ANABUKI FUDOSAN Bancho Residence Salon is fundamentally an environment designed to enhance the moments surrounding discussions. SPACE CO., LTD. renders these moments visible through architecture: the brief withdrawal from the city, the reintegration of light, and the gradual refinement of focus prior to the commencement of the meeting.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/daikyoanabukifudosan-banchoresidencesalon-designedby-spacecoltd", "Official Company Website": "https://www.space-tokyo.co.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000049.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000050", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100062", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Samsonite BLACK LABEL Ginza", "metadata": { "Project": "Samsonite BLACK LABEL Ginza", "Location": "Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Retail Design / Luxury Flagship Store", "Designer/company": "SPACE CO., LTD.", "Additional credits": "Direction and project management: Hajime Misumi; design: Hajime Misumi and Yuri Ishimura; creation and construction: Tatsuya Doi and Keiju Taya", "Client/collaborators": "Samsonite Japan Co., Ltd.", "Completion": "27 June 2025", "Area": "Largest Samsonite Black Label flagship in Asia", "Photographer": "Kenji Masunaga / masphoto" }, "excerpt": "How do you localize a global icon in the heart of Tokyo? The Samsonite Black Label Ginza flagship by SPACE CO., LTD. redefines luxury retail, merging high-performance industrial metalwork with tranquil Japanese Zen garden aesthetics. Discover this award-winning fusion of heritage and innovation.", "editorial": "Ginza values more than just size when it comes to brands. While global companies may present large flagship stores and familiar logos, the district seeks a deeper connection: a true understanding of the significance of their chosen location. For Samsonite Black Label, this challenge is particularly intriguing. The brand has spent over a century creating products for travel, movement, and returning home. Its largest flagship store in Asia now stands in a Tokyo neighbourhood characterized by permanence, tradition, and meticulous attention to detail. SPACE CO., LTD. has creatively utilized this contrast to shape the store's distinctive character.\nThe project embraces a flexible interpretation of Japanese themes. Its references are well-known, yet they serve practical purposes within the store. The façade, inspired by shoji screens, gracefully manages the connection with the street. At the entrance, the Samsonite swirl exudes a sense of presence, akin to a crest. Inside, a garden provides a serene contrast to a brand that celebrates constant movement. This flagship store highlights the deeper significance behind retail design. Travel is often celebrated for its speed, freedom, and novelty, but much of its emotional significance lies in the preparation involved. Choosing a suitcase becomes an exciting part of the journey: envisioning the adventures ahead, selecting the essentials to carry, and welcoming the suitcase's marks and memories.\nSPACE has designed the store to reflect the tension between precision and real-world experience. Samsonite luggage is engineered to withstand the controlled environments of airports, train stations, and hotels. However, once it is purchased, the luggage enters a far less predictable life, characterized by delays, unpredictable weather, crowded platforms, and constant handling. The store's interior harmonizes these two conditions. The bent metalwork symbolizes manufacturing accuracy, while the use of timber, washi paper, and plants introduces elements that are appreciated for their texture, variation, and age. This contrast provides the products with an appropriate setting without transforming the store into a mere decorative display of Japanese craftsmanship.\nAt the center of the store, a garden creates a pause in the commercial hustle of Ginza. It allows visitors to view the luggage from a distance, giving them time to appreciate the items beyond their specifications. This design choice makes the store feel calmer while still fulfilling its commercial purpose. Light gradually shifts across the metal, wood, and paper surfaces of the flagship store, giving it a unique presence that changes throughout the day. This subtle transformation complements a district that is familiar through repeated visits, where storefronts are experienced in daylight, after work, and late into the evening.\nFor an international brand, effective localization often results in a collection of recognizable symbols. However, this project embraces a more nuanced approach. Influenced by Japanese culture, it effectively shapes the arrival experience, pacing, and overall atmosphere while preserving Samsonite's distinctive identity. The outcome is a travel store that prioritizes stillness. In Ginza, the Samsonite Black Label is prominently displayed just before departure, encapsulating the anticipation of travel when movement is still a concept and the journey has yet to commence.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/samsonite-black-label-ginza-designed-by-space-co-ltd-japan", "Official Company Website": "https://www.space-tokyo.co.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000050.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000051", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100065", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "ESR Yokohama Sachiura DC3 R:Lounge / Façade", "metadata": { "Project": "ESR Yokohama Sachiura DC3 R:Lounge / Façade", "Location": "Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan", "Project type": "Architecture — Logistics Facility / Façade and Shared Employee Lounge", "Designer/company": "TAKATO TAMAGAMI ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN Ltd.", "Additional credits": "Façade, break lounge and shared-space design", "Client/collaborators": "ESR Co., Ltd.", "Completion": "28 February 2025", "Area": "Part of a 330,000 m² logistics redevelopment", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Takato Tamagami transforms the ESR Yokohama Sachiura DC3 warehouse by contrasting sweeping ribbon façades with a panoramic glass lounge that suspends workers above Tokyo Bay. This project redefines the logistics facility as an active, human-centred landmark.", "editorial": "A distribution center is often not seen as a place of comfort; it is primarily focused on facilitating logistics, with countless goods moving through areas that most people will never see. However, every delivery relies on employees spending long hours inside these vast buildings. At ESR Yokohama Sachiura DC3, the most notable aspect of the project is a space where workers can briefly escape that intense environment.\nDC3 represents the third phase of ESR’s redevelopment of a former Mitsubishi Heavy Industries site in Yokohama, covering approximately 330,000 square meters and operating on an immense industrial scale. ESR describes its approach as \"Human-Centric Design,\" which prioritizes the quality of the working environment alongside the practical demands of logistics. TAKATO TAMAGAMI ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN was responsible for the façade and shared employee areas, including a break lounge and a daycare facility.\nThe building is characterized by long, ribbon-like forms that extend across its façade. These folded shapes evoke the movement of goods within the logistics network as well as the waves and winds of the nearby Tokyo Bay. They create a sense of motion in a structure that might otherwise appear as a single, massive, enclosed volume. A similar design language is evident in the neighbouring DC1, which was completed in 2022. However, the two buildings exhibit distinct personalities. DC1 features softer curves, while DC3 showcases sharper folds and bolder edges. Together, they create a striking entrance to the larger development. The architects liken them to the A-un guardians traditionally found on either side of a Japanese gateway.\nThe visual identity of logistics buildings is important, as they occupy an increasingly large share of urban land while remaining largely unnoticed by the public. The folded façades of the Yokohama development provide a distinct presence for people travelling along the nearby roads and through the port district. Additionally, these designs connect the industrial site to the waterfront.\nInside the top-floor lounge, the experience changes dramatically. In the northeast corner of the building, it appears that part of the solid warehouse has been cut away and replaced with a polygonal glass room. This opening allows the overwhelming scale of the distribution center to fade into the background, revealing the expanse of Tokyo Bay on the horizon. With little of the ground visible from the windows, the lounge feels reminiscent of the upper deck of a large passenger ship. Custom counters and benches mimic the movement of waves, bringing the essence of the bay into the space. This lounge offers employees natural light, an open view, and a peaceful area to relax, away from the machinery and the repetitive tasks of the working floors below.\nFor someone enduring a long shift, a change of scenery can be quite significant. A lunch break transforms into an opportunity to observe the weather moving across the water, converse with colleagues, or gaze into the distance. The glass lounge provides a temporary sense of space within a workplace characterized by constant activity. Additionally, the glass lounge alters how the building is perceived from the outside. Light and human activity become visible at the corner of the expansive warehouse, demonstrating that the facility houses more than just goods, vehicles, and machinery. It is a workplace where individuals, whose daily experiences deserve recognition, contribute.\nThe daycare facility further emphasizes that supporting employees extends beyond the operational floor; it also entails creating the conditions for them to remain in the workplace over time. Comfort, rest, and family life are vital components of the building's overall infrastructure.ESR Yokohama Sachiura DC3 showcases two perspectives on contemporary logistics. From the city, its flowing shapes convey the speed and scale of an industry that influences everyday life. In contrast, from the lounge area, the same waterfront is experienced in a more tranquil way. Enhanced by sunlight and water, it provides a moment of respite from work.\nMost consumers will never set foot in the distribution centers responsible for their online orders and next-day deliveries. This project serves as a reminder that such conveniences are made possible by the efforts of people working within these remarkably large buildings. Its most human touch is a room overlooking Tokyo Bay, where the fast pace of logistics can momentarily yield to the sea's slower rhythm.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-final-shortlisted-architecture/esr-yokohama-sachiura-dc3-designed-by-takato-tamagami-architectural", "Official Company Website": "https://takatotamagami.net/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000051.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000052", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100066", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "RYUOO MOUNTAIN RESORT SORA Stairway", "metadata": { "Project": "RYUOO MOUNTAIN RESORT SORA Stairway", "Location": "Ryuoo Mountain Resort, Nagano, Japan", "Project type": "Architecture — Observation Structure / Mountain Tourism", "Designer/company": "TAKATO TAMAGAMI ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN Ltd.", "Additional credits": "Developed with structural engineers, a local contractor and a metal fabrication firm", "Client/collaborators": "Ryuoo Mountain Resort", "Completion": "7 July 2025", "Area": "Summit elevation 1,770 m", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "The SORA Stairway reimagines the summit experience, transforming a 1,770m mountain ascent into a gravity-defying architectural odyssey. Designed by Takato Tamagami, this spiral observation deck at Ryuoo Mountain Resort blends structural innovation with panoramic sea-of-clouds vistas, setting a new benchmark for mountain tourism design.", "editorial": "Mountain viewpoints often condense the landscape into a single moment: arrive, take in the view, photograph it, and leave. However, at Ryuoo Mountain Resort, the SORA Stairway transforms this moment into an experience filled with anticipation and rhythm. Instead of simply viewing the summit from a platform, visitors reach it by climbing, which gradually alters their relationship with the mountain, the sky, and the surrounding heights.\nSituated 1,770 meters above sea level, this structure is part of Ryuoo Mountain Resort's plan to redefine its identity beyond just a winter destination. The summit is renowned for the sea of clouds that often gathers below, and the resort is working to create new attractions that encourage visitors to return during the warmer months. The SORA Stairway allows visitors to engage with this natural phenomenon in a way that can only be truly appreciated by physically moving through it.\n The client envisioned an observation tower that would evoke the imaginative essence of the beanstalk from \"Jack and the Beanstalk.\" TAKATO TAMAGAMI ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN translated this familiar image into a spiral staircase that appears to wrap around a central trunk. This design provides the climb with a quiet sense of adventure while keeping the structure open enough for visitors to fully appreciate the mountain's beauty.\nThe experience begins with a narrow bridge across the steep terrain. This short crossing marks a clear departure from the resort's everyday circulation. Ahead, the stair rises around its central column; beyond it, the summit opens to weather, distance and sky.\nThe first steps remain close to the column, giving climbers a stable point of reference. Higher up, the spiral begins to widen. The risers gradually disappear, more of the landscape enters the gaps between the steps, and the climber becomes increasingly aware of the open air.\nThis changing geometry gives the ascent its emotional character. The feeling of exposure does not arrive suddenly. It develops with each turn as the stair moves further from its support and the ground becomes less visually present. Curiosity slowly gives way to exhilaration.\nFor visitors, this journey provides a personal viewing experience. Children might be reminded of the fairy-tale image of a beanstalk, while others may concentrate on the thrill of climbing above the mountain's edge. Although everyone follows the same path to the summit, the changing clouds, light, and wind guarantee that no two ascents are experienced in exactly the same way.\nAt the top, a semicircular landing opens up to the surrounding ridges. When conditions are favourable, a sea of clouds stretches below, giving the impression that the mountain is floating above a second horizon. Visitors find themselves suspended between solid ground and shifting weather, with a vast landscape extending beyond the stair itself.\nThe structure's lightness is key to this experience. Its narrow frame allows the sky to remain visible through the stairs, while the spiral serves as a dynamic line against the mountain. People climbing, pausing, and gazing outward become part of the landscape's ever-changing beauty.\nThough the experience seems simple, the construction was complex. With no roads to the summit, all structural components had to be transported via a gondola. The size and weight of these elements were dictated by the gondola, the steep slope, and the lack of lifting equipment.\nFrom the beginning, architects, structural engineers, local contractors, and metal fabricators collaborated to break the stair into manageable parts that could be safely produced, transported, and assembled. The site's constraints seamlessly informed the design, allowing the organic spiral to maintain its buildable logic without compromising its sense of movement.\nSORA Stairway offers visitors more than just a scenic viewpoint; it heightens awareness of the journey to the vista. From the initial narrow crossing to the supportive central column, the widening spiral, and the final release into the sky, the experience becomes a memory shaped by movement, anticipation, and the unique atmosphere of that day. For Ryuoo Mountain Resort, it adds an attraction that draws visitors beyond the winter season.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-final-shortlisted-architecture/ryuoomountainresort-sora-stairway-by-takato-tamagami-architectural-design-ltd", "Official Company Website": "https://takatotamagami.net/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000052.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000053", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100067", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "LaLa arena TOKYO-BAY Chiba Jets Locker Room", "metadata": { "Project": "LaLa arena TOKYO-BAY Chiba Jets Locker Room", "Location": "Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan", "Project type": "Professional basketball locker room", "Designer/company": "CLOCK Co., Ltd", "Client/collaborators": "Chiba Jets", "Completion": "2024" }, "excerpt": "CLOCK Co., Ltd. provides exceptional performance architecture for the Chiba Jets, using circular timber geometry and calibrated lighting to transform the locker room into a strategic engine for mental mastery.", "editorial": "A professional locker room occupies a distinctive position within the architectural and spatial design of sport. It serves as a component of the arena while simultaneously existing outside the public spectacle; it is a space where the team's public image momentarily yields to preparation, dialogue, and focus. For the Chiba Jets at LaLa arena TOKYO-BAY, CLOCK Co., Ltd. has approached this transitional space with considerable restraint, crafting a design characterized by proportion, repetition, and material consistency rather than overt theatricality.\nThe layout is organized around a spacious central area, with individual locker stations positioned along the perimeter in a continuous curve. This design feature significantly contributes to the room's overall character. Players maintain distinct positions while remaining visually connected across the space, thereby establishing a sense of collective presence without imposing a rigid hierarchy. Black high-backed chairs are arranged against the timber joinery in a measured manner, while the pale floor ensures the center remains open for movement, discussions, and team briefings. Collectively, these elements convey a clear design centered around a shared focus.\nCLOCK’s incorporation of timber adds both weight and warmth to the design. Vertical locker bays, shelves, benches, and wall surfaces are unified as a single continuous language, allowing the architectural and spatial design to recede behind the rituals that occur within. The detailing remains notably understated. Rounded edges soften the joinery, concealed lighting illuminates the lower shelves, and the grain of the wood is prominently visible throughout. These design choices introduce a degree of domestic familiarity into a highly specialized sporting environment without compromising its inherent sense of discipline.\nThe ceiling serves as the most prominent architectural expression of the room. Linear timber battens extend across the surface in tightly controlled bands, interrupted at the center by the angular form of the Chiba Jets emblem. This graphic element is integrated into the construction rather than merely affixed as a sign. Observed from below, the dark negative space accentuates the geometry of the emblem while allowing the surrounding timber to command attention. The result is a ceiling that possesses both depth and orientation, guiding the eye toward the center of the room.\nA corresponding emblem occupies the floor beneath, featuring a saturated red that contrasts with the surrounding neutral field, thus enhancing the visual authority of the team colour through concentration. This decision is one of the project's more effective choices. Branding is judiciously present where necessary—on the chairs, within the ceiling, and at the center of the floor—without overwhelming the architectural design. The team identity emerges through strategic placement and scale rather than through repetitive colour use.\nThis restraint is particularly significant in a room designed for athletes on the verge of competition. CLOCK's original brief emphasizes emotional control as a fundamental aspect of performance, and the interior embodies this concept. The use of timber, low-contrast surfaces, and warm, localized lighting mitigates the visual intensity often associated with professional sports facilities. Although the environment is distinctly connected to the Chiba Jets, it conveys a composed and measured atmosphere. The architectural and spatial design allows for sufficient quiet, enabling the occupants to introduce their own energy into the space.\nThe locker room also accommodates both individual and collective use. Players change, prepare, and gather before games and during halftime; coaches require a setting in which they can address the group as a cohesive unit. The perimeter arrangement supports these personal routines without fragmenting the team spatially. The open center remains available for discussion and movement, while the curvature fosters focused attention within the room. There is no overt front until the group dynamically creates one.\nThe persuasive quality of this project lies in the alignment between its conceptual framework and its physical execution. The notion of mental composure is not merely represented through decorative symbols; rather, it is articulated through the spatial arrangement, level of illumination, limited colour palette, and controlled distribution of graphic identity. CLOCK refers to the room as \"psychological infrastructure,\" a term that is particularly appropriate. The design does not seek to manufacture competitive intensity; instead, it establishes a stable environment in which such intensity can be gathered, managed, and ultimately realized on the court.\nAt LaLa arena TOKYO-BAY, the locker room exemplifies how team identity can be spatially articulated without becoming overtly promotional. Timber ensures continuity; the circular organization establishes a sense of collective order; and the Chiba Jets emblem anchors the room from both above and below. The architectural and spatial design is sufficiently confident to remain subdued. In a sporting culture frequently characterized by noise, speed, and visual impact, this restraint constitutes the project’s most significant expression.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/lalaarena-tokyobay-chibahetslockerroom-designedby-clock", "Official Company Website": "https://clocktyo.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000053.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000054", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100069", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Urban House in Tokyo", "metadata": { "Project": "Urban House in Tokyo", "Location": "Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Residential Renovation", "Designer/company": "RON DESIGN Articious Co., Ltd", "Client/collaborators": "Not specified in supplied source", "Completion": "3 December 2025" }, "excerpt": "RON DESIGN turns a 40-year-old concrete house into a Tokyo base for a life in motion, pairing a luminous upper-floor salon with an immersive bar and sleeping retreat below.", "editorial": "Tokyo has long been a city where permanence is measured less by age than by meaning. Buildings are altered, replaced and absorbed into the next chapter of urban life, while the memories attached to them continue to shape how the city is understood. Urban House in Tokyo enters this condition with quiet confidence. RON DESIGN and Articious Co., Ltd. have renovated a 40-year-old reinforced-concrete residence into a home for someone whose daily life spans countries, cultures, and time zones, creating a place that offers consistency without feeling fixed.\nThe project is rooted in a distinctly contemporary idea of home. For its owner, Tokyo is both a point of return and one city within a wider personal geography. The design does not reproduce the visual language of Paris, New York or any other familiar destination. Travel is present through memory, mood and the accumulated culture of objects. A piece of furniture, the quality of light or the intimacy of a late-night bar may call another city to mind, yet these associations remain personal and unforced. The house becomes a setting in which different places can coexist through experience.\nThis sensibility is supported by a careful reworking of the existing architecture. The design team removed layers of compartmentalization and read the plan, section, structure and building services as a single composition. On the upper floor, former bedrooms and a bathroom were opened to form a generous living, dining and kitchen space. Light and views now define the house's social life, while the exposed ceiling volume gives the original concrete frame a clearer presence. Services were coordinated around the existing beams with precision, allowing technical requirements to sit comfortably within the architectural language.\nAs the house descends, its tempo slows and becomes more private. Four bedrooms and associated facilities accommodate the changing patterns of daily life, from solitary routines to visits from friends and guests. Furniture, lighting and textiles sourced in Japan and overseas bring another layer of cultural exchange, selected not as decoration but in response to movement, use and atmosphere. In the basement, a bar and sleeping area create a more intimate world shaped by low light, tactile surfaces and the social rituals of conversation, music and retreat.\nUrban House in Tokyo is ultimately a study of how architecture can hold a life that is always moving. Its value lies not only in preserving an existing concrete structure but also in how the design reconnects people with place. The house carries the density of Tokyo, the cultural impressions of travel, and the comfort of familiar objects within a single continuous interior landscape. It is a home designed for departure and return, grounded in the city while remaining open to the world.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/urban-house-in-tokyo-designed-by-ron-design-articious-co-ltd", "Official Company Website": "https://ron-design.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000054.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000055", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010007", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "BRANZ Mega Kuningan & Swissôtel Living Jakarta Mega Kuningan", "metadata": { "Project": "BRANZ Mega Kuningan & Swissôtel Living Jakarta Mega Kuningan", "Location": "Mega Kuningan, Jakarta, Indonesia", "Project type": "Interior Design — Hotel and Resort / Mixed-use Condominium and Serviced Apartments", "Designer/company": "FIELD FOUR DESIGN OFFICE", "Client/brands": "Tokyu Land Corporation / BRANZ; Swissôtel Living / Accor", "Completion": "31 March 2025" }, "excerpt": "FIELD FOUR DESIGN OFFICE transforms Jakarta’s Mega Kuningan skyline with BRANZ Mega Kuningan and Swissôtel Living. This mixed-use project redefines urban luxury through a sophisticated sequence of planted terraces, vertical louvres, and tactile plaster interiors, establishing a seamless, serene transition between the bustling commercial district and private residential sanctuary.", "editorial": "In Jakarta, the journey home often begins long before reaching the front door. The city's traffic, commercial density, and vast scale are ever-present as residents transition from the street into the tower. At BRANZ Mega Kuningan and Swissôtel Living, FIELD FOUR DESIGN OFFICE has designed this transition to be part of daily life, creating a gradual shift from the bustling business district to a calmer residential environment. This mixed-use development brings together two distinct forms of urban living. One tower houses the BRANZ condominium residences by Tokyu Land Corporation, while the other is occupied by Swissôtel Living, managed by Accor. Although these two addresses cater to different residents, they share a landscape-oriented entry experience characterized by greenery, screened views, and a thoughtful sequence of spaces.\nThe project’s “Urban Oasis” is revealed through movement. Greenery initially appears in glimpses and becomes more prominent as residents and guests move deeper inside. Vertical louvres soften direct views, passages fluctuate between narrow and wide, and changes in scale slow the pace of arrival. The city remains close, yet its intensity diminishes.\nFIELD FOUR draws on a material familiarity shared by the domestic cultures of Japan and Indonesia. Using wood, earth-toned plaster, stone, and planting, the interiors exude warmth without relying on decorative elements. The connection between these two cultures is conveyed through texture, shadow, and proportion, allowing the spaces to feel rooted in both traditions while firmly situated in contemporary Jakarta. The vertical louvres play a crucial role in creating this atmosphere. They provide privacy without complete separation, allowing light and movement to remain visible throughout the interior. As residents pass by daily, these surfaces appear solid, transparent, or layered depending on one’s viewpoint, giving the shared spaces a dynamic character.\nThe journey culminates at the eleventh-floor Sky Lobby, where the two towers converge around a planted pool. This elevated area houses the condominium and serviced-apartment lobbies, restaurant, and gym, creating a shared central space between the buildings. Water, vegetation, and open sky contribute to a sense of release from the towers 'enclosed environment. For residents, the garden becomes part of the daily commute home. For guests, it serves as an immediate introduction to the essence of the address. People can wait, meet, dine, or pass through while remaining visually linked to the landscape. The amenities are integrated into the building's life, rather than being hidden away down corridors.\nMirrored columns along the perimeter reflect snippets of water, greenery, and shifting daylight. These surfaces minimize the structure's visual weight and allow the atmosphere to evolve throughout the day. In the evening, warmer lighting enhances the intimacy of the seating areas while the plantings remain visible against the illuminated interiors. The condominium and serviced residences maintain their unique identities. Shared materials and landscaping foster a sense of belonging to the same development, while variations in enclosure, furniture, and atmosphere cater to both permanent residents and short-stay guests. The two experiences remain connected without merging into one another.\nBRANZ Mega Kuningan and Swissôtel Living present an urban retreat that facilitates a daily transition. FIELD FOUR DESIGN OFFICE has crafted a space where residents and guests can gradually leave the rapid pace of Jakarta behind, moving through shade, texture, and landscape before finally arriving at the comfort of home. The project’s sense of luxury arises from this change of pace: a few thoughtfully composed moments between city life and domestic tranquillity.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/2026/7/22/branz-mega-kuningan-swisstel-living-jakarta-mega-kuningan-designed-by-field-four-design-office-japan", "Official Company Website": "https://www.field4.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000055.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000056", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100070", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Yamato Headquarters Building A, Building B designed by NIKKEN SEKKEI LTD, KAJIMA DESIGN, KOIZUMI LIGHTING TECHNOLOGY CORP, Matt & Massimo (Japan)", "metadata": { "Project": "Yamato Headquarters Building A, Building B designed by NIKKEN SEKKEI LTD, KAJIMA DESIGN, KOIZUMI LIGHTING TECHNOLOGY CORP, Matt & Massimo (Japan)", "Location": "Japan", "Project type": "Architecture / Interior Design / Lighting Design — Corporate Headquarters", "Designer/company": "NIKKEN SEKKEI LTD / KAJIMA DESIGN", "Lighting collaborator": "NIKKEN SEKKEI LTD: Yukihiro Imamura\nKAJIMA DESIGN: Ryotaro Ikeda\nKOIZUMI LIGHTING TECHNOLOGY CORP: Kotaro Kawano\nMatt & Massimo: Keita Mashino\nMatt & Massimo (https://matt-massimo.com/)", "Client/collaborators": "Yamato Holdings\nMatt & Massimo — Keita Mashino", "Completion": "2025" }, "excerpt": "Yamato’s centenary headquarters by NIKKEN SEKKEI and KAJIMA DESIGN sets a global benchmark for the post-pandemic office, blending sustainable timber architecture with personalized, NFC-controlled environments that redefine why we commute.", "editorial": "The daily commute has become a choice that every headquarters must justify. Employees already know that concentration, administration and online meetings can take place at home. What brings people back is the experience of working together: the exchange of knowledge, the energy of a shared purpose, and the freedom to switch between collaboration and solitude.\nYamato's new headquarters addresses an important question at a pivotal moment in the company's history. Completed in time for its centenary, Buildings A and B embody a culture centred on circulation, connection, and the everyday movement of life across Japan. Designed by NIKKEN SEKKEI and KAJIMA DESIGN, the campus has been created as a workplace where employees can directly experience those values.\nA road separates the site, creating two distinct plots for the buildings. However, their shared timber architecture establishes a collective identity, bridging the physical distance. The deep eaves, repetitive structural lines, and warm surfaces contribute to a cohesive presence within the city. Employees moving between the buildings remain part of the same work environment, transforming their journey across the site into a continual expression of connection.\nTimber gives the headquarters a character that feels more welcoming and human than like a corporate spectacle. Its grain shifts with the changing daylight, while its structural depth creates interesting shadows on the façades. The illuminated eaves contribute to a serene presence in the evening. For a national logistics company, this material conveys a sense of responsibility and permanence, all within an architecture that remains approachable and relatable to daily work.\nEmployees are encouraged to choose how they spend each part of their day. The tiered floors create a diverse landscape featuring open areas, lower seating, benches, counters, and gathering spaces for teams.\nThe design of the space enhances the social value of the journey to headquarters. By keeping teams visible across various levels, informal conversations can easily occur in circulation areas, while larger spaces provide familiar settings for collective activities. This architectural layout makes the organization more perceptible, helping employees see how their work fits within a broader network of colleagues.\nNatural light enhances the connection to time and place within the workspace. The building's stepped design allows daylight to reach deeper areas, creating a dynamic environment that evolves throughout the day as the sun moves. Employees can remain aware of the outside world without focusing solely on their screens and desks, while the building effectively reduces the need for artificial lighting during daylight hours.\nYamato’s field-control system adds a personal touch to this collective environment. Using NFC technology, it identifies where an employee has chosen to work, allowing nearby lighting and airflow to adjust via a user interface. This system recognizes that individuals experience temperature, brightness, and focus differently, allowing comfort to follow them across a flexible office layout.\nAdditionally, the lighting shifts from morning to evening in harmony with the circadian rhythm, providing a sense of progression throughout the workday. This transition moves from the clarity of morning to a softer ambiance later in the day. The integration of environmental technology supports personal well-being, granting employees a visible degree of control within a large shared workplace.\nThe value of the project lies in the relationship between these two forms of choice. Architecture offers different social and spatial conditions across the floor. Technology adjusts the immediate environment around the body. Employees can choose where to work and shape how that place feels, striking a balance between individual preferences and collective life.\nThis approach reflects a broader cultural shift in the perception of the office. Attendance is no longer solely defined by being present at an assigned desk. The workplace should provide experiences that support individuals throughout their day; whether it’s meeting a colleague, collaborating with a team, finding a quiet spot, adjusting the lighting, or feeling connected to an organization with a unified direction.\nThe concept holds particular significance for Yamato, as its operations depend on a vast network of relationships among people, businesses, and cities. The headquarters embodies this network through two connected buildings, diverse workspaces, and environmental systems tailored to meet each employee's needs.\nAs the company celebrates its centenary, the focus shifts to cultivating a culture for the future of work. Designed by NIKKEN SEKKEI and KAJIMA DESIGN, the headquarters encourages collaboration among employees while honouring the autonomy that flexible working arrangements provide. This new chapter begins with a workplace that emphasizes movement, comfort, and the intrinsic value of camaraderie.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/yamatobuildingaandb-nikkensekkeiandkajima", "Official Company Website": "https://www.nikken.co.jp/en/", "Collaborating Company Website": "https://www.kajima.co.jp/english/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000056.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000057", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100071", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Mitsui Garden Hotel Sendai Renewal", "metadata": { "Project": "Mitsui Garden Hotel Sendai Renewal", "Location": "Sendai, Miyagi, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Hotel and Resort", "Designer/company": "SPACE CO., LTD. / Yuta Hoshi", "Client/collaborators": "Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.", "Opening date": "14 June 2025" }, "excerpt": "SPACE CO., LTD. has completed a comprehensive interior renovation of the Mitsui Garden Hotel Sendai, which features biophilic design, dynamic lighting systems, and water-inspired architecture. This hospitality project, set to be finished in 2025, updates urban hotel standards in Sendai, Japan.", "editorial": "Mitsui Garden Hotel Sendai is deeply influenced by Sendai's identity as the City of Trees. After sixteen years in operation, the hotel has undergone a renovation by SPACE CO., LTD. that integrates this natural character into the guest experience through thoughtful landscaping, filtered light, and water features. This aligns with Mitsui Garden Hotels' broader “Stay in the Garden” philosophy.\n \nThe renovation concept, “Light Place,” draws inspiration from the outdoor ambiance of Sendai. On streets such as Jozenji-dori, sunlight filters through the canopies of zelkova trees, creating intricate patterns on the pavement. SPACE translates this experience into the hotel through dynamic lighting, reflective elements, and carefully positioned greenery.\n \nThe lobby is where this concept is most prominently showcased. Layers of lush planting create depth around the arrival area, while expansive windows keep guests connected to the city outside. Seating is thoughtfully distributed among the greenery, allowing the public space to have a gentle rhythm that shifts throughout the day as natural and artificial light change.\n \nBehind the reception desk, a dark perforated screen reflects the dappled light found beneath the trees in Sendai. This theme continues through the hotel’s circulation areas, where discreet lighting highlights blue-toned artwork, linking the lobby to the guest floors visually and thematically.\n \nIn the guestrooms, a more subdued approach is taken. Warm timber, light surfaces, and muted blue-grey tones create a calm and inviting atmosphere. Subtle leaf-like designs and indirect lighting reinforce the garden theme on an intimate scale. The ambiance and colour palette ensure that the rooms remain restful and easy to inhabit.\n \nWater features play a central role in the public bathing areas. Warm and cool lighting lend distinct moods to each space, while illuminated wall panels mimic the effects of light on water, creating a sense of movement and reflection. The adjacent grooming and waiting areas continue this design language, incorporating plants, comfortable seating, and warm light to enhance the overall experience.\n \nThis interplay of trees, light, and water provides a distinct regional identity across multiple areas of the hotel. The design references are varied enough to cater to different functions arrival, circulation, sleeping, and bathing ensuring continuity while avoiding a homogeneous look.\n \nThe renewal of Mitsui Garden Hotel Sendai reflects the evolving expectations of urban guests. In addition to practical comfort, the revitalized public spaces now offer a stronger sense of place and a more restorative atmosphere amid a busy schedule of appointments and sightseeing.\n \nThe Mitsui Garden Hotel Sendai Renewal weaves the essence of the City of Trees into the fabric of its hospitality experience. Through a thoughtful blend of light, planting, water, and materials, SPACE CO., LTD. has fostered a renewed connection to Sendai while preserving the comfort and familiarity that guests expect from a well-established property.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/mitsui-garden-hotel-sendai-renewal-designed-by-space-co-ltd-japan", "Official Company Website": "https://www.space-tokyo.co.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000057.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000058", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100073", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "YAMAHA MUSIC YOKOHAMA MINATOMIRAI", "metadata": { "Project": "YAMAHA MUSIC YOKOHAMA MINATOMIRAI", "Location": "Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Lighting Design / Experiential Music Retail", "Designer/company": "LCR, KOIZUMI Lighting Technology Corp.", "Client/collaborators": "Yamaha Music", "Completion": "5 June 2024" }, "excerpt": "Yamaha Music Yokohama Minatomirai features a 100-meter lighting installation by Koizumi. The installation utilizes 1/f wave patterns to create a dynamic and rhythmic environment designed for an experiential music retail experience.", "editorial": "At Yamaha Music Yokohama Minatomirai, lighting is essential for how the environment conveys music. The design, created by LCR, KOIZUMI Lighting Technology Corp., is inspired by the 1/f fluctuation concept, a pattern found in natural elements like ripples, wind, and starlight, where stability and variety coexist harmoniously.\n \nThis idea perfectly complements Yamaha’s philosophy. Music depends on rhythm, repetition, and pauses, yet it remains expressive because these aspects are never entirely mechanical. The lighting in this venue reflects that principle, establishing a visual tempo that can be sensed even before any instrument is played.\n \nA sequence of white louvers extends roughly 100 meters throughout the interior, above the music lounge, café, and other public spaces. Their curved shapes create an uninterrupted flow across this large commercial area while allowing enough depth for a more complex lighting arrangement.\n \nThe downlights are carefully placed based on overlapping waveforms that stem from natural 1/f rhythms. Their spacing subtly varies across the ceiling, resulting in a composition that feels unified without adhering to a conventional retail design. Viewed from below, the lights appear like scattered musical notes instead of simply repeated fixtures.\n \nBeneath this visual simplicity lies significant technical complexity. The team modelled the ceiling and the placement of lights in three dimensions, testing the rhythm against the practical requirements for instrument displays, movement, seating, and visual comfort. Modifications were made whenever the spatial design required greater accuracy. This interaction between calculation and design intuition imparts character to the project. The numerical framework establishes the rhythm’s foundation, while the placement of lights reacts to how people navigate through the area and interact with the instruments.\n \nIn the music lounge, curved seating arrangements position instruments conveniently, fostering a more casual relationship with sound. A large digital artwork acts as a visual centrepiece, while the ceiling preserves the same fluctuating rhythm overhead. The café mirrors this design language through tables and counters, establishing a cohesive visual identity for both hospitality and music retail.\n \nThe illuminated ceiling also enhances the building's visibility at night. Through the glazed façade of Yokohama Symphostage, the long line of louvers and dispersed light gives Yamaha Music a unique prominence from the street, connecting the activities inside with the larger Minatomirai district.\n \nAt Yamaha Music Yokohama Minatomirai, the 1/f principle shifts from scientific observation to an everyday cultural context. LCR, KOIZUMI Lighting Technology Corp. employs it to shape the ceiling's rhythm, light distribution, and how visitors engage with music, gathering, and exploration within the same environment.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/yamaha-music-yokohama-minatomirai-interior-lighting-designed-by-lcr-koizumi-lighting-technology-corp-japan", "Official Company Website": "https://koizumi-lt-global.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000058.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000059", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100075", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "TAIZA AWAI-CLUB SHIROSHIMA VILLA", "metadata": { "Project": "TAIZA AWAI-CLUB SHIROSHIMA VILLA", "Location": "Shiroshima, Taiza, Kyotango, Kyoto, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Hotel and Resort / Ryokan", "Designer/company": "supermaniac inc. / Nobuaki Suzuki", "Direction": "Akitoshi Imafuku, supermaniac inc.", "Client/collaborators": "Sumihei Taiza Awai-Club", "Completion": "1 July 2025" }, "excerpt": "Discover 'Primitive Luxury' at TAIZA AWAI-CLUB SHIROSHIMA VILLA by supermaniac inc. This exclusive Japanese ryokan retreat blends minimalist architecture with the raw beauty of the Kyoto sea.", "editorial": "Shiroshima is a small island off the coast of Taiza in Kyotango, separated from the mainland by water and a narrow passage. This island has long been considered a sacred place, imbuing it with a rich cultural and spiritual significance. Any hospitality project established here must be designed with sensitivity to the landscape and aim to provide guests with a meaningful experience.\nTAIZA AWAI-CLUB SHIROSHIMA VILLA consists of two accommodation buildings, Mizu Yadoru and Hi Yadoru, designed by Nobuaki Suzuki of supermaniac inc. Together, these buildings exemplify the concept of \"Primitive Luxury,\" focusing on time, privacy, and a close relationship with nature. This evolving interpretation of luxury highlights the contemporary traveller's desire to slow down, revel in privacy, and engage mindfully with their surroundings. The rhythm of a stay at Shiroshima is dictated by the sea, weather, and changing daylight, allowing each guest's experience to resonate with the island itself.\nIn the architectural design, supermaniac inc. minimized the use of walls and columns to enhance connectivity to the environment, fulfilling privacy needs while maintaining a bond with nature. This strategy enables light, sea air, and the sound of water to flow freely throughout the interior spaces, allowing guests to stay linked to the island experience even indoors.\nMizu Yadoru is designed with an openness toward the sea, while Hi Yadoru offers a more sheltered atmosphere that promotes contemplation. This diversity in design allows guests to engage with the island through varying levels of light, enclosure, and view. Rooms in Mizu Yadoru provide a horizon view just steps from the bed. Timber latticework and shoji-like screens filter daylight, creating a seamless transition between the interior and exterior. The ambiance within shifts naturally throughout the day, as sunlight travels across the space. A prominent treasure-wheel motif behind the bed symbolizes gratitude to the ocean, reflecting Taiza's fishing heritage and serving as a visual focal point. Its natural texture complements the room’s overall material palette.\nConversely, Hi Yadoru promotes a more introspective experience, utilizing darker tones and exposed timber to enhance the sense of shelter. This design encourages guests to immerse themselves in the island's textures and subtleties before shifting their focus to the expansive landscape beyond. The contrast between the two buildings adds emotional depth to the retreat: Mizu Yadoru directs attention to the horizon and the dynamic sea, while Hi Yadoru envelops guests in tranquillity and safety. Both structures uphold an appreciation for natural materials and the island's unique character.\nShared living spaces feature low furniture that maintains a visual connection with the coastline. In a sunken seating area, guests gather around a low table, enjoying uninterrupted views of pine trees, rocks, and the open sea. This setting invites conversation, reflection, and a deeper engagement with the surrounding environment.\nThe dining area fosters a more intimate connection with the landscape. A long timber table sits beneath striking dark pendant lights, complemented by a glazed wall that opens outward. As day transitions to night, views shift from the sea's brightness to the island's rich hues and shadows. Timber, earthy plaster, woven screens, stone, and dark metals create a warm and textured interior, providing a stable refuge against the ever-changing conditions outside. These materials allow the elements- weather, season, and natural light to weave into the character of each room.\nThe understated scale of the buildings respects the interplay between architecture and landscape. Dark timber walls, sloped roofs, and carefully curated stone gardens allow the villas to integrate harmoniously among the existing pines. Aerial views reveal the coastline, rock formations, and tree canopy as defining features of Shiroshima. \"Primitive Luxury\" encapsulates an experience shaped by time, place, and sensory attentiveness. At the villa, comfort resides in privacy, silence, natural materials, and the unhurried observation of the sea. The architecture creates an environment in which these elements can be fully appreciated throughout the day.\nTAIZA AWAI-CLUB SHIROSHIMA VILLA offers guests a unique and respectful connection to one of Kyotango's coastal landscapes. Through Mizu Yadoru and Hi Yadoru, supermaniac inc. has created two complementary spaces that embody this vision.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/taiza-awai-club-shiroshima-villa-designed-by-supermaniac-inc", "Official Company Profile": "https://www.instagram.com/supermaniac_design" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000059.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000060", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100077", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Pure Semicircles", "metadata": { "Project": "Pure Semicircles", "Location": "Osaka, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Institution / Preparatory and Cram School", "Designer/company": "KTX archiLAB", "Client/collaborators": "Educational institution", "Completion": "31 January 2025" }, "excerpt": "KTX archiLAB transforms education in Osaka with Pure Semicircles, a high-performance cram school designed with custom window study counters, integrated biophilic privacy, and dynamic mirrored geometry to support digital-first learners.", "editorial": "For generations, juku, or cram schools, have played a significant role in the educational journey of Japanese students, serving as an intermediary between formal education and private study. However, the dynamics of student engagement within these institutions are undergoing transformation. At Pure Semicircles in Osaka, KTX archiLAB addresses a learning model increasingly reliant on laptops and tablets, which departs from the traditional arrangements of instructors, blackboards, and linear rows of desks. The spatial design reflects this paradigm shift, focusing on creating an environment conducive to concentration in an era characterized by individual, self-directed, screen-based learning.\n \nLocated on the fourth floor of a mixed-use building, the school effectively utilizes its perimeter. Extended counters positioned near the windows offer students individual workspaces bathed in natural light, while a larger double-sided table occupies the central area of the room. A planting feature traverses the space, providing a degree of separation among students without inducing isolation. The resulting layout creates a study environment in which privacy is achieved through strategic distance, orientation, and greenery rather than through conventional enclosed booths.\n \nThe project emphasizes the critical balance between concentration and comfort. Bright white walls and ceilings enhance the interior’s luminosity, yet KTX mitigates the visual intensity through the incorporation of timber blinds and substantial greenery. The vegetation is not merely ornamental; rather, it is integral to the organization of the learning space, softening sightlines between students and imbuing the environment associated with examination pressures with a more tranquil and domestic quality.\n \nThe title \"Pure Semicircles\" is particularly evident in the reception area. A semicircular counter interacts with a mirrored median wall, with its reflection completing the form as a full circle. Above this arrangement, rippled stainless steel transforms the ceiling into a reflective plane bordered by indirect linear lighting. This design creates a spatially ambiguous experience as solid and reflected forms overlap, extending the compact entrance beyond its physical dimensions.\n \nKTX further employs the geometry of semicircles thoughtfully, avoiding a repetitive motif. Curved openings facilitate smoother transitions between study zones, while the central table features a rounded end to ease movement within the irregular floor plan. The semicircle serves various functions: it manipulates perception at the reception, removes hard corners in circulation areas, and ensures that a large shared surface integrates harmoniously among individual workstations within the study area.\n \nAdditionally, a consultation space situated between the reception and the main classroom acknowledges an often overlooked aspect of the cram school experience. Within this area, students and parents can meet with pedagogists in a designated room characterized by a quarter-circle ceiling that conceals indirect lighting and draws attention to a planted wall. This design creates a quieter setting for discussion while maintaining close proximity to the overall learning environment.\n \nWhat renders Pure Semicircles compelling is not solely its integration of curves, mirrors, or greenery, but rather its responsiveness to an evolving culture of study. As instructional methods continue to evolve away from a singular focus at the front of the classroom, the design effectively embodies this transformation.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/puresemicircles-designedby-ktxarchilab", "Official Company Website": "https://ktx.space/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000060.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000061", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100078", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "The SAKAI Tokyo", "metadata": { "Project": "The SAKAI Tokyo", "Location": "Toda Building, Yaesu, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Bar and Restaurant / Omakase Sushi", "Designer/company": "KTX archiLAB", "Client/collaborators": "The Sakai brand", "Completion": "19 August 2025" }, "excerpt": "KTX archiLAB transforms traditional omakase design at The SAKAI Tokyo. The firm replaces conventional hinoki wood counters with custom rippled glass, creating a dynamic, light-reactive surface that enhances the dining experience.", "editorial": "At THE SAKAI Tokyo, KTX archiLAB transforms a significant aspect of Japanese dining by changing its material language. The traditional hinoki counter is replaced with custom rippled glass, which adds a fresh visual dimension to the omakase experience while still preserving the intimate connection between chef and guest, a hallmark of this dining format.\n \nThe choice of material is deliberate, as the counter is not merely a neutral piece of furniture in sushi culture; it is the focal point where preparation, presentation, and conversation converge. Each course traverses the same narrow distance, and every gesture is observed up close. By substituting timber with glass, the restaurant directs attention to light, reflection, and the ephemeral nature of each dish.\n \nThe design of the glass resembles flowing water, with its rippled surface capturing ambient light and creating dynamic highlights and shadows beneath the food. As each piece of sushi arrives, it briefly alters the visual composition before disappearing again, allowing the counter to continuously record these subtle changes throughout the meal.\n\n\nThis characteristic imparts a strong sense of time to the dining experience. Omakase emphasizes sequence and impermanence, as each course is prepared for a specific moment. The unique surface makes this transience visible, with colors, textures, and reflections shifting from one dish to the next, allowing the countertop to participate subtly in the progression of the meal.\n\n\nFabrication is equally significant, as the material must endure repeated service and cleaning while remaining comfortable for both chef and guest. It also needs to provide stability for plates and individual pieces. The undulation of the surface is meticulously controlled to maintain the practical requirements of a sushi counter while preserving the depth and irregularity that give it a distinctive character.\n \nKTX archiLAB keeps the surrounding interior understated so that the material change remains prominent. Pale timber envelops the walls and ceiling, while dark chairs and black tracks provide contrast. The lighting is focused where food and hands need to be clearly seen, ensuring the room supports the counter without making the entire interior a visual spectacle. The elongated U-shaped layout ensures that every guest is close to both the chef and the preparation area. The luminous glass strip along the inner edge of the timber counter places each course in the brightest part of the design. Curved timber surfaces throughout the room soften the narrow proportions, creating a more intimate atmosphere for dining.\n \nArrival at the restaurant follows a quieter rhythm. A noren, along with a dark threshold and narrow illuminated passage, separates the restaurant from the shared building interior, allowing the main dining area to gradually reveal itself. A private dining room offers a more enclosed setting, while the principal counter maintains the directness and focus integral to the omakase experience.\n \nTHE SAKAI Tokyo brings innovation to the dining experience, focusing on precision and repetition. KTX archiLAB uses glass to enhance the presentation of each dish, creating a unique identity for the restaurant that is defined by light, movement, and the ephemeral moments when food is served, observed, and savoured.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/thesakaitokyo-designedby-ktxarchilab", "Official Company Website": "https://ktx.space/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000061.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000062", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010008", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Healing Pets", "metadata": { "Project": "Healing Pets", "Location": "Xixiangli Cultural & Creative Park, Xiaoshan, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China", "Project type": "Interior Design — Human–Pet Social Space / Adaptive Reuse", "Designer/company": "Informal Design", "Client/collaborators": "Healing Pets", "Design scope": "Branding, visual identity, architecture, interior, furniture", "Spatial design team": "Wang Sheng, Luo Zhihang, Ye Ning, Cheng Huangying", "Graphic design team": "Zheng Jing, Liu Yanhong", "Completion": "August 2024", "Gross floor area": "300 square metres", "Photography": "Hei Shui" }, "excerpt": "Informal Design revitalizes a Hangzhou factory into a high-performance pet-human social hub, utilizing integrated circulation and adaptable materiality to bridge cross-species comfort.", "editorial": "The presence of companion animals is reshaping how cities approach shared spaces. Cafés, hotels, and social clubs now recognize pets as active participants. Healing Pets, a project by Informal Design in Hangzhou’s Xixiangli Cultural & Creative Park, embodies this shift architecturally.\nThe project preserves the factory’s timber roof and industrial frame, using the original volume for a new community space. Dog owners and their pets share the building, but the design recognizes their needs are distinct. Comfort and safety for both are considered from the outset.\nThis redefines “pet-friendly” design. At Healing Pets, friendliness is conveyed through behaviour. Dogs have space for movement and security, while owners benefit from clear circulation and comfortable seating. The interior is organized around this relationship.\nA broad ramp traverses the centre, serving as a principal social space and connecting levels. Its playful slope makes circulation part of the experience. Blue and yellow accents mark thresholds and activity zones, supporting orientation for both pets and people.\nDurable materials such as washed stone and marine plywood accommodate daily wear while retaining the building’s industrial scale. Furniture serves people and animals at different scales, with movable pieces allowing flexible use of space. Privacy is adjustable, with glass partitions offering openness or seclusion as needed for different activities.\nThe café is informal, with an open layout that allows animals to move freely while owners sit nearby. The industrial shell and timber elements provide continuity without a commercial feel.\nInformal Design deliberately maintains a light architectural touch within the existing structure. Plywood screens and inserted volumes are visually distinct from the roof and frame, preserving the scale and memory of the former factory while allowing the new programme to assert its own identity.\nHealing Pets reflects a broader trend of companion animals becoming part of urban social life, offering a model for shared spaces across species.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/helingpets-designedby-informaldesignstudio", "Official Company Website": "https://informaldesign.cn/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000062.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000063", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100082", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Club Anonymous", "metadata": { "Project": "Club Anonymous", "Location": "Hong Kong", "Project type": "Interior Design — Hospitality and Club", "Designer/company": "Adapa Architects Limited", "Client/collaborators": "Not specified in supplied source", "Completion": "End of 2024" }, "excerpt": "Behind an unmarked Hong Kong doorway, Adapa Architects composes a private club as a sequence of raw rooms, luminous salons and sheltered corners calibrated for different degrees of company.", "editorial": "Club Anonymous represents a departure from conventional members' clubs, particularly within the context of Hong Kong, where exclusivity is often signified through visible signage and elaborate ceremonies. Adapa Architects Limited has strategically eliminated nearly all external indicators of the club. The entrance features an unmarked black steel door, leading to a narrow vaulted passage and a singular circular opening. This design choice establishes an initial distance, allowing the bustling city outside to recede into the background.\nThis decision is significant as the 6,000-square-foot interior is constructed around a distinctive interpretation of privacy. Membership is not indicated by grand reception areas or formal processions; rather, the club is organized around varying degrees of participation. This arrangement enables individuals to transition smoothly between activities such as conversation, retreat, dining, and events, without the constraints of rigid spatial definitions for each setting.\nThe main living room immediately exemplifies this principle of freedom. A broad modular sofa occupies the central area, creating an adaptable social landscape, complemented by a bar that shares the same visual field. Exposed concrete beams, unfinished textures, and precisely crafted arches prevent the room from appearing overly polished, while a delicate glass chandelier introduces an element of fragility overhead. This contrast imbues the space with character without rendering it contrived.\nThe informality inherent in this design is central to the attraction of the club. Members may arrive for a drink, linger at the bar, engage in larger conversations, or settle into one of the sofa groupings. The architectural design does not prescribe specific uses for the room; instead, it allows interpersonal relationships to dictate the utilization of the space.\nThe Sun Lounge introduces a marked change in atmosphere. With travertine flooring, reclaimed timber, deeper upholstery, and a central fireplace, it cultivates a warmer, more domestic ambiance. The adjoining terrace enhances this sense of relaxation, making the space suitable for both leisurely afternoons and intimate conversations without completely detaching members from the club’s social environment.\nIn contrast, the private dining room sharpens the overall mood. Its black surfaces, antique mirrored ceiling, and concentrated lighting create a deliberately ceremonial atmosphere around the table. This impact is heightened by the contrast with the adjacent spaces, as the club intentionally avoids a uniform aesthetic. Instead, it employs varying atmospheres to facilitate different modes of engagement.\nAn internal courtyard adds further complexity to this social structure. An artificial skylight ensures even illumination for the plant life and patterned stone, while function rooms and a cooking studio open toward it. What may have been merely a circulation area takes on its own identity, serving as a venue where diverse activities can intersect. Events can extend into this space, conversations can persist, and individuals moving between rooms remain connected to the broader club environment.\nConsistent features such as repeated arches, circular openings, and framed views reinforce a sense of gradual revelation. Rooms are seldom fully visible at first glance; instead, their edges become perceptible first, followed by glimpses of light, furnishings, or other groups beyond. Privacy, therefore, is managed through spatial distance, angles, and partial visibility, rather than solely by means of closed doors.\nClub Anonymous serves as a compelling contemporary membership culture. Its luxury is not embedded in ostentation or material wealth but in the empowerment of individuals to control their visibility, sociability, or withdrawal in any given moment. Adapa Architects effectively transforms the concept of anonymity into a spatial principle, featuring a discreet entrance, a progression of changing moods, and a club environment where privacy is delineated not merely by separation, but by individual choice.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/skr-anonymous-private-club-designed-by-adapa-architects", "Official Company Website": "https://adapa.com.hk/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000063.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000064", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100083", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "A House with a Cylindrical Water Divider", "metadata": { "Project": "A House with a Cylindrical Water Divider", "Location": "Kuji, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan", "Project type": "Architecture — Residential and Urban Design", "Designer / company": "SHO KATAOKA ARCHITECTS / Sho Kataoka", "Client": "Private residence", "Completion": "25 January 2026" }, "excerpt": "Beside a historic circular water divider, SHO KATAOKA ARCHITECTS creates a house where an engawa-like threshold, flowing water and cherry blossoms connect domestic life with the town.", "editorial": "Some of Japan’s most meaningful public places began as works of utility. In Kuji, Kawasaki, the Nikaryō Canal Kuji Cylindrical Divider belongs to this lineage. Built in 1941 to distribute water from the Tama River across surrounding farmland, the circular structure has gradually taken on a new life. Water continues to move through its basin, cherry trees mark the seasons, and residents gather along the promenade. Engineering has become landscape, while landscape has become part of the neighbourhood’s cultural identity.\nThe residence designed by Sho Kataoka Architects sits within this living civic setting. Its significance lies in the relationship it establishes between a private home and the town's shared life. The canal is present as sound, movement and memory. The promenade carries the familiar rhythm of neighbours passing, pausing and meeting. Architecture becomes a means of bringing these everyday experiences into the home, allowing domestic life to remain connected to the wider community.\nThis connection begins at the brick-paved earthen-floor room facing the promenade. It is a place of arrival, but also a room for sitting, talking and observing life outside. Wide sliding doors extend its atmosphere towards the garden and the water, creating a contemporary interpretation of the engawa. Within Japanese culture, the engawa has always carried more than a practical role. It gives form to the space between interior and exterior, family and neighbour, shelter and season. In Kuji, this tradition is translated into a generous social threshold suited to contemporary urban life. A neighbour may stop for a brief conversation. A resident may sit near the entrance and watch the cherry trees move in the wind. Friends can gather near the street, while the more personal rooms remain farther within the house. These modest encounters reveal an important civic quality. The residence participates in the town through hospitality, proximity and attention, turning the edge of the home into a place where people can meet naturally.\nThe architectural composition develops from this social base. A slender spiral staircase connects a series of shifting levels, while timber shelves, steps and platforms give each activity its own position within the larger volume. Working, dining, reading and rest are understood as parts of a continuous domestic landscape. The interior feels closely choreographed, yet its character comes from how people inhabit it across the day.\nWindows establishes a sequence of relationships with Kuji. The cylindrical divider appears as a familiar civic form. The cherry canopy brings colour and seasonal movement into the rooms. Wider openings gather the canal, bridge and surrounding streets into the life of the house. Each view has its own scale and tempo, encouraging residents to experience the neighbourhood through a succession of framed moments. This approach gives the house an almost cinematic quality. Water, foliage, architecture and daily movement enter the interior in changing compositions. Spring blossom, summer shade, rainfall, and winter branches create a calendar experienced through the same rooms and thresholds. Time becomes visible through repetition, giving the residents an intimate awareness of the place they inhabit.\nWarm timber, pale plaster, brick and built-in furniture support this relationship between architecture and everyday ritual. The materials establish continuity across the levels and provide a calm setting for objects, conversation and changing daylight. Their role is cultural as much as visual, connecting contemporary living with familiar Japanese ideas of tactility, seasonality and spatial transition.\nSho Kataoka Architects presents the detached house as part of a broader urban culture. The project brings people, infrastructure, nature and domestic life into a shared composition, demonstrating how private architecture can contribute to the character of a neighbourhood. Its identity grows from an attentive reading of place: the movement of water, the presence of trees, the habits of residents and the social life of the street. In Kuji, the home becomes both a personal sanctuary and an active participant in the city.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-final-shortlisted-architecture/a-house-living-with-a-cylindrical-water-divider-kawasaki", "Official Company Website": "https://shokataoka.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000064.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000065", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100085", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "The Prince Park Tower Tokyo 32, 33 Floor Renewal", "metadata": { "Project": "The Prince Park Tower Tokyo 32, 33 Floor Renewal", "Location": "Shiba Park, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Hotel and Resort / Restaurant, Bar, Club Lounge and Suites", "Designer/company": "Mitsui Designtec Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "The Prince Park Tower Tokyo", "Completion": "3 October 2025" }, "excerpt": "For The Prince Park Tower Tokyo’s renewal, Mitsui Designtec Co., Ltd. introduces \"THE TOKYO FUSION,\" a design concept that dissolves the boundary between hospitality and the horizon. International orange and park green carry the spirit of Tokyo Tower and Shiba Park into the renewed upper-floor suites and social spaces, grounding the guest experience in the city’s most iconic panoramic landscape.", "editorial": "The Prince Park Tower Tokyo occupies a distinctive position in the capital. From its upper floors, Tokyo Tower rises in close proximity above the mature greenery of Shiba Park, bringing together two enduring aspects of the city: its metropolitan identity and its quieter landscape of gardens, temples and public spaces.\nFor the hotel’s twentieth anniversary, Mitsui Designtec renewed the 32nd and 33rd floors around this relationship. The concept, “THE TOKYO FUSION,” carries the colour, light and cultural character of the surroundings into the restaurants, bar, Club Lounge and five suites. The result is closely tied to its address, giving international visitors an immediate connection with Tokyo while offering local guests a fresh perspective on a familiar landmark.\nTokyo Tower has shaped the visual culture of the city since 1958. At this proximity, its international orange becomes part of the interior atmosphere, reflected through rust, amber and warm accent tones. Shiba Park contributes greens, earth colours and a gentler spatial register. Their presence changes throughout the day as sunlight, weather and evening illumination alter the relationship between the rooms and the view. This sensitivity to time is central to the hospitality experience. Breakfast, afternoon work, dinner and late-night drinks each carry a different pace. Mitsui Designtec has organized the upper floors around these changing patterns, allowing the interiors to move naturally between social activity, private conversation and moments of rest.\nIn the principal restaurant, the central kitchen provides an interior focal point equal to the Tokyo skyline. Set beneath a dark suspended canopy, it concentrates the movement, heat and precision of food preparation at the centre of the room. At the same time, perimeter seating maintains a direct relationship with Tokyo Tower. Dark timber, stone and brass give the restaurant visual depth after sunset, when the illuminated city becomes the dominant field beyond the glass. Dining is shaped by two simultaneous performances: the making of the food and the changing light of Tokyo. The bar establishes a closer relationship with the city after dark. Bottles and glassware form a luminous line beneath the windows, accompanied by amber seating and deeper finishes. The skyline extends above the counter, contributing to the room’s colour and atmosphere. The setting captures a familiar Tokyo ritual: ending the day with a drink while watching the city continue beyond the glass.\nDuring daylight hours, the dining rooms respond more closely to Shiba Park. Green upholstery, botanical patterns and pale stone surfaces carry the landscape into the interior through colour and texture. Slender furniture and lighting preserve the openness of the glazing, giving trees, sky and shifting weather a clear presence within the rooms. This connection introduces a welcome sense of calm at the centre of Tokyo. The expanded Club Lounge reflects the changing role of the contemporary city hotel. Guests arrive for breakfast, continue working, meet colleagues, hold private discussions, or stay longer between appointments. Window-side desks, lounge seating and enclosed meeting rooms support these routines within a coherent setting. The lounge serves as a temporary workplace, drawing room, and social space for travellers whose days span business, culture, and leisure.\nThe journey towards the guest rooms continues the hotel’s relationship with movement and view. Patterned flooring guides the upper-level corridors and leads to five renewed suites. Each suite has a distinct accent palette, while the principal living and sleeping spaces are oriented towards Tokyo Tower, Shiba Park and the wider city. Within the suites, living, dining, working and sleeping areas form a connected domestic landscape. Low furniture maintains open sightlines to the windows, while glass and stone extend the rooms' visual depth. Artwork, textiles and colour introduce contemporary cultural references at a scale suited to daily life. Orange and rust tones echo the warmth of Tokyo Tower in one suite, while greys, blues and greens respond to the sky and park in another.\nThe variation gives returning guests a different experience on each visit while maintaining a consistent sense of place. Every suite belongs to the same architectural story, yet each presents its own interpretation of life above Tokyo.\nThe renewal of The Prince Park Tower Tokyo positions hospitality as a way of experiencing the city. Food, work, conversation, rest, design, and art are brought together in a setting shaped by one of Tokyo’s most recognizable landmarks and one of its established green spaces. Mitsui Designtec has developed the upper floors as a contemporary portrait of the capital, guided by colour, programme and changing views.\nTokyo is encountered through the glow of the tower, the greenery of the park, the activity of the kitchen and the changing atmosphere of the rooms. The hotel becomes a place from which to observe the city and participate in its daily rhythm, offering guests a relationship with Tokyo that continues beyond the view itself.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/the-prince-park-tower-tokyos-renewal-mitsui-designtec-co-ltd", "Official Company Website": "https://www.mitsui-designtec.co.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000065.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000066", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100088", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "InterContinental Sapporo", "metadata": { "Project": "InterContinental Sapporo", "Location": "Nakajima Park, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Hotel and Resort", "Designer/company": "NIKKEN SEKKEI", "Client/collaborators": "InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)", "Completion": "30 September 2025" }, "excerpt": "Nikken Sekkei redefines the hospitality experience at InterContinental Sapporo, synthesizing Hokkaido’s seasonal landscapes, Ainu cultural narratives, and curated residential design into a cohesive architectural statement.", "editorial": "Sapporo is a city characterized by a distinctive transformation across seasons. Snow alters the urban scale in winter, while the return of vibrant greenery in summer enhances the city's aesthetic appeal. Beyond the urban grid, the surrounding mountains serve as a continual backdrop. Situated between Nakajima Park and the Toyohira River, the InterContinental Sapporo embodies the concept of \"Maison des saisons,\" or \"The Home of Seasons,\" as designed by NIKKEN SEKKEI.\n \nThe notion of home is of considerable significance. The hotel’s rooms are thoughtfully designed to evoke the essence of curated spaces, featuring handcrafted elements, classical furnishings, richly textured fabrics, and artworks that convey individual character. This residential quality infuses the interiors with a personal rhythm, complemented by the evolving landscape of Hokkaido, which contributes a broader narrative to the environment.\n \nNatural themes permeate the hotel through references to water, fire, and forest, drawing from an Ainu understanding of a world imbued with spiritual presence. These thematic elements are manifested in various public spaces, transitioning from reflective surfaces and lush planting to warmer, hearth-like settings characterized by deeper tones. Cultural references are integrated through atmosphere, material selection, and spatial relationships.\n \nAt the reception area, water establishes the initial ambiance. The use of dark stone, reflective surfaces, and dense plant life creates a composed arrival experience that resonates with the external landscape. The pathway through the lobby resembles a stroll through a garden, with light, foliage, and textured surfaces encouraging a deliberate pace as one enters the hotel.\n \nThe library lounge embodies a contrasting character through the element of fire. Deep reds, darker timber, and low seating create an intimate environment conducive to conversation. Illuminated shelving and intricately crafted screens lend the room a familiar ambiance akin to a private salon. The shifts in colour and material reflect the changing temperament of the public areas while contributing to a cohesive seasonal narrative.\n \nAdditionally, the incorporation of planting and softer forms evokes a forest-like atmosphere within the hotel. Furniture is strategically placed among greenery, creating spaces that feel both collected and inhabited, allowing public areas to transition fluidly between café, lounge, and dining environments. The overall experience resembles a journey through a large residence with distinct moods rather than passing through conventional hotel zones.\n \nThe material and artistic selections within the hotel are informed by Hokkaido’s landscape. Natural textures, locally relevant colours, and works by regional artisans foster a nuanced connection to the geographical context. In the guestrooms, carpets abstract the landscape of adjacent Nakajima Park, while artwork, timber, and carefully curated furnishings continue the narrative of a residence influenced by its surroundings.\n \nThe hotel's orientation provides a broader horizon, with Nakajima Park and the Toyohira River readily accessible, and Mount Bankei present in the distance. Consequently, the impact of seasonal change remains evident beyond the hotel’s interior, reinforcing the concept of a property whose character is intricately connected to the landscape throughout the year.\n \nThe Club Lounge further develops the residential theme through a lighter colour palette and a curated collection of art, furniture, and objects arranged for dining and conversation. The bar creates a richer evening atmosphere, where warm red and gold artwork, dark timber, and illuminated bottles offer an alternative interpretation of Hokkaido’s seasonal colours.\n \nThroughout the InterContinental Sapporo, NIKKEN SEKKEI approaches regional identity as an experience that accumulates through materiality, art, landscape, and evolving atmosphere. \"Maison des saisons\" provides the hotel with a narrative language that aligns with the essence of Sapporo: urban in context, intimately connected to nature, and shaped by the rhythms of a place where each season reveals a new perspective.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/intercontinentalsappro-designedby-nikkensekkei", "Official Company Website": "https://www.nikken.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000066.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000067", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100089", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "salon du vin ivresse", "metadata": { "Project": "salon du vin ivresse", "Location": "Ginza 7-chome, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Bar and Restaurant / Wine Bar", "Designer/company": "MIGIRI Design LLC.", "Client/collaborators": "salon du vin ivresse", "Completion": "August 2025" }, "excerpt": "MIGIRI Design redefines Ginza wine culture with Salon du vin ivresse. A masterclass in stone, washi, and hidden light, this interior creates a secluded sanctuary for wine appreciation five floors above the city.", "editorial": "Five floors above Ginza 7-chome, the salon du vin ivresse is designed as a place to relax with wine and let the hectic pace of the district fade away. MIGIRI Design has crafted the experience around the concept of \"ma,\" focusing on space, silence, and carefully controlled lighting to enhance small sensory shifts: the aroma, temperature, the movement of a glass, and the lingering sensations that follow tasting.\n \nThe interior is structured to highlight these moments of awareness. A deep green stone serves as the backdrop for the counter, evoking the colour of a vineyard, while rows of bottles create a visual rhythm. Across the room, washi artwork captures and diffuses light through its fibres, subtly changing as illumination shifts throughout the day.\n \nNatural materials like stone, timber, and washi, along with indirect lighting, are used with restraint. Light sources are concealed, allowing surfaces to emerge through reflection and shadow. MIGIRI Design describes this as a careful balance between what should be illuminated and what can remain subdued, giving each seat a slightly different relationship with the room.\n \nThe arrival sequence introduces a sense of control. An abstract artwork near the entrance establishes a threshold before the counter comes fully into view, with a straightforward and direct circulation path. Gradated wall tones adjust the atmosphere from seat to seat, and artwork alongside the windows incorporates the neighbouring cityscape as \"borrowed scenery,\" ensuring Ginza remains present at the edge of the experience.\n \nThe service area is compactly planned, allowing the bar to maintain its density while meeting practical needs for storage, preparation, and guest circulation. The washroom continues the same material language, keeping the experience consistent from arrival to departure.\n \nThe name \"ivresse,\" meaning intoxication, reflects a quieter side of wine culture. The focus is on the moments before tasting, the deepening sensations afterward, and the way time can seem to stand still during an evening. MIGIRI Design provides an architectural framework for these moments through the arrangement of bottles, the way light is absorbed by washi, and the solidity of stone.\n \nSalon du vin ivresse transforms a small Ginza wine bar into a study of duration, atmosphere, and sensory focus, where the experience of wine is shaped as much by silence and materials as by what is poured into the glass.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/salonduvinivresse-designedby-migiridesign", "Official Company Website": "https://migiri.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000067.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000068", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100090", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Park Homes Shijo Kawaramachi", "metadata": { "Project": "Park Homes Shijo Kawaramachi", "Location": "Kyoto, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Residential / Communal Areas", "Designer/company": "Mitsui Designtec Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "Park Homes Shijo Kawaramachi; HOSOO", "Completion": "February 2025" }, "excerpt": "Park Homes Shijo Kawaramachi blends 400 years of temple heritage with contemporary residential design. Mitsui Designtec incorporates Nishijin-ori textiles, Kyoto's garden culture, and grid-based architecture to create a functional gallery for daily communal living.", "editorial": "At Park Homes Shijo Kawaramachi, Mitsui Designtec draws inspiration from the rich cultural fabric of Kyoto to shape the communal experience of a modern residence. The building is located next to a temple with a history spanning four centuries, and its shared interiors incorporate elements of Nishijin weaving, seasonal flowers, literature, garden culture, and the city's historic street grid.\n \nThe communal areas are designed as a private “Gallery of Kyoto.” Art, crafts, and local references are integrated into the residents’ daily pathways through the building, giving the common spaces a cultural identity that evolves over time with repeated use.\n \nA striking glass art installation marks the double-height entrance. This piece incorporates ro, the open gauze traditionally used for summer kimonos, and transforms its lightness into a suspended composition of fibre, glass, and gold. Viewed from the entrance, staircase, and upper landing, the installation changes with different perspectives and light conditions, bringing a sense of movement to the atrium through shifting transparency and reflection.\n \nStone, dark metal, and timber create a subtle backdrop for this artwork. Beneath the stairs, rocks and gravel form a dry landscape that connects the entrance to Kyoto’s temple and garden traditions through both material choice and composition. On the second floor, the communal program is organized around three themes: IKOU, TSUTAU, and MANABU, which translate to relax, inherit, and learn. IKOU features a lounge space for conversation and relaxation. TSUTAU showcases contemporary Nishijin-ori and local crafts. MANABU provides an environment for reading that includes books, ceramics, and references to Kyoto’s cultural history.\n \nNishijin-ori also influences the spatial layout. The interplay of warp and weft is reflected in lattice screens that filter views between connected areas. Their layered design allows light and movement to flow across the floor while creating a clear sense of enclosure for each space. Kyoto’s goban-no-me, the historic grid that has shaped the city for centuries, is echoed in the alignment of floors, shelves, and partitions within the interior. This consistent geometry allows the unique characteristics of stone, timber, textiles, and artwork to shine through.\n \nMANABU organizes books, ceramics, and artworks in a tranquil setting suited for reading and close observation, while IKOU offers a more residential atmosphere. Loose seating, natural light, and floral arrangements make it a relaxed space for residents to unwind outside their apartments. Seasonality is also a significant consideration. Flowers and branches are incorporated into the lattice and along circulation routes, reflecting Kyoto’s longstanding tradition of marking the seasons with thoughtfully chosen arrangements.\n \nThe project also embraces okuyukashisa, a sensibility associated with discretion, depth, and refinement. Artworks, objects, and materials can be discovered from various distances and through layered views, providing a sense of exploration that unfolds over time. Park Homes Shijo Kawaramachi integrates Kyoto’s craft traditions, literature, and seasonal culture into contemporary residential life. Mitsui Designtec weaves these references into the daily experiences of the building, establishing a strong connection between its shared spaces and the cultural essence of the city.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/park-homes-shijo-kawaramachi-deisgned-by-mitsui-designtec-coltd-japan", "Official Company Website": "https://www.mitsui-designtec.co.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000068.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000069", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100091", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "TOCLAS SALON TOKYO", "metadata": { "Project": "TOCLAS SALON TOKYO", "Location": "Kyobashi, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Retail / Kitchen and Bathroom Flagship Showroom", "Designer/company": "Mitsui Designtec Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "TOCLAS", "Completion": "January 2026" }, "excerpt": "TOCLAS SALON TOKYO redefines the retail experience by bridging brand storytelling with technological precision inside a stunning, sustainable timber-hybrid space designed by Mitsui Designtec.", "editorial": "In Tokyo's Kyobashi district, the traditional showroom experience, often filled with price lists and cabinetry dimensions, is changing significantly. TOCLAS SALON TOKYO, designed by Mitsui Designtec, focuses on brand storytelling as a key pathway to product discovery. This flagship space encourages visitors to connect with the TOCLAS worldview before they even consider the practicalities of the products. \nMitsui Designtec has structured this journey through a purposeful two-zone sequence. Upon entering, the Entrance Lounge sets the stage for important brand values like Surprise, Inspiration, Peace of Mind, and Timelessness. This emotional grounding prepares visitors for the Exhibition Area, where technical innovations take center stage. This flow guides visitors from an initial impression of the brand to a deeper understanding of its product capabilities. \nThe design of the space plays a vital role in this experience. Situated within the Kyobashi Kinoterrace, the salon reflects the building's exposed timber-and-steel framework. These wooden beams serve as the primary design language, showcasing the brand’s commitment to sustainability. By highlighting the structural framework, Mitsui Designtec ensures the salon has a clear identity based on material honesty and avoids a cluttered appearance. \nThis design approach elevates the visit from a simple transaction to an engaging brand experience. Brand identity provides essential context, while the technical displays illustrate how this philosophy fits into everyday domestic life. In this environment, architecture lends credibility, the atmosphere draws attention, and technology enriches the design narrative, demonstrating how a manufacturer can connect seamlessly with modern living.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/toclas-salon-tokyodesignedbymitsui-designtec", "Official Company Website": "https://www.mitsui-designtec.co.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000069.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000070", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100092", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "UACJ Head Office Relocation Project", "metadata": { "Project": "UACJ Head Office Relocation Project", "Location": "Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office / Corporate Headquarters", "Designer/company": "KOKUYO Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "UACJ Corporation and UACJ Group craftspeople", "Completion": "15 December 2025" }, "excerpt": "KOKUYO transforms UACJ headquarters into a high-performance workspace utilizing structural aluminum loops. This design integrates corporate branding with circular economy principles and fluid employee movement to drive business innovation.", "editorial": "At UACJ's newly relocated headquarters in Tokyo, aluminum is used to express the company's identity without relying on traditional corporate displays. KOKUYO works closely with UACJ to weave together fabrication, recycling, and workplace culture into a unified architectural story. The project revolves around the theme “Connect RING — Connecting and Being Connected.” Visitors experience this concept through a series of actions rather than a simple graphic. Upon arrival, they receive a canned drink, discover UACJ’s products, participate in meetings, and return the empty can for recycling before they leave. This familiar action serves as an introduction to the material cycle that is central to UACJ's business.\n \nAluminum shapes the character of the entrance space. Reception elements, benches, perforated surfaces, and integrated details were collaboratively crafted with UACJ artisans, showcasing the precision of bending, joining, and finishing. The headquarters highlights industrial knowledge through craftsmanship instead of typical product displays.\n \nThe collaboration between designer and manufacturer is essential to this project. KOKUYO integrates UACJ’s technical expertise into the design process, allowing the company’s material to contribute to furniture, architectural elements, and lighting. The entrance embodies the confidence that comes from a deep understanding of aluminum, from its production to its application. Beyond the visitor area, the principle shifts from material to movement. A continuous pathway connects work areas, meeting rooms, and informal spots, making it easy for employees to navigate the space and encouraging interactions among different teams throughout the day.\n \nAbout 150 meters of linear lighting runs along this pathway, helping people understand the layout without adding extra walls or signs. Curved benches, circular tables, and casual meeting spots appear at various intervals, giving the design a human scale where people can pause, talk, and work. Open work areas are designed to be practical and flexible, with desks complemented by quieter zones along the brighter perimeter. Shared tables, plants, and informal seating provide places for quick chats, short tasks, or meetings without the need for a reserved room. This layout accommodates various activities without isolating them into separate environments.\n \nThe connection between the visitor experience and the workspaces comes from a consistent theme of interaction. At the entrance, this is expressed through aluminum, manufacturing, and recycling. Inside the office, it shows through movement, visibility, and the shared use of space.\n \nUACJ’s headquarters embodies a clear corporate identity. KOKUYO builds on the company’s material expertise, manufacturing culture, and everyday workplace relationships to create an environment where “Connect RING” is experienced rather than just stated.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/iuacjheadoffice-designedby-kokuyo", "Official Company Website": "https://www.kokuyo.com/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000070.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000071", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100093", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "BASE LAYER HOTEL NAGOYA NISHIKI", "metadata": { "Project": "BASE LAYER HOTEL NAGOYA NISHIKI", "Location": "Nagoya, Aichi, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Hotel and Resort / Rebranding and Renovation", "Designer/company": "MITSUI Designtec Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "BASE LAYER HOTEL", "Completion": "March 2025" }, "excerpt": "Nagoya's hospitality scene transforms with the BASE LAYER HOTEL. MITSUI Designtec has revamped a landmark property into a high-performance 'Culture Business Hotel,' merging private sauna suites, immersive media areas, and modular urban living for today's traveller.", "editorial": "BASE LAYER HOTEL NAGOYA NISHIKI reimagines the traditional business hotel format by giving it a broader cultural role. MITSUI Designtec's renovation of this 22-year-old property aims to create a space that caters to work, rest, media consumption, wellness, and a deeper connection to the city—all encapsulated under the concept of a “Culture Business Hotel.” The name \"Base Layer\" hints at its purpose. A base layer is the first item worn, close to the body, designed to support everything that follows. Similarly, the hotel prioritizes essentials like sleep, bathing, storage, and work, then enhances these elements through colour, art, technology, and sauna culture.\n \nThis approach is ideal for short urban stays. A guest may arrive for business, spend an evening streaming a film, use the laundry facilities, book a sauna, socialize with friends nearby, and leave the next morning without any of these activities competing for attention. Each has enough space to feel intentional.\n \nThe renovation focuses on the areas that guests frequent the most. The entrance is accentuated with a dark stone base, an illuminated canopy, and a deep green threshold, while the reception area adopts this palette in a subtler way. Timber ceilings, dark counters, and long built-in seating establish a sense of order without overcrowding the space. Green is a recurring theme throughout the project. It can be found in upholstery, corridor walls, shower enclosures, signage, and selected joinery, giving the hotel a recognizable identity across various spaces. This controlled use of colour also serves as a navigation aid within the retained building.\n \nGuest rooms are compact but thoughtfully planned. Beds, storage, work surfaces, and bathrooms are arranged with minimal wasted space, while pale timber, warm grey, and black metal maintain a restrained visual language. Larger Japanese-style rooms offer low seating, kitchenettes, and more flexible floor space, accommodating families, groups, and longer stays. One notable feature is the green shower booth. Its translucent enclosure provides visibility within the room, transforming a functional aspect into a part of the brand's identity. Privacy is available when needed, while the glass maintains an open and airy feel.\n \nThe rooms also reflect how guests spend their downtime today. Large screens, shelves, pegboards, and graphic panels support streaming, gaming, and the use of personal devices, ensuring the room feels modern without conforming to a specific lifestyle image. Wellness also plays a significant role in the hotel's identity. Selected suites include private löyly saunas with cold bathing, integrated into the overall experience. Bookable sauna rooms extend this wellness ritual throughout the building, with heat, cold, and recovery processes organized around \"totonou,\" the Japanese practice of physical and mental reset.\n \nThis program adds value beyond simple accommodation. The sauna can become a compelling reason to stay, while comfortably coexisting alongside the practical aspects of work, laundry, and media use.\n \nThe retained building also contributes to the project's character. Existing hardware and infrastructure are preserved where feasible, with investments focused on surfaces, equipment, and functions that enhance daily use. This approach results in a focused renovation that respects the building’s original structure while providing a new identity through selective changes.\n \nBASE LAYER HOTEL NAGOYA NISHIKI combines the efficiency of a business hotel with a broader vision for urban stays. MITSUI Designtec has integrated work, rest, local culture, digital life, and sauna traditions within one cohesive framework, giving the hotel a contemporary relevance that goes beyond just an overnight stay.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/baselayerhotelnagoyanishiki-designedby-mitsuidesigntec", "Official Company Website": "https://www.mitsui-designtec.co.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000071.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000072", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100094", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "ASOOM Shimbashi", "metadata": { "Project": "ASOOM Shimbashi", "Location": "Shimbashi, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office / Compact Workplace", "Designer/company": "KOKUYO Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "ASOOM Shimbashi", "Completion": "1 June 2025" }, "excerpt": "KOKUYO Co., Ltd. optimizes the ASOOM Shimbashi office by integrating traditional Japanese residential architecture to maximize compact commercial space. This project demonstrates how the *irori* hearth and central courtyards enhance productivity and foster social connections in high-density Tokyo work environments.", "editorial": "In a city where work and domestic life increasingly overlap, ASOOM Shimbashi explores a workplace model inspired by the social intelligence of Japanese homes. Designed by KOKUYO for a Japanese homebuilder, this project integrates work, dining, socializing, and relaxation within a compact Tokyo setting, utilizing familiar residential concepts to foster a more adaptable office culture.\n \nThe central idea, “Office as a Home,” is expressed through a series of spatial references deeply rooted in Japanese domestic life. Elements such as the *irori* (a traditional fireplace), courtyards, *noren* curtains, and *fusuma* sliding doors are reinterpreted based on their original purposes of gathering, ventilation, filtered light, and adjustable privacy.\n \nThe courtyard plays a crucial role on the third-floor office level. In traditional narrow houses, these spaces once brought light, air, and glimpses of nature into the home’s core. KOKUYO translates this concept to the workplace by arranging desks to ensure that greenery remains visible throughout the floor. The intention is not merely to use plants as decoration but to establish a shared visual focal point and to foster a quieter relationship with the bustling city outside.\n \nThe basement common area draws inspiration from the *irori*, which was once the social heart of a Japanese home. In this contemporary setting, it becomes a space where colleagues and visitors can gather informally, with the surrounding area designed to adapt between conversation, reading, events, and collaborative work. A sense of community is created through proximity and flexibility, rather than by assigning each activity to a separate room.\n \nThis flexibility extends through softer forms of enclosure. Sheer curtains and bookshelves can be rearranged in the basement to suit various uses, referencing the adjustable boundaries traditionally associated with *noren* and *fusuma*. KOKUYO incorporates these design elements as functional aspects, allowing the office to transform throughout the day while maintaining an overall sense of coherence.\n \nMaterial selection enhances this sense of familiarity. Timber, rattan, and hemp-inspired textures and surfaces chosen for direct physical contact give the workplace a warmer, more tactile character. Turned-wood offcuts are used in table edges, extending the life of discarded materials while improving comfort for drawing and daily tasks.\n \nFor workplace design, this project signifies a broader shift in how compact offices can accommodate various states of attention and interaction. A communal table can serve both work and meals; a curtained area can promote focus or host events; and a planted courtyard can provide both orientation and visual respite. The office becomes easier to navigate because its spaces are not bound to a single rigid function.\n \nASOOM Shimbashi gives “Office as a Home” a distinctly Japanese foundation. KOKUYO translates concepts like the courtyard, *irori*, and gentle domestic thresholds into a contemporary workplace, facilitating movement between work, conversation, and rest, and incorporating the rhythms of everyday life into the heart of the office.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/asoom-shimbashi-designed-by-kokuyo-coltd", "Official Company Website": "https://www.kokuyo.com/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000072.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000073", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100096", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "JA KYOSAI SAITAMA BUILDING", "metadata": { "Project": "JA KYOSAI SAITAMA BUILDING", "Location": "Saitama, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office / Common-Area Renovation", "Designer/company": "MITSUI Designtec Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "JA Kyosai", "Completion": "17 December 2025" }, "excerpt": "JA KYOSAI SAITAMA BUILDING has undergone a common-area overhaul by MITSUI Designtec, which optimizes corporate workflow through lighting-driven design and flexible community zones within a 50-year-old structural framework.", "editorial": "After more than fifty years of use, an office building develops its own unique habits. For the renovation of JA KYOSAI’s Saitama office, MITSUI Designtec focuses on these shared routines, transforming the common areas to herald a new era for an established workplace.\n \nThe project is described as “new traditional,” a phrase that resonates with an organization whose identity is rooted in continuity. MITSUI Designtec preserves the building’s sense of order and institutional presence while introducing spaces that reflect the increasingly fluid nature of office life. Formal meetings remain important, but so do the moments before and after them, as well as the need for informal workspaces away from the desk.\n \nThis transformation begins in the atrium. The double-height lobby maintains its composed and symmetrical design, yet timber accents, mirrored surfaces, and a tall illuminated feature bring a lighter rhythm to the existing space. Seating is integrated into the area, transforming arrival into a setting where people can comfortably wait, meet informally, or spend a few moments between engagements.\n \nLighting plays a crucial role throughout the renovation. At the entrance, a broad illuminated frame provides the building with a distinctive evening presence. Inside, light is skillfully used to enhance height, depth, and movement, bringing greater definition to spaces whose proportions were established decades ago. This approach allows the architecture to retain its familiarity while altering how it is perceived and used.\n \nThe third-floor conference area exemplifies one of the more contemporary aspects of the project. The space outside the meeting rooms is designed for collaborative use with communal tables and benches, recognizing that office activities often extend beyond formally bookable rooms. Preparation, follow-up discussions, and brief periods of individual work can occur in this area, thereby increasing the utility of a space previously primarily associated with circulation.\n \nThe relatively low ceiling becomes part of the interior character. Coffered sections, linear pendants, and indirect lighting draw attention along the length of the space, while timber and upholstered seating create a work lounge ambiance. The design responds to the existing architecture through proportion and lighting rather than extensive reconstruction.\n \nThe basement Community Plaza introduces a different pace to the workday. Featuring plantings, green tiles, timber, and a variety of seating options, this area serves as a setting for lunch, conversation, individual work, or a brief break away from the main office floors. An expanded-metal screen marks the entrance, offering glimpses of movement beyond while providing a degree of separation without isolating it from the rest of the building.\n \nAcross these spaces, furniture plays a significant role in effecting change. Sofas, counters, communal tables, and benches present different seating options and lengths of use, allowing employees to choose how and where they spend their time between formal tasks. This flexibility complements the more structured architectural framework of the existing office.\n \nAdditionally, there’s a broader workplace narrative in the decision to prioritize common spaces. Corporate interiors are often defined by desks, meeting rooms, and technology, but much of an organization’s culture is shaped elsewhere: at the entrance, around shared tables, and in the moments between scheduled meetings. MITSUI Designtec emphasizes these in-between moments, giving them a clearer role in JA KYOSAI’s daily life.\n \nIn essence, “new traditional” describes a dynamic relationship between continuity and contemporary usage. The Saitama office retains the presence of an institution that has been at this location for fifty years, while its shared spaces take on a more social and adaptable character. This renovation allows the building’s history to remain visible, even as the everyday working life continues to evolve around it.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/ja-kyosai-saitama-building-designedby-mitsui-designtec", "Official Company Website": "https://www.mitsui-designtec.co.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000073.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000074", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010011", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "ST LOUIS BAR by KEI", "metadata": { "Project": "ST LOUIS BAR by KEI", "Location": "Ginza, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Bar and Restaurant / Destination Bar", "Designer/company": "A.N.D., NOMURA Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "ST LOUIS BAR by KEI; Saint-Louis; Chef Kei Kobayashi", "Completion": "20 April 2024" }, "excerpt": "A vertical garden bar in Ginza brings together Saint-Louis crystal, ancient cedar, and stone, establishing a new luxury hospitality, designed by A.N.D. NOMURA Co., Ltd.", "editorial": "The collaboration between Saint-Louis and chef Kei Kobayashi in Ginza brings together two distinct worlds where time, precision, and craftsmanship are paramount. One world is embodied by the exquisite crystal made in the renowned furnaces of France, while the other reflects the meticulous hospitality and discipline of Japanese dining. At ST LOUIS BAR by KEI, A.N.D., NOMURA Co., Ltd. has created a unique architectural space that seamlessly transitions from an intimate bar to a sky garden.\n \nThe interior design draws on the Japanese concept of teioku ichinyo, which understands architecture and garden as a continuous composition. On the twelfth floor, this relationship begins inside, where stone, timber, plants, and crystal create their own landscape. This experience continues through the staircase and onto the rooftop, unfolding vertically through varying degrees of enclosure, light, and exposure to the city.\n \nThe choice of materials plays a significant role in the narrative. Date Kanmuri stone forms the central counter, maintaining the rock's irregularity and geological presence within a refined hospitality setting. Jindai cedar introduces a different sense of age; preserved over time before being reclaimed and worked, the timber brings dark grain and depth to the interior. Saint-Louis crystal enhances this composition through its light and reflections, with its brilliance accentuated by the subtler materials surrounding it.\n \nWhen placed together, these three materials exemplify distinct forms of craftsmanship. Stone holds the history of the earth, cedar represents the passage of natural time, and crystal illustrates the transformation of raw materials through exceptional human skill. A.N.D., NOMURA Co., Ltd. allows these qualities to remain distinct, creating a setting where French decorative craftsmanship and Japanese material culture coexist closely.\n \nThe bar itself introduces another dimension of craftsmanship. A double-counter arrangement enables separate working spaces for bartenders, service staff, and pâtissiers while fostering a close connection with guests. This layout brings the precision of fine dining into the social atmosphere of a bar, where preparation, finishing, and service become integral to the evening without transforming the space into a performance stage.\n \nThis relationship is particularly relevant to Kei Kobayashi’s involvement. Food, drink, objects, and service are considered within a unified hospitality experience, giving even the smallest details on the counter significance. Saint-Louis crystal appears on an intimate scale through individual lights, vessels, and selected pieces, highlighting the brand's renowned qualities: clarity, cut, colour, and the way crystal responds to light.\n \nThe garden introduces a slower rhythm. A symbolic tree rises within the interior landscape, while plants lead to sculptural stairs composed of stone-like forms. The ascent extends the bar beyond the room itself, gradually opening the setting to air, weather, and the wider city.\n \nAbove, the rooftop serves as another interpretation of teioku ichinyo. Plants, stone, and low seating create an elevated garden where the atmosphere shifts with the seasons and times of day. A smaller pavilion provides a more enclosed experience within this landscape, with crystal lighting maintaining the connection to Saint-Louis while allowing the rooftop to develop its unique character.\n \nThe private lounge introduces a different mood through dark walls, leather, timber, and a suspended lattice overhead. Crystal pendants adorn this more sheltered area, bringing the material into a warmer, more residential context. Throughout the various spaces, repetition is avoided in favour of variation; the same cultural and material references take on different meanings based on how each section of the bar is utilized.\n \nThe choice of materials also reflects their origins. Certified domestic timber, reclaimed wood, and locally sourced hinoki are used alongside rooftop planting, addressing questions of sourcing and reuse within a project strongly focused on craftsmanship and longevity.\n \nAt ST LOUIS BAR by KEI, the collaboration between Saint-Louis, Kei Kobayashi, and A.N.D., NOMURA Co., Ltd. unfolds across multiple scales of craft: from the cutting of crystal to the preparation of food and drink, the working of timber and stone, and the cultivation of a garden above Ginza. Architecture provides the backdrop where these disciplines converge, guiding the evening from the intimacy of the counter to the changing light and seasons of the rooftop.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/st-louis-bar-by-kei-designed-by-and-nomura-co-ltd-japan", "Official Company Website": "https://www.and-design.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000074.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000075", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010012", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "A-Residence", "metadata": { "Project": "A-Residence", "Location": "Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Residential", "Designer/company": "A.N.D., NOMURA Co., Ltd.", "Additional credits": "Lead designer: Masahiro Hisakane", "Client/collaborators": "Private client", "Completion": "30 August 2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "A-Residence, designed by A.N.D. and NOMURA, redefines luxury living in Tokyo, merging dramatic book-matched marble, bespoke timber joinery, and museum-quality art against the backdrop of the iconic Tokyo Tower skyline.", "editorial": "A-Residence exemplifies how various elements can be curated to create a tranquil environment. Located at a considerable height above Tokyo, with a view of Tokyo Tower at night, this residence showcases many features of contemporary luxury, including high-quality stone, custom joinery, bespoke furniture, curated art collections, and an impressive urban panorama. A.N.D., NOMURA Co., Ltd., applies a high degree of discipline to these elements. The project initiated with the living area and expanded into a comprehensive renovation, guided by ongoing collaboration with a client whose lifestyle spans multiple locations. The result is a thoughtfully constructed atmosphere in which materials, art, and views are in balance.\nA notable aspect of this design is found at the entrance. A pine-themed artwork is positioned at the center of a dimly lit gallery, suspended above hand-carved stone vessels with polished surfaces reminiscent of still water. A circular opening of light highlights the composition, while the skyline of Tokyo glimmers beyond the window. This scene combines elements of installation art with the traditional function of an entrance, modifying the visitor’s pace. In just a few steps, the city remains visible, yet its noise is replaced with shadows, textures, stone, and the silhouette of a tree.\nThis sense of control extends throughout the residence. The open living and dining area possesses significant scale, yet it does not feel overly grand. Low-profile furniture maintains a grounded center of gravity, while timber walls add warmth to the space. A large stone dining table provides enough visual weight to stand confidently next to the skyline, and a suspended light fixture moves gracefully within the room. Though Tokyo Tower can be seen through the glazing, the interior does not solely frame the view; the architecture establishes its own visual rhythm, integrating the city into the overall composition.\nStone plays a central role in this design. A.N.D. carefully selected marble from raw blocks, developing its placement across floors and columns through extensive book-matching techniques. This decision is important, as the material is treated with the scale of architecture, rather than being applied as isolated decorative features. The veining flows across large surfaces, wraps around structural elements, and changes character as light interacts with the space. The designers refer to stone as forming a landscape, a term that is fitting in this context. Its natural patterns create a secondary topography within the residence that engages in a quiet dialogue with the metropolitan landscape outside.\nTimber and washi paper introduce a softer tonal quality amidst the material intensity. Doors and storage solutions are integrated into expansive planes of joinery, allowing the wood grain to remain continuous while the architecture recedes when necessary. Smaller objects are displayed in illuminated niches, while larger artworks occupy generous wall spaces; furniture is positioned with the assurance of pieces intended for long-term placement. Art retains its significance without becoming an imposition on daily life. The residence conveys the notion that these objects belong to an individual, and that the spaces will continue to acquire meaning through use.\nThis perspective enhances the appeal of A-Residence. Luxury is often expressed through the accumulation of materials and objects. Moreover, the project addresses the concept of ownership over time with thoughtful consideration. The client's existing furniture and cherished artworks were preserved and relocated alongside newly commissioned pieces. Marble was procured in block form and utilized consistently throughout the residence, allowing for natural variation to be incorporated into the design while minimizing waste. These choices contribute to a sense of sustainability grounded in longevity, continuity, and attachment: materials are selected for durability, and possessions with established histories are incorporated as integral components of the home.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/a-residence-designed-by-and-nomura-co-ltd-japan", "Official Company Website": "https://www.and-design.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000075.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000076", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010013", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "GORAKADAN FUJI GOLF", "metadata": { "Category": "Details", "Project": "GORAKADAN FUJI GOLF", "Location": "Mount Fuji region, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Leisure and Wellness / Golf Clubhouse and Resort", "Designer/company": "A.N.D., NOMURA Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "GORA KADAN FUJI", "Completion": "30 September 2025" }, "excerpt": "A.N.D. NOMURA Co. is transforming GORAKADAN FUJI GOLF into a year-round wellness resort that integrates professional golf facilities, hot springs, suites, and direct views of Mount Fuji.", "editorial": "Golf clubs have long been places where rituals take shape: arriving early, changing attire, spending hours outdoors, returning to the clubhouse, and sharing conversations that linger in the air. At GORA KADAN FUJI GOLF, these time-honored practices are reimagined through a uniquely Japanese lens of retreat, with the majestic presence of Mount Fuji enhancing the experience from dawn to dusk.\n\n\nThis project revitalizes an established golf club situated next to the soon-to-be-completed GORA KADAN FUJI hotel, transforming the traditional clubhouse into a resort-like environment. While golf remains a focal point, the experience is elevated by the integration of natural hot springs, all-day dining, cozy fireside lounges, and luxurious suite accommodations. This thoughtful combination reflects a holistic view of leisure, where sports, hospitality, and relaxation seamlessly coexist.\n\n\nThe most striking aspect of GORA KADAN FUJI GOLF is, without doubt, Mount Fuji itself, which is prominently visible from the site. The architecture is meticulously designed to embrace this iconic backdrop, influencing the orientation and proportions of the shared spaces. Guests are afforded numerous opportunities to engage with this landscape, which holds a significance that transcends mere tourism.\n\n\nThis deep connection to the surrounding natural beauty redefines the clubhouse experience. Even though golf is the initial draw, the day's activities extend far beyond the final hole. Guests may find themselves soaking in rejuvenating hot springs, enjoying a meal with breathtaking views of the mountain, or gathering around a warm fire, all contributing to a slower pace more in line with Japanese resort culture. The architectural renewal pays tribute to the legacy of the original club, retaining elements of the existing structure and brickwork while introducing culturally resonant materials like Japanese stone and timber.\n\n\nThroughout the interior, historical golf clubs and archival photographs are prominently displayed, ensuring that the building's past is woven into its new context. This layering of history adds a unique depth to the project. Golf was introduced to Japan as an imported sport, bringing with it Western clubhouse conventions. At GORA KADAN FUJI GOLF, these traditions exist alongside Japanese principles of spatial intervals, material restraint, and a deep appreciation of the natural world. This balance preserves both influences without allowing either to be reduced to mere decoration.\n\n\nIntegral to this design ethos is the Japanese concept of \"ma,\" which emphasizes the importance of space between elements. Rooms are thoughtfully crafted to provide visual and physical room for the changing light, weather, and seasonal colors, inviting guests to fully appreciate the dynamic character of Mount Fuji. The mountain’s appearance shifts throughout the day, sometimes standing out in sharp relief, while at other times it melds into the surrounding atmosphere.\n\n\nFor the designers, the relationship between interior scale and landscape stands as a key achievement of the project. Symmetry offers balance, while carefully placed openings and intervals maintain a sense of fluidity. The use of timber, stone, and preserved brick creates interiors that have substance, enabling the distant mountain to remain the focal point. \n\n\nThe clubhouse program is aligned with the rhythms of a full day. Arrivals, dining options, lounge spaces, suites, and terraces on the upper level all boast views of Mount Fuji, while the ground floor connects lockers and bathing facilities directly to the golf course. A new on-course teahouse provides an additional chance for reflection amid the game.\n\n\nImportantly, the clubhouse’s accessibility has evolved as well. Certain dining and lounge areas are now open to the public, extending an invitation beyond the golfing community, while accommodations maintain a more intimate feel. This enhances the building’s role within the destination and strengthens ties to the nearby GORA KADAN FUJI hotel. This choice reflects the changing landscape of contemporary leisure travel in Japan, where golf, bathing, dining, and admiration of the scenic beauty can coexist in harmony.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/2026/8/2/o7fymwo894zwf0zkstp4rls4kji836", "Official Company Website": "https://www.and-design.jp/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000076.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000077", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010014", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "% Arabica Egypt Cairo Roastery", "metadata": { "Category": "Details", "Project": "% Arabica Egypt Cairo Roastery", "Location": "U-Venues, New Cairo, Egypt", "Project type": "Interior Design — Others / Café and Roastery", "Designer/company": "no.10, NOMURA Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "% Arabica", "Completion": "4 December 2024" }, "excerpt": "At % Arabica Cairo Roastery, stacked Egyptian limestone functions as seating, circulation areas, and landscape elements, effectively intertwining the memory of local quarries with the precision characteristic of Japanese design by no.10, NOMURA Co., Ltd.", "editorial": "At U-Venues in New Cairo, % Arabica’s flagship roastery draws inspiration from the memory of quarrying. The design, executed by no.10, NOMURA Co., Ltd., seamlessly merges the brand’s Kyoto-born minimalism with Egypt’s rich stone heritage, thereby establishing a café environment where architectural elements convey a sense of locality, rather than relying solely on decorative embellishments.\n\n\nThe interior is arranged in a terraced layout composed of 800-millimetre limestone modules that rise, recede, and overlap in a manner reminiscent of excavated terrain. This innovative design not only forms seating, counters, niches, and circulation paths but also creates an integrated material system. Consequently, the café is perceived as a cohesive landscape rather than merely a collection of furniture and individual rooms.\n\n\nTexture plays an essential role in differentiating tactile and visual perceptions. Vertical surfaces are intentionally left with a rough, split finish, evoking the appearance of extracted stone, while horizontal surfaces are polished to a smooth finish, enhancing the experience of benches, counters, and pathways. This contrast enables a single stone to fulfill structural, tactile, and aesthetic functions.\n\n\nThe modular design facilitates a variety of engagement options for patrons. Visitors may choose to sit elevated above the floor, congregate on broad benches, find comfort in recessed niches, or navigate clearly designated pathways within the stone terraces. This diversity in height and depth creates multiple seating choices, allowing the interior to maintain visual tranquillity while catering to varying durations of patron visits.\n\n\nThe coffee preparation areas are integrated within the same topography. Roasting and barista stations are illuminated with brighter, more concentrated lighting, transforming the preparation process into a daily performance. Conversely, guest areas benefit from softer lighting, establishing a distinct separateness between active and relaxed spaces without the need for physical barriers. This lighting scheme enhances the overall functionality of the café while clarifying the differing purposes of the architectural zones.\n\n\nHand-carved hieroglyphs enrich the stone surfaces with additional meaning. These symbols represent actions associated with grinding, pouring, serving, and drinking, thus linking ancient graphic language with contemporary practices. Their significance is derived from their ability to translate current activities rather than serving solely as antiquated motifs.\n\n\nCirculation within the space is strategically guided through variations in level, texture, and light. The terraced floor design promotes organic movement, while views of the roasting equipment and service counter provide orientation and awareness. Minimal signage is employed, allowing the architectural form itself to establish spatial hierarchy.\n\n\nThe project's commitment to local sourcing enhances its material narrative. Utilizing Egyptian limestone reduces transportation needs, while the monomaterial system facilitates the integration of furniture within the building, thereby minimizing replaceable components. The durability of the interior is rooted in this decision, which also contributes to its identity: a cohesive landscape crafted from a single locally sourced material, thoughtfully distinguished through craftsmanship.\n\n\nThe project’s distinguishing feature lies in the synthesis of two design cultures. Japanese precision is evident in the modularity, junctions, and lighting discipline, while Egyptian heritage is expressed through the mass, texture, and symbolic carvings. Rather than presenting these qualities as separate themes, they converge to create a functional topography that gives % Arabica a distinctive global identity while ensuring a strong connection to Cairo’s cultural landscape.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/arabicaegyptcairoroastery-designedby-no10-nomura", "Official Company Website": "https://www.nomurakougei.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000077.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000078", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010016", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka, Vignette Collection", "metadata": { "Category": "Details", "Project": "RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka, Vignette Collection", "Location": "Nakanoshima, Osaka, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Hotel and Resort / Heritage Hotel Renewal", "Designer/company": "RENS NOMURA Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka; IHG Hotels & Resorts; Nishijin textile artisans and specialist metal craftspeople", "Completion": "April 2025" }, "excerpt": "RENS. NOMURA Co., Ltd. revitalizes the RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka by bridging the building’s historic architectural legacy with contemporary Japanese craft. Drawing on the concept of \"The Fusion of Traditional Beauty and Water,\" the design integrates flowing metalwork, Nishijin weaving, and calligraphic motifs to connect the hotel to its Nakanoshima riverfront setting and the city's broader social memory.", "editorial": "Hotels often become a part of a city’s memory long before they are recognized as significant architecture. It becomes part of a city’s social landscape, shaped by generations of arrivals, celebrations, meetings and returns. RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka belongs to this category. Its identity has developed alongside modern Osaka, giving the building a cultural presence that extends beyond the conventions of luxury hospitality.\nIn April 2025, the hotel began a new chapter as RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka, Vignette Collection. The renewal by RENS. NOMURA Co., Ltd. connects IHG Hotels & Resorts’ international platform with the architectural legacy of Isoya Yoshida, whose work brought Japanese aesthetics and Western influences into a distinctive and enduring composition.\nThe hotel’s location on Nakanoshima provides the project with its strongest reference point. Set between the Dojima and Tosabori Rivers, the island developed through Osaka’s commercial and cultural exchange. Water carried goods and ideas through the city, while Nakanoshima grew into a district of civic institutions, art, business and public life. The hotel’s description as “Floating Nakanoshima” captures this relationship between architecture and geography.\n“The Fusion of Traditional Beauty and Water” converts that setting into a contemporary hospitality experience. The river appears through reflection, texture, movement and light, expressed across metalwork, Nishijin weaving, projected imagery, flooring and calligraphy. The theme remains consistent while each craft and material contributes its own character.\nAt the entrance, slender metal pipes form a new architectural gate. Their varied lengths and positions create a changing surface that responds to daylight, illumination and the movement of guests. Finished by specialist craftspeople, the installation combines the precision of metalwork with the fluidity of water, giving the hotel a renewed presence within the Nakanoshima streetscape.\nThe experience of arrival continues in the lobby, where Isoya Yoshida’s proportions and Western-style detailing remain part of the hotel’s contemporary life. Restored mouldings and joinery sit alongside brass, timber, textile and new lighting. Each layer remains visible, allowing the building’s age and renewal to be read together.\nBehind the reception counter, a Nishijin textile folding screen provides the principal cultural gesture. Created using Fukurashi-ori, a three-dimensional weaving technique, its raised and recessed surfaces respond to light throughout the day. The composition captures the energy and changing density of water through textile, bringing Kyoto’s weaving tradition into the daily rituals of arrival and welcome.\nIts position within reception gives craft an active role in the hotel. Guests experience the work while checking in, meeting companions or pausing in the lobby. Cultural knowledge is encountered through use and proximity, connecting artisanal practice with the social rhythms of an international hotel.\nThis dialogue between inherited architecture and contemporary craft gives the renewal its depth. The hotel’s history remains present through proportion, material and detail, while new commissions introduce a fresh cultural perspective. Design supports continuity across generations, allowing long-standing guests and first-time visitors to recognize the building as both established and current.\nThe journey to the guest rooms shifts the atmosphere from the lobby's social scale to a more personal one. Projected moonlight and reflections across the corridor floor guide movement with a gentle visual rhythm. The sequence introduces a sense of calm before guests enter their rooms.\nInside, the design draws water into the quieter rituals of rest. Green and ochre flooring changes in density around the bed, creating the impression of a surface in motion. The hotel’s signature green, brass lighting, restored mouldings, and soft upholstery give the rooms a composed, residential character that connects to the public spaces.\nCalligraphic works extend across the headboards. Art becomes part of the guest’s daily experience, encountered while reading, resting and waking. Across all formats, artwork, materials, and light establish continuity with the wider hotel narrative.\nFor international visitors, Japanese culture is experienced through a sequence of encounters. Metal craft marks the entrance, Nishijin weaving shapes reception, projected light guides the corridors and calligraphy accompanies the guest room. These elements become part of arrival, movement and rest, giving cultural expression a direct relationship with hospitality.\nRIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka enters its next era as both a cultural address and a place to stay. Its renewal connects design, art, craft, and hospitality with the life of the city, presenting Osaka through the movement of water, the continuity of architecture, and the rituals shared between the hotel and its guests.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/2026/7/20/kdtc4hci6xygn6jvj2bl5w1rs0oyvt", "Official Company Website": "https://www.nomurakougei.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000078.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000079", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010019", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "CEVEN LAB", "metadata": { "Project": "CEVEN LAB", "Location": "Nagano, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office / Research, Showroom and Co-creation Facility", "Designer/company": "NOMURA Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "Yawataya Isogoro", "Completion": "2025" }, "excerpt": "Discover CEVEN LAB by NOMURA Co., Ltd., an innovative sensory hub in Nagano where 300 years of spice tradition meets modern collaborative prototyping. This unique interior transformation redefines co-creation through live blending and sensory design.", "editorial": "For almost three centuries, Yawataya Isogoro has turned spice into part of Nagano’s cultural identity. Founded in 1736, the company grew alongside the flow of pilgrims visiting Zenkoji, where hospitality was expressed through small acts of preparation, explanation and exchange. CEVEN LAB carries this tradition into a contemporary business setting, giving aroma and taste a central role in how new ideas are discussed and developed.\nCreated by NOMURA Co., Ltd. within a former confectionery workroom and warehouse, the facility brings together a test kitchen, showroom, archive, office, and business lounge. Its purpose responds to the way Yawataya Isogoro now works. The company has completed more than 300 collaborations and develops products from close to 40 spice ingredients, often with partners in food, fashion, entertainment, and popular culture. A request may begin with a brand story, a fictional character or an atmosphere that has yet to find a flavour. CEVEN LAB gives those abstract conversations a physical form. Partners can move directly from an image, word or cultural reference to ingredient selection, blending, aroma and tasting. The process places sensory experience at the centre of collaboration, allowing people from different industries to build a common language through something immediate and memorable.\nThe Blend Kitchen is where this exchange becomes visible. Two curved timber counters bring Yawataya Isogoro’s specialists and visiting partners together at the same height, with ingredients and samples passing easily across the shared surface. The arrangement creates the informality of a working studio and the concentration of a kitchen, giving each participant a direct role in shaping the result.\nAbove the counters, a circular golden canopy establishes a clear centre within the open warehouse. Its metallic surface recalls the lid of Yawataya Isogoro’s familiar shichimi tin, while integrated light draws attention to the activity below. The gesture connects brand memory with present-day work, giving a practical blending area the sense of occasion associated with a shared table. The wider interior keeps the character of the former warehouse visible. White-painted ducts, tracks and services remain overhead, set against pale timber joinery, light flooring and precise gold details. The designer, Ms. Yuri Nakagawa, uses this contrast to express a working culture that values both inherited knowledge and active experimentation. The atmosphere feels open, bright and purposeful, suited to a place where ideas need to move quickly between conversation and production.\nKnowledge is made accessible through the archive. Shallow drawers hold past products, ingredients, and collaborations, while nearby displays showcase spices through colour, texture, and origin. A visitor can trace an earlier project, examine the materials behind it and carry that reference directly to the Blend Kitchen. The company’s history serves as a practical resource for new development, kept close to the people who use it. Seven coloured modular tables bring a more flexible rhythm to the collaboration area. Their tones refer to the components of shichimi, while their movable format supports small discussions, workshops and live-streamed sessions. A pair of collaborators can work beside the windows, then join a larger group as the project develops. The space adapts to the scale of the exchange, giving creative work room to expand.\nThis flexibility reflects a contemporary form of hospitality. Visitors are welcomed into the process through tasting, handling, and discussion, with Yawataya Isogoro’s staff sharing their knowledge up close. A spoonful of spice, a change in aroma or a small adjustment to a blend can communicate more clearly than a long presentation. The experience turns product development into a cultural encounter shaped by attention, curiosity and trust.\nCEVEN LAB also brings Nagano’s food culture into wider creative conversations. Collaborations with brands and cultural properties introduce shichimi to audiences who may first encounter it through fashion, entertainment or design. The local ingredients and blending techniques remain visible throughout the process, giving each new partnership a direct connection to the company’s place of origin and accumulated expertise. By adapting an existing warehouse, NOMURA Co., Ltd. has created a workplace that supports research, business, and cultural exchange within a single shared environment. The project gives a long-standing regional company the means to work with new partners while keeping its knowledge active and tangible, but also presents heritage as something practised in the present. Yawataya Isogoro’s archive, ingredients and blending traditions provide the foundation, while the open kitchen and collaboration spaces invite new interpretations. The future of the brand is shaped by the same essential gestures that have defined it for generations: selecting, blending, tasting, and sharing.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/ceven-lab-designed-by-nomura-co", "Official Company Website": "https://www.nomurakougei.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000079.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000080", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010020", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "GRAND GREEN OSAKA — South Commercial Zone", "metadata": { "Project": "GRAND GREEN OSAKA — South Commercial Zone", "Location": "Umekita, Osaka, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office / Park-led Retail and Public Space", "Designer/company": "NOMURA Co., Ltd.", "Client/collaborators": "GRAND GREEN OSAKA; commissioned artists and craftspeople", "Completion": "21 March 2025" }, "excerpt": "NOMURA Co., Ltd. is transforming Osaka's urban gateway by integrating the retail interiors of GRAND GREEN OSAKA with Umekita Park through responsive kinetic art, strategic lighting, and immersive biophilic design.", "editorial": "At GRAND GREEN OSAKA, the delineation between the shopping district, station concourse, and urban park has been purposefully softened. In the South Commercial Zone, NOMURA Co., Ltd. has designed the interior as an integral component of Osaka’s larger pedestrian landscape, where retail, food, art, and public circulation collaboratively exist within the same civic environment.\n \nThis development is situated within one of the city’s most prominent mixed-use projects, directly connected to Osaka Station and Umekita Park. This strategic positioning influences the character of the commercial floors, featuring spacious pathways, visually accessible entrances, and long vistas that guide the eye toward greenery, terraces, and adjacent public spaces. The overall experience is akin to traversing a neighbourhood rather than entering a conventional shopping center.\n \nThe integration of nature is articulated through both landscaping and artistic interpretation. In one atrium, hundreds of suspended reflective elements evoke the appearance of leaves suspended in mid-air. Their polished surfaces fragment the surrounding architecture, people, and shifting light, creating a dynamic canopy that continuously evolves as visitors traverse the space beneath it. Additionally, sweeping bands of illuminated vertical structures delineate graceful curves across the ceiling, introducing a rhythmic elegance to major circulation areas and offering a distinctive identity to the concourse from afar.\n \nThis relationship with the landscape is expressed through a vertical arrangement of four distinct themes: Mineral on B1, Grove on 1F, Breeze on 2F, and Daylight on 3F. Each level distinctly conveys its own atmosphere while preserving a coherent connection to the broader theme of nature inherent in the development. The lower floors are characterized by stone-like textures and deeper tones, while the middle levels incorporate plantings and more inviting materials. The upper circulation areas are defined by brighter surfaces and more open ceiling configurations.\n \nThe B1 level represents the vibrant energy of an urban market, featuring Time Out Market Osaka, along with various cafés and Japanese restaurants. This area showcases a darker, more dense interior, where exposed ceilings, warm pendant lighting, and graphic signage create a distinctly social environment. This contrasts effectively with the brighter retail floors above, offering a diverse range of experiences that include quick dining options, evening gatherings, as well as shopping for fashion, jewelry, and opportunities for leisurely browsing.\n \nArt is seamlessly integrated at multiple scales. Reflective ceiling installations invigorate major public pathways, while sculptural elements are strategically positioned near restaurants and along quieter passageways. This thoughtful placement allows cultural expressions to become part of the daily movement within the complex, encountered while navigating between shops, awaiting appointments, or proceeding toward the park.\n \nThe external architecture further reinforces this integrative relationship. Landscaped terraces, planted borders, and pedestrian courts occupy the spaces between the commercial podium and surrounding towers, effectively extending the retail environment into the public realm of GRAND GREEN OSAKA. From within, glazed openings and garden views maintain this connection, while from the park, the commercial levels present an animated edge to the larger urban district.\n \nThe most noteworthy aspect of the South Commercial Zone is the harmonious coexistence of these varied elements. Luxury retail, restaurants, public art, landscaped courtyards, and major commuting pathways each maintain distinct identities without devolving into isolated destinations. NOMURA Co., Ltd. has crafted a commercial interior that actively engages with the life of the district, thus extending the experience of GRAND GREEN OSAKA from the park and streets into the spaces where individuals shop, dine, convene, and spend their leisure time.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/grandgreenosaka-designedby-nomura", "Official Company Website": "https://www.nomurakougei.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000080.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000081", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA20260100019", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "A Chromatic Rhapsody: Reimagining the Modern Dwelling", "metadata": { "Project": "A Chromatic Rhapsody: Reimagining the Modern Dwelling", "Location": "Hong Kong", "Project type": "Interior Design — Residential", "Designer/company": "Deco Farmer Studio", "Additional credits": "Heiman Chan — Founder and Interior Designer", "Client/collaborators": "Private client", "Completion": "February 2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Deco Farmer Studio transforms a Hong Kong apartment into a high-impact residential design. By leveraging primary colour blocks, strategic joinery, and custom geometric surfaces, the layout redefines traditional living spaces into a gallery-focused interior.", "editorial": "Colour establishes the rhythm of \"A Chromatic Rhapsody\" from the moment you enter. Designed by Hong Kong-based Deco Farmer Studio, the residence uses yellow, green, red, and blue as instruments of spatial identity. Each colour corresponds to a surface, object, or threshold, allowing this compact domestic interior to convey the energy of a much larger space.\nThe conventional living room is reimagined as an expansive foyer. A bicycle is showcased against a geometric tiled wall, transforming an everyday object into a work of art and introducing the owners through the items they use. This playful gesture also alters how the home is perceived: the entryway, display, and social spaces overlap from the beginning.\nThroughout the shared areas, loose furniture and built-in elements follow the same colour scheme. Doors, cabinets, and shelves are each assigned distinct blocks of colour, while patterned surfaces highlight the junctions between them. The colour palette is vibrant, yet its application remains deliberate. Large planes create visual order, while smaller accents introduce movement and prevent the interior from settling into a singular decorative style.\nThis careful control is especially evident in the guest room, which is divided into a man cave and a walk-in wardrobe. A red feature screen separates the two areas without completely closing them off. Textured wall coverings and contrasting colours provide each side with a unique character, turning a practical division into one of the project’s most expressive sequences.\nThe design also recognizes the importance of release. As the layout moves toward the owners’ bedroom, the colour palette softens, and the pace slows. Calmer tones signal privacy and rest, completing the transition from the lively public areas to a more tranquil personal retreat. Thus, the chromatic narrative has a clear beginning, crescendo, and conclusion.\nDeco Farmer Studio utilizes colour to reflect personality while maintaining everyday functionality. Storage is thoughtfully integrated, circulation paths are clear, and personal objects are intentionally placed within the overall composition. While the residence feels curated, it doesn’t resemble a showroom. Its most compelling quality is the sense that the colours have emerged from the owners’ habits, sense of humour, and appreciation for visual vibrancy.\n\"A Chromatic Rhapsody\" presents domestic exuberance as a form of discipline. The project’s confidence stems from a clear understanding of where colour should dominate, where texture should add depth, and where quieter surfaces are needed. This balance transforms a bold palette into a livable environment and gives the home an immediate, personal identity that resonates throughout the entire space.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/a-chromatic-rhapsody-designedby-deco-farmer-studio", "Official Company Website": "https://www.decofarmerstudio.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000081.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000082", "sda_entry_number": "SDADEC2026010001", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Hollow Valley Residence", "metadata": { "Category": "Details", "Project": "Hollow Valley Residence", "Location": "Not provided", "Project type": "Interior Design — Residential / Private Residence", "Designer/company": "NX DESIGN HOME", "Client/collaborators": "Not provided", "Completion": "1 May 2023" }, "excerpt": "NX DESIGN HOME transforms a multi-level family home into a masterclass of structural light and circulation. This private residence balances open-plan connectivity with high-performance spatial efficiency for a family of six.", "editorial": "A house shared by six people naturally develops its own rhythm. Mornings revolve around breakfast and departures, afternoons see activities scattered across different rooms, and evenings bring the household back together. At Hollow Valley Residence, NX DESIGN HOME focuses on this daily routine, using daylight, expansive views, and a thoughtfully organized layout to keep a substantial family home connected without feeling over-managed.\n \nThe designers worked with a household that includes four children, which immediately shifts the priorities in a large residence. Generous space is beneficial, but only when it remains easy to navigate, adaptable, and capable of supporting multiple routines at once. Hollow Valley Residence is shaped around these realities. Communal areas remain visually open, circulation paths are clear, and storage is integrated into the architecture to accommodate change while maintaining composure.\n \nDaylight sets the interior’s rhythm. Floor-to-ceiling glazing allows the atmosphere to transition from misty mornings to bright afternoons and the warm tones of evening. Columns, walls, and light surfaces register these shifts throughout the day, making the passage of time perceptible within the interior itself.\n \nWhile this concept could have become purely decorative, NX DESIGN HOME maintains its architectural integrity. The structural columns are visible across the main living area, establishing a rhythm within the open plan and helping to delineate activities without relying on numerous walls. Their shadows change as the day progresses, giving the fixed structure a dynamic presence.\n \nThe kitchen bears much of the social responsibility of the house. Its elongated island combines storage and prep space with the informal function of being a family gathering point. Aligned with the cabinetry behind it, the island also helps organize movement throughout the wider communal area.\n \nThis distinction is vital in a family home. The kitchen is not treated as a display piece set apart from daily life; rather, it integrates into the household’s circulation, becoming a place where cooking, conversation, and movement naturally overlap. The design acknowledges that some of the most significant moments in a home occur in these ordinary interactions.\n \nThe restrained color palette allows routines to unfold naturally. Pale mineral surfaces, timber, glass, and muted upholstery create continuity throughout the residence, while variations in daylight offer visual interest. The overall effect is calm without feeling overly precious—an essential quality in a home expected to accommodate the unpredictability of family life.\n \nHollow Valley Residence becomes even more architecturally ambitious as it extends below ground. At the second basement level, glass is utilized to bring light deeper into the building, sustaining a visual connection with the levels above. The designers aimed to preserve a sense of linkage to above-ground life, even in the deepest areas of the house.\n \nThis thoughtful use of space adds significant depth to the residence. Brightness is not limited to the perimeter; it flows through openings, glazed boundaries, and framed views, allowing the lower levels to remain part of the same domestic environment.\n \nThis approach is particularly suited to a family home. As children grow, routines shift, rooms gain new purposes, and the household gradually reorganizes itself over time. NX DESIGN HOME has equipped Hollow Valley Residence with a structure capable of adapting to these changes while maintaining coherence.\n \nTherefore, its strongest quality is not the stillness captured in photographs, but rather how the interior is designed for movement. Daylight shifts across the columns, people gather around the island, activities transition between floors, and the atmosphere transforms from morning to evening. Hollow Valley Residence is crafted around these recurring moments, providing a large family home with both spatial clarity and the flexibility to evolve.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/hollow-valley-residence-designed-by-nx-design-home-china", "Company Reference Profile": "https://betterfutureawards.com/MEL26/projects.asp?showFeatures=0&showNews=0&studio=NX+DESIGN+HOME" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000082.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000083", "sda_entry_number": "SDADEC2026010002", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Zimo ● Songjing", "metadata": { "Project": "Zimo ● Songjing", "Location": "Not provided", "Project type": "Interior Design — Residential / Townhouse Residence", "Designer/company": "NANJING SUKONG INTERIOR DESIGN CO. LTD.", "Client/collaborators": "Private residential client; name not provided", "Completion": "1 February 2025" }, "excerpt": "Explore how NANJING SUKONG transforms a narrow townhouse into a vertically connected home. This project features a skylight-lit central staircase and a glass lift, maximizing light and spatial flow.", "editorial": "In Zimo ● Songjing, light is integrated into the household as an essential element rather than just a finishing touch. NANJING SUKONG INTERIOR DESIGN CO. LTD. has transformed a traditional townhouse by introducing a new vertical sequence that allows daylight from a third-floor skylight to flow through the center of the home, connecting rooms that would otherwise feel like separate levels.\nThe transformation begins with the staircase, which has been reconfigured from two flights into three and paired with a transparent lift, making it the central feature of the residence. Daylight, movement, and glimpses of family life all pass through this vertical chamber, providing the house with a sense of internal orientation that is experienced from one floor to the next. The lift is an integral part of this architectural composition, carrying reflections and changing light throughout the day without obstructing the center of the layout.\nThe result is a home organized around relationships rather than isolated rooms. The basement, ground floor, and mezzanine support the more social aspects of daily life, while the upper levels are designated for bedrooms and private facilities. This gradual transition creates a natural rhythm throughout the house, moving from gathering and entertainment spaces to areas of rest and privacy, all while maintaining the visual continuity that unites the interior.\nThis continuity is particularly crucial in a multi-level home. While staircases typically function solely as a means of moving between floors, here they also allow family members to stay aware of activities happening elsewhere in the house. Sightlines across landings, openings that frame adjacent rooms, and light that travels vertically all contribute to a sense of connection within the domestic realm. The choice of materials is deliberately controlled. Light-colored surfaces reflect changing daylight, while darker cabinetry adds definition to the larger rooms. Warm red-brown tones introduce depth to the communal spaces. These elements establish continuity without flattening the individual character of each room. Living, dining, and transitional areas remain distinct yet are perceived as parts of a cohesive whole.\nOn the upper floor, the atmosphere becomes more personal. The third level is designed as a complete suite, where the architecture pays particular attention to the rituals of private life. An opening above the tatami area allows afternoon light to traverse textured walls, making the passage of time a visible component of the room. The master bedroom furthers this concept through its structure. Black beams and columns create a more intimate scale around the bed and incorporate the sloping roof into the design. Their presence stems from the structural renovation, giving the room a stronger architectural identity while allowing sleeping, storage, and tatami areas to coexist within one space.\nTransparency is handled with equal thoughtfulness. Rippled glass blocks between the master bathroom and wardrobe allow light to permeate while maintaining privacy. In the south-facing bedroom, an acrylic screen separates sleeping and laundry functions by diffusion rather than complete enclosure. These materials keep adjacent activities connected through light, even when direct views are softened.\nThis approach gives the project relevance within contemporary residential design. Privacy is not merely viewed as a binary state of open or closed; instead, it can be modulated through translucency, distance, material choices, and varying levels of visibility. This same principle applies to the house as a whole: shared life remains perceivable without compromising the tranquil character of the upper floors.\nNANJING SUKONG INTERIOR DESIGN CO. LTD. employs stairs, skylights, structural elements, and translucent boundaries to strengthen the relationship between everyday routines, light, and family interactions. The house becomes most expressive through the continually changing moments, such as a figure moving behind glass, afternoon sunlight crossing a wall, or an unexpected view opening between floors.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/2026/8/2/h688m82oszcoj92fmy02zh0r8dadx9", "Company Reference Profile": "https://dna.paris/winner/zoom.php?eid=71-94878-26" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000083.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000084", "sda_entry_number": "SDADEC2026010004", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "RenownGarden Chongqing", "metadata": { "Project": "RenownGarden Chongqing", "Location": "Chongqing, China", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office / Reception and Hospitality", "Designer/company": "Beijing Easy-Home Interior Design Co., Ltd.", "Client": "Not provided" }, "excerpt": "Beijing Easy-Home sets a new standard in hospitality spatial design with RenownGarden Chongqing, creating a continuous flow using perforated metal, reflective surfaces, and precisely controlled lighting.", "editorial": "RenownGarden Chongqing is defined by a distinctive tension between clarity and illusion. Beijing Easy-Home Interior Design Co., Ltd. establishes a precise architectural framework for this project, which is artfully disrupted through reflection, filtered light, and variations in transparency. The focus is less on decorative luxury and more on perceptual experiences and specifically, how a room transforms as one navigates through it, how a corridor may appear deeper than its actual dimensions, and how a surface can appear solid from one perspective while appearing nearly immaterial from another.\n\n\nThis design philosophy is most prominently illustrated in the cooler public areas. The integration of silvered glass, pale stone, and translucent panels creates an atmosphere that is both crisp and nearly weightless, while expansive glazing and reflected views maintain a connection to the external landscape. Light plays an integral role in shaping the spatial experience. Perforated metal screens diffuse points of illumination across walls and circulation routes, generating a layered depth that dynamically alters with the observer's position.\n\n\nConsequently, the corridors fulfill a more significant function than is customary in hospitality projects; they become an integral aspect of the overall experience rather than mere conduits between different spaces. Repetition, reflection, and controlled brightness extend the visual field, while selected objects and artworks serve as focal points within the continuous flow of movement.\n\n\nThe application of blue accents is judicious, thereby enhancing their impact. Sculptural seating, vertical installations, and carefully chosen wall surfaces introduce a cooler chromatic scheme without overwhelming the neutral backdrop. In contrast to the metallic and translucent materials, these elements function as markers within the broader composition, enabling individual spaces to maintain their distinct identities while remaining visually cohesive.\n\n\nA contrasting atmosphere is evoked in the bar and dining areas, where warm timber, bronze-toned screens, and darker ceilings replace the cooler luminosity with a more intimate ambiance. This transition is seamless; the same principles of perforation, reflection, and filtered light persist, but their temperature and density adapt to accommodate longer stays and facilitate private conversations.\nThe stairway is a vital transitional element between these two contrasting environments. Enclosed by tall glazing and metal screens, it receives abundant natural light during the day while preserving the project's emphasis on shadow, translucency, and layered views. Its folded geometry imparts a distinct architectural presence, allowing movement between levels to become an essential component of the spatial narrative.\n\n\nSeveral quieter spaces within the project reveal an alternate aspect of the design. Pale upholstery, curated plant compositions, and soft blue walls create environments where reflective surfaces recede, allowing texture to take on greater significance. These areas introduce a more leisurely pace, enabling the interior to shift between visual intensity and restraint while maintaining coherence.\n\n\nIn conclusion, RenownGarden Chongqing is characterized by controlled variation. The project does not rely on a single dramatic space or a signature material. Instead, its identity is cultivated through consistent adjustments in opacity, light, colour, and enclosure. Beijing Easy-Home Interior Design Co., Ltd. effectively translates these variations into a cohesive spatial language, resulting in an interior that is most memorable in motion, where each change in angle uncovers a nuanced interpretation of the space.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/renowngardenchongqing-designedby-beijingeasyhomeinteriordesign", "Official Company Website": "https://www.easyhomedesign.cn/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000084.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000085", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010009", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Perforated Metal Spinning Lamp", "metadata": { "Project": "Perforated Metal Spinning Lamp", "Location": "Japan", "Project type": "Lighting Design — Pendant Lighting / Product Design", "Designer/company": "Muneji Toh Architects", "Additional credits": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Client/collaborators": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Completion": "2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Muneji Toh Architects transforms industrial perforated sheet metal into dynamic pendant lighting using metal-spinning techniques. This process stretches the standard grid into custom geometries that project intricate, shifting light patterns across interior spaces.", "editorial": "The Perforated Metal Spinning Lamp by Muneji Toh Architects is shaped by a small but consequential decision: to spin a sheet of metal after it has already been perforated.\nMetal spinning is normally associated with smooth, controlled surfaces. In this case, the regular grid of openings is subjected to the same forming process as the metal itself. As the sheet is drawn into a three-dimensional shape, the perforations stretch with it, changing proportion according to their position on the curve. What begins as an industrially ordered surface becomes progressively less uniform as the form develops.\nThat change gives the lamp much of its character. The pattern isn't merely decorative surface ornament; it is the visible consequence of fabrication. The finished surface records how the material has moved, with the original perforation grid still legible beneath the distortions created by spinning.\nWhen illuminated, those deformations become spatial. Light passes through openings of different shapes and projects an uneven field onto surrounding walls, making the effect of the process visible beyond the object itself. The shade therefore operates at two scales: as a compact pendant and as a source of changing light and shadow within the room.\nThere is also something useful in the tension between repetition and variation. The starting material is systematic, while the forming process introduces differences. Neither condition disappears completely. The lamp retains the discipline of an industrial product while allowing the behaviour of the material and the skill of the maker to remain visible.\nFor Muneji Toh Architects, the significance resides in this precise interplay between technique and form. Unburdened by extraneous motifs, the object relies entirely on its constituent act of making unifying structure, perforation, and illumination into a direct expression of industrial craft.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/perforated-metal-spinning-lamp-designed-by-muneji-toh-architects-japan", "Official Company Website": "https://munejitoh.com/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000085.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000086", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA202601000101", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Gateway Studio", "metadata": { "Project": "Gateway Studio", "Location": "TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY, Tokyo, Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Communication and public space", "Designer/company": "Manami Oka / KOKUYO Co., Ltd.", "Additional credits": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Client/collaborators": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Completion": "26 July 2025", "Area": "Not stated in the submitted materials", "Photographer": "Not stated in the submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Designed by KOKUYO Co., Ltd., Gateway Studio activates Takanawa Gateway City as a flexible public hub that utilizes modular, soil-inspired design to host community events, exhibitions, and localized information exchange.", "editorial": "At Takanawa Gateway City, KOKUYO has redefined the role of the information center, positioning it as a dynamic space rather than merely a venue for announcements and orientation. Gateway Studio, strategically situated directly in front of the north ticket gates at Takanawa Gateway Station, was inaugurated in March 2025, in conjunction with the establishment of the new mixed-use district. This facility serves as a publicly accessible venue for information dissemination, events, exhibitions, pop-up shops, and community engagement. Its purpose is intimately connected to the ongoing development of a district that is still evolving: a locale where interests can be exchanged, relationships can be formed, and the identity of the new neighbourhood can be cultivated in a communal environment.\nKOKUYO frames the project with the guiding principle “Nurture your ideas.” This agricultural metaphor informs both the conceptual and material dimensions of the studio. Within a district designed around rail infrastructure, offices, and urban development, the interior design draws inspiration from visual representations of fields, rice paddies, soil, and seeds. Dyed cork was created through the analysis of the local soil's coloration, while vibrant green seed-shaped pins are employed to secure posters, booklets, and other printed materials. As such, information is literally “planted” within the surfaces, integrating the act of display into the project's identity.\nThe concept is further expressed architecturally through shelving that encircles the core of the studio. Thick, ribbon-like surfaces finished in cork provide a robust horizontal structure while enhancing the available display area: items can be exhibited on both the upper and lower surfaces. Behind these shelves, mirror-finished steel introduces a reflective quality and serves as a magnetic surface for supplementary materials. Consequently, this fixture transcends mere storage; it functions as an adaptable communication framework where material, display, and concept are intricately interwoven.\nThis adaptability is extended through a series of cube-shaped mobile units. The cork faces permit the use of the same seed-shaped pins, perforated boards accommodate conventional hooks, and shelf boards of varied dimensions can be interspersed between the cubes to augment the display surface. Mounted on castors, these units may be rearranged within the studio or relocated outdoors to the adjacent plaza on favourable days, thus enabling exhibitions and information to align with the vibrant public life surrounding the building.\nThis mobility is critical to the project’s engagement with the city. The studio occupies a transparent pavilion that is surrounded by greenery and outdoor seating, ensuring that its boundaries remain visually and functionally permeable. Displays may extend toward the plaza, visitors can transition seamlessly between the interior and exterior, and the space can adapt to differing requirements from one day to the next. The architecture provides a stable framework, whereas the furniture allows for programmatic flexibility.\n \nKOKUYO extends this design language into the graphics utilized throughout the studio. Imagery of seeds being sown into dark soil is prevalent across posters, signage, and products, thereby reinforcing the interior concept in the studio’s visual identity. Given that the facility must accommodate frequently changing information, this carefully curated vocabulary of soil, seeds, and uncomplicated geometry ensures that new content remains legible without resulting in visual disarray.\nThe Gateway Studio lies in how its design provides a tangible language for the evolving nature of public life. The cork surfaces capture the changing displays, the mobile fixtures traverse the room and plaza, and the graphic system maintains coherence between diverse activities. KOKUYO does not represent Takanawa Gateway City as a concluded urban product; rather, the studio is conceptualized around the idea that a new district accrues meaning progressively through the information, conversations, and small acts of participation that individuals contribute over time.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/takanawa-gatewastudio-designedby-kokuyo", "Official Company Website": "https://www.kokuyo.com/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000086.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000087", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA202601000111K", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "SPARX Guest Area & Lounge", "metadata": { "Project": "SPARX Guest Area & Lounge", "Location": "Japan", "Project type": "Interior Design — Commercial and Office", "Designer/company": "Tomoyuki Kobayashi / KOKUYO Co., Ltd.", "Completion": "2 November 2024" }, "excerpt": "Discover the SPARX Guest Area designed by KOKUYO. Observe live Nikkei 225 data and EDINET networks evolving into a dynamic, engaging environment. Investment strategies are made visible through data, art, and corporate hospitality.", "editorial": "“This project is not just an office; it is a space that thinks.” This simple idea underpins the SPARX Guest Area & Lounge, designed by Tomoyuki Kobayashi of KOKUYO for the investment firm's headquarters. The design reflects the corporate philosophy that “the macro emerges from the accumulation of the micro.” The interior space serves as an active medium through which this concept can be perceived, heard, and physically experienced. The company introduces its identity through the visitor’s journey, embedding that identity in the experience.\nThe journey begins in a long reception area with white tones that overlooks Tokyo. Indirect lighting traces the edges of the ceiling, while pale surfaces diffuse daylight. A continuous timber bench follows the perimeter, gently curving around an indoor tree, creating a calm and unhurried atmosphere. Ornamentation is minimal, allowing light, proportions, and material textures to define the environment. A large digital artwork occupies one wall, presenting financial information in the soft form of a landscape rather than through traditional charts and trading screens.\nThis artwork is sourced from Japan’s EDINET system, a public database of corporate financial disclosures. Historical data is processed through a generative system inspired by the behaviour of slime mould, revealing connections between companies that might otherwise remain hidden. In this installation, numbers transform into colour, movement, and spatial relationships, making finance resemble a living ecology, where individual entities respond to one another within a continuously evolving system. This approach makes a complex subject more approachable without diminishing its sophistication, giving emotional weight to information typically understood through analysis alone.\nA bronze-toned sliding threshold marks the transition from the reception area to a dark corridor. Its softly reflective surface captures a blurred image of the bright room before opening into shadow. The contrast is immediate: brightness gives way to darkness, stillness acquires rhythm, and the expansive reception narrows into a focused passage. This sequence operates with cinematic precision, using contrast and duration to prepare the visitor for a different mode of attention.\nAs visitors move along the corridor, real-time movements from the Nikkei 225 stock index are translated into synchronized visual and auditory patterns. Streams of light flow across a triptych of screens as individual stock fluctuations gather, separate, and form new alignments. Sound adds temporal depth to these movements, allowing the data to be perceived as a collective rhythm. This installation expresses emergence through the direct experience of micro-level events accumulating and interacting until a larger order becomes recognizable. SPARX’s investment philosophy is interwoven with the architecture, manifested through movement, sound, and varying intensities.\nDigital art by siro, Silica, and backspacetokyo, combined with sound design by Oyster and lighting from ModuleX, function as parts of a cohesive spatial composition. The screens align with the path of travel; the darkness minimizes visual distractions, while the pale floor helps maintain orientation. A timber-lined opening interrupts the black corridor with a sudden burst of warmth, using material contrast to signal a change in program and pace. This interplay of white and black, silence and movement, smooth and textured surfaces creates a tactile language through which the company’s thinking is gradually revealed.\nThe journey continues into a gallery-like space designed as an evolving platform for SPARX’s social vision and future initiatives. This adaptable framework can accommodate changing content and new forms of presentation as the company evolves. Ideas are allowed to emerge through continuity, adaptation, and repeated encounters. The architecture avoids constraining the organization within a single corporate message; instead, it provides a setting in which its priorities can be revealed over time.\n\n\nAdjacent lounges and meeting rooms shift the experience to a more intimate scale. Pale timber wraps the walls, ceilings, and integrated furnishings, while upholstered benches, shared tables, and acoustic surfaces facilitate waiting, conversation, reflection, and collaboration. The meeting room combines a formal conference table with a continuous bench and smaller tables along its edge, allowing for different patterns of use to coexist. In the communal lounge, a broad table faces a recessed refreshment counter, creating a social environment conducive to everyday activities such as making a drink, reading, exchanging ideas, or pausing between meetings. Controlled lighting and views of the city offer a calming atmosphere following the intensity of the data corridor.\nThese quieter rooms complete the project’s conceptual cycle. Small thoughts, informal exchanges, and individual observations are nurtured, allowing them to evolve into meaningful collective actions. Trust, focus, and openness are treated as vital components of the overall experience.", "official_links": { "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/sparx-guestarea-designedby-kokuyo", "Official Company Website": "https://www.kokuyo.com/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000087.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" }, { "skr_number": "SKR-2026-000088", "sda_entry_number": "MSDA2026010017", "award_year": 2026, "status": "Shortlisted / Finalist", "project_name": "Signature Pavilion “Earth Mart” at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan", "metadata": { "Project": "Signature Pavilion “Earth Mart” at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan", "Location": "Osaka, Kansai, Japan", "Project type": "Visual & Design Business Division (including exhibition) — Multimedia (Exhibition Design)", "Designer/company": "nora, NOMURA Co., Ltd.", "Completion": "April 2025", "Photographer": "Not stated in submitted materials" }, "excerpt": "Nora, NOMURA Co., Ltd. is transforming the supermarket experience with EARTH MART at Expo 2025 Osaka. This powerful exhibition focuses on food systems and sustainability, challenging our perceptions of daily dietary choices. The immersive spatial design leverages the familiar retail setting to reframe our understanding of life, consumption, and the future of food.", "editorial": "EARTH MART opens with the language of an ordinary supermarket: aisles, display cases, packaged goods, and the familiar choreography of choosing what to eat. At Expo 2025 Osaka, this commercial framework becomes a public exhibition about life. Food is presented as a network of living systems, memories, labour, and decisions, offering visitors direct access to questions that might otherwise seem remote or abstract.\nA central strength of the exhibition is its use of recognition. Visitors intuitively understand the supermarket setting, enabling the design to introduce moments of dislocation while maintaining clarity. Living vegetables emerge from dense planting beds, fish gather overhead as a suspended school, images of livestock accompany packaged meat, and rows of coloured ingredients fill refrigerator-like displays. Each scene is immediately legible, yet the familiar environment is subtly transformed to prompt a second look.\nThis approach gives physical form to the project’s concept of a \"silent exhibition.” Information is conveyed through scale, repetition, scent, material, and juxtaposition, with explanatory text supporting the experience without overwhelming it. The pavilion prioritizes observation. A wall of ingredients translates abundance into colour and pattern. A monumental installation, created from the equivalent of 28,000 eggs (the average lifetime consumption in Japan, according to the submitted material), turns a commonplace food into an architectural measure of time.\nThe exhibition transitions between present-day food culture and speculative forms of eating. The submitted plan positions living vegetables, fish, and livestock at the start of the visitor journey, establishing food as a biological reality before the narrative broadens to include a future sushi restaurant, a kitchen capable of recording and recreating flavours, frozen and pulverized vegetables, experimental sweets, and an umeboshi project extending from 2025 to 2050. Technology enters through the established language of food, ensuring experimentation remains connected to appetite, craft, and daily experience.\nMaterial choices reinforce this continuity between consumption and consequence. The submitted materials identify reused eggshells and living plant matter as exhibition elements, while contributions from farmers, sushi chefs, and biotechnology researchers extend the pavilion beyond a single authorial voice. Their expertise becomes part of the spatial narrative. The exhibition is presented as a constructed ecosystem of cultivation, preparation, preservation, consumption, and waste, with design serving as the structure that connects these various registers.\nThe plan is especially effective in treating circulation as a narrative sequence. Visitors move from displays of vegetables, fish, and livestock to sections focused on perception, measurement, technology, and shared food culture. “Receipts of the World,” “World’s Dining Table,” and the “Checkout Counter of Life” adopt the language of retail transactions, but their placement transforms the act of checking out into a moment for reflection. In the submitted drawing, the exit is described as the true entrance to EARTH MART: the world outside, where individual choices have consequences.\nThe final spaces temper the exhibition’s didactic potential through collective experience. A closing film centers on the image of a large shared table, with oversized projected foods creating a setting that is playful, social, and immediately understood across age groups. The pavilion concludes with conversation and appetite still present. Its argument is not that food should become a source of anxiety, but that careful attention can restore value to what convenience has made it easy to overlook.\nEARTH MART remains grounded in everyday life. Its supermarket references provide clarity, while shifts in scale, material, lighting, and sequencing create enough distance for familiar objects to acquire new meaning. The pavilion renders food culture spatial, a field in which pleasure, responsibility, science, memory, and survival coexist.", "official_links": { "Official Project Website": "https://expo2025earthmart.jp/", "Merci Magazine Project": "https://www.merci-magazine.com/sda-2026-finalshortlisted-interior-design/signature-pavilion-earth-mart-at-expo-2025-osaka-kansai-japan-designed-by-noranomura-coltd-japan", "Official Company Website": "https://www.nomurakougei.co.jp/en/" }, "record_path": "Shortlisted/SKR-2026-000088.md", "record_updated": "2026-10-28", "publisher": "Sky Design Awards by Merci Magazine" } ]