Projects: Showroom

Meghan Edwards -- Interior Design, 12/1/2011 2:00:00 AM

Winner: Banozic Architecture/Scenography
Project: Siminn
Location: Stuttgart, Germany

Anyone who's suspected that the pilot's seat might be more fun than coach can test that theory at the Siminn flight center. Boris Banozic installed full-size replicas of a Boeing 737 and a Learjet 45XR cockpit inside a 1970's factory, now a 2,800-square-foot facility open to the general public, corporations hosting events, and flight-school administrators interested in buying a simulation system. The faux cockpits and fuselages were assembled on-site from CNC-cut plywood to help re-create a pilot's full visual experience-three synchronized projectors render panoramic scenery, and all gauges, knobs, and switches are functional. From this fully three-dimensional environment, 2-D wings and tails extend as images spray-painted on the walls in 12 shades of white, gray, and black. The joke continues onto the concrete floor, where gray varnish and orange and black paint mimic the lines on a runway.

Merit: Design Collaboratives
Project: Maya Romanoff Corporation

Location: Chicago

LED-backlit letters guide visitors from a Merchandise Mart corridor to this manufacturer's first showroom, with its pullout system for surface materials.

Merit: Yalın Tan Jeyan Ülkü Interior Architecture
Project: Ersa

Location: Istanbul

A chipboard "box-in-box" area features printed photomural portraits of Paola De Francesco and João Ramos Silva, who designed the Fluido office system.

Merit: Giorgio Borruso Design
Project: Snaidero

Location: New York

What was once strictly a kitchen showroom has expanded, with the same abstracted geometric aesthetic, to present bathroom systems, closets, and interior doors.