With designers ever conscious of how their projects will appear on Instagram, a host of jaw-dropping interiors that push the design boundaries define the twelfth edition of INSIDE, the World Festival of Interiors. Whether it’s a novelty cat café in Guangzhou, China, or a global heritage brand such as Fortnum and Mason inside London’s Royal Exchange, across the board we’re seeing design with a capital D. 

INSIDE is the sister festival of the World Architecture Festival and celebrates the world’s finest examples of interior design.

In this year’s ‘Bars & Restaurants’ category are the interior concepts for new restaurants by some of the world’s most innovative chefs. Bjarke Ingels Group are behind the design of the second incarnation of renowned Copenhagen restaurant, Noma. The unconventional layout, including greenhouses and outhouses, is imagined as an intimate culinary garden village, designed to give diners glimpses into the natural ingredients and fermentation processes behind the restaurant’s New Nordic cuisine. Over in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, Buro Ole Scheeren’s fast food concept for Dean & DeLuca’s chef-led eatery, ‘Stage’, uses a sculpted high-tech white Corian and steel centre-piece, to celebrate the artistry of food, and to create a stage for those who make and those who consume it. And in the City of London, Universal Design Studio are behind Fortnum & Mason’s new 360-degree bar, shop and restaurant in the Grade I Listed Royal Exchange courtyard, complete with a bespoke curved metal canopy.

These big hitters go up against novel projects, such as the cat-themed café, Meow Restaurant in Guangzhou, China, that embraces cats’ love of heights in its interior design. And Karavanstop Café, a lifestyle café by One Bite Design Studio at Hong Kong International Airport, that puts social media at the heart of its design, with an iconic green ceiling, abstracting the city’s topography, and an 'instagrammable' logo wall, both designed to capture the spirit of the area’s outdoor leisure activities.

Meow Restaurant is joined by another pet-themed project in China, this time a private home interior in Shanghai, designed to accommodate a family’s high pet ratio, giving freedom for both pet and owner to enjoy the living space freely.

In the Civic, Culture & Transport category, entries range from a cloud shaped, glass wedding chapel in Japan, to a library with an ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’-themed section in Singapore, and highlights from the Health & Education category include a multi-sensory room in Thailand for pre-school children with visual impairments.

Embracing a more organic approach to interior design is the National Museum of Qatar Gift shop by Koichi Takada Architects, which features curved timber ceilings and walls, inspired by the natural Qatari desert-scape, and engineered from 40,000 3D-modelled parts. St Andrews Beach Villa by Woods Bagot takes the organic approach to interior design to an even greater level, using a mixture of newer elements and old, worn materials from the villa’s previous iterations, to create a deliberate juxtaposition of eroded and resilient surfaces, and mundane and exquisite materials.

Major world architects and designers shortlisted include BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, Woods Bagot, Universal Design Studio, Buro Ole Scheeren; alongside others such as E Studio, KTX archiLAB, ONG&ONG, Snuper Design, Koichi Takada Architects and more.

View a selection of images of highlight projects from the 2019 shortlist here

INSIDE will reconvene in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from 4-6 December this year. This is the second time the event has been hosted in the Dutch capital, following previous editions in Barcelona, Singapore and Berlin.

All nominees will present their projects to distinguished international juries that include Johan Carlsson of Jac Studios, Annabel Kassar of AKK, James Grose of BVN and Weng Shanwei of AN Design during the Festival to compete for one of the nine INSIDE category awards. Open to all festival attendees, the presentations are followed by a live exchange between the designers and jurors. The overall winner of the ‘World Interior of the Year’ will be announced at an exclusive gala dinner on Friday 6th December at Beurs van Berlage.

WAF programme director Paul Finch commented: ‘INSIDE has been a growing part of the overall World Architecture Festival programme since 2012 and continues to grow in terms of quantity and quality. We are delighted with the intriguing designs and geographical spread of this year’s entries and look forward to the live judging in Amsterdam.’

INSIDE World Festival of Interiors and its co-located event, WAF, will welcome more than 2,000 of the world’s leading architects and designers to Amsterdam for three days of conference programmes, awards, exhibitions and fringe events from 4-6 December.

The full shortlist for this year's INSDIE awards can be viewed here

For more details on the INSIDE World Festival of Interiors Awards, please visit www.insidefestival.com @insidefestival #INSIDE19

Notes to Editors:

To register for a press accreditation to attend WAF and INSIDE register here.

Press, images and interview requests: Caro Communications: 020 7713 9388; @carocomms Charlotte Treadwell – charlotte@carocommunications.com
Tejal Dave – tejal@carocommunications.com

The 2019 INSIDE and WAF awards programme received more than 1000 entries for the second year in a row. Architects and designers generated 534 shortlisted entries across 70 countries.

The top 5 countries entering INSIDE 2019 are:

• China
• Taiwan
• Hong Kong
• Australia
• Singapore

About INSIDE – World Festival of Interiors

Held in Amsterdam from 4-6 December 2019 alongside World Architecture Festival, INSIDE is where the global design community meets to be inspired by the latest and greatest in global interior design and architecture. Over three days INSIDE shines a spotlight on the people, projects and developments that are changing the face of global interiors. At INSIDE’s heart is a global awards programme, which will be judged by more than 20 distinguished designers and editors from around the world. Finalists that are shortlisted across nine categories will present their project in person to international judging panels. After a hard fought battle, one practice will win the ultimate accolade of World Interior of the Year, which will be presented at a Gala Dinner awards ceremony on the evening of Friday 6th December at Beurs van Berlage

Award categories:

• Bars and Restaurants
• Civic, Culture and Transport
• Creative Re-use
• Display
• Health and Education
• Hotels
• Offices
• Residential
• Retail

Headline partners:
INSIDE is proud to work with headline partners ABB, Busch-Jaeger and Miele.

About World Architecture Festival (WAF)
WAF is where the world architecture community meets to celebrate, learn, exchange and be inspired.

WAF is the world’s largest annual, international, live architectural event. It includes the biggest international architectural awards programme in the world, dedicated to celebrating excellence via live presentations to an audience of high-profile delegates and international juries.

The 2019 World Architecture Festival (WAF) comprises:

- A thematic conference programme (this year based on the theme ‘flow’) - Electronic gallery of all Award entries
- Exhibition area
- Live judging of finalists’ projects

- Architectural tour programme
- Networking and social events including partner fringe events - Gala Awards Dinner

INSIDE World Festival of Interiors runs alongside WAF, with its own awards and conference programme. Delegates have access to both events.

WAF and INSIDE are organised by EMAP, publishers of The Architectural Review and The Architects’ Journal.

Entry information:

Shortlisted entrants will compete for category prizes on the first two days of the three-day Festival, which will take place in Amsterdam on the 4th, 5th and 6th December 2019. On the final day, category winners will present again to ‘super-juries’ of experienced and respected judges, who will decide on the World Building of the Year, Future Project and Completed Building of the Year Awards.

WAF Award categories:

• Civic - Future Projects
• Commercial Mixed-Use - Future Projects
• Competition Entries - Future Projects
• Culture - Future Projects
• Education - Future Projects
• Experimental - Future Projects
• Health - Future Projects
• House - Future Projects
• Infrastructure - Future Projects
• Leisure-led Development - Future Projects
• Masterplanning Future - Future Projects
• Office - Future Projects
• Residential - Future Projects
• Civic and Community - Completed Building
• Culture - Completed Buildings
• Display - Completed Buildings
• Health - Completed Buildings
• Higher Education & Research - Completed Buildings
• Hotel & Leisure - Completed Buildings
• House - Completed Buildings
• Housing - Completed Buildings
• Mixed-use - Completed Buildings
• New & Old - Completed Buildings
• Office - Completed Buildings
• Production, Energy & Recycling - Completed Buildings
• Religion - Completed Buildings
• School - Completed Buildings
• Shopping - Completed Buildings
• Sport - Completed Buildings
• Transport - Completed Buildings
• Villa - Completed Buildings
• Landscape – Rural Projects
• Landscape – Urban Projects