2011 Vision Awards - April 2011
The Vision Awards were created to honor projects based on the merit of their design, not on the brand of the materials used or the design firm’s reputation. The quality of the entries that we received for the 2011 Vision Awards affirms that designers value this design-for-design’s-sake approach. Our contest is unique in that it makes no stipulations regarding who creates the design, who installs flooring or what flooring they choose. In fact, our panel judges the entries with no knowledge of this information, instead focusing on how well flooring is integrated within the overall design, the suitability of the design for the project challenge, forward looking creativity, originality and the use of color. We commend our sponsors who agree to help us offset the expense of this contest even though their products might not be used in the projects being judged.
Based on feedback we received in the contest’s inaugural year, we decided to re-format the judging categories. In 2010, projects were categorized by the size of the space and the nature of the work: large remodel, large new construction, small remodel, small new construction. But this year we determined that it would make for a more interesting contest to have like judged against like, so we aligned the categories to the vertical segments: hospitality, retail, corporate, healthcare and education. This change makes the competition a more natural one, as it allows the judges to consider how well one space, a healthcare facility for instance, functions in comparison to another space with a similar purpose.
The make-up of our entries this year is representative of the current economic situation. The bulk of submissions were in healthcare, followed by education, then corporate. The retail and hospitality categories had the fewest entries. With both healthcare and education needs growing—due to a variety of factors including the aging baby boomers and population expansion—these categories are virtually unable to halt growth. As consumers have pulled back on spending, however, retail and hospitality have felt the pinch and may be delaying renovations as long as they can.
After our successful Vision Awards launch in 2010 (and a great awards celebration at South Beach), the contest sponsors were happy to get on board for 2011. Bentley Price Street, Centiva, Crossville and Johnsonite again backed this year’s competition. Shashi Caan of the Shashi Caan Collective made a reappearance as a judge, and Juliette Bowker of Perkins+Will and Gabriel Zavala of 3/d3 Studio signed on for judging as well.
Floor Focus will begin accepting entries for the 2012 Vision Awards next January, so, as you work on this year’s projects, consider which will make great submissions to next year’s contest.
To see more on our Grand Prize winner and the other Vision Award winners, see the April 2011 issue of Floor Focus Magazine.
Copyright 2011 Floor Focus
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