Award Ceremony 2007

At the prize award ceremony for the prestigious 2007 contractworld.award in Hannover, the top prizes went to architects and interior designers from Austria, Spain, Poland and Portugal.

To meet the eligibility criteria, the interior design schemes submitted to the jury had to be current projects that have been completed recently. A total of 14 prize winners were selected, two of them receiving special prizes. Under the title of "Visions for Offices, Hotels and Shops" the competition was dedicated to contemporary office environments, creative or "designer" hotel interiors and effective modern shop concepts. Last year saw the introduction of a fourth category, which focuses on a different theme each year. This year's special theme was Education/Training, which attracted 117 entries in this category alone.

The first prize in this category went to Aires Mateus e Associados from Portugal for the Sines Arts Centre project, an arts and education centre in Lisbon.

In the category "Offices" the first prize was won by the Austrian firm of architects Oskar Leo Kaufmann | Albert Rüf Ziviltechniker GmbH for their new headquarters building constructed for machine tool manufacturer DMG in Klaus, in the Vorarlberg region of Austria.

In the category "Hotels/Restaurants" ADD+Xavier Claramunt from Spain won first prize for their hotel project "Chic & Basic Born" in Barcelona. And first prize in the category "Shops/Showrooms/Exhibition stands" went to the Polish office Ingarden & Ewý, Architekci. Their entry was the Polish Pavilion for Expo 2005 in Aichi/Japan.

All the prize-winning projects were showcased in a special exhibition that forms part of contractworld in Hall 4; they will also be documented at length in a glossy publication due to appear in April.

There is also a new film available: Members of the jury present all 14 projects of the prize winners 2007 (in German language).