Announcements April 15, 2022

We’ve Won Three IFI Distinction Awards

The International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers' 2022 Global Awards Program celebrates design excellence on a global stage

Three of our projects—University of Virginia, University Hospital Expansion; Fullerton Health Lejing Clinic; and the Southwest Library in Washington, D.C.—have been recognized for design excellence in the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers’ Design Distinction Awards (IFI DDA).

The IFI DDA are a global design competition that recognizes excellence in the design outcome of built projects and provides a quality peer-reviewed assessment of completed interiors from around the world.

Our three projects are featured in the current issue of the IFI’s publication, Design to Designers (D2D). In collaboration with Design Diffusion News (DDN), IFI’s D2D is a curated international digital design source. This year’s final issue of IFI D2D showcases the layers that pervade the people, places, and things that shape our world.

Find out more about our finalist projects:

University of Virginia, University Hospital Expansion
Charlottesville, Virginia
University of Virginia, University Hospital Expansion
Charlottesville, Virginia

Health Gold Winner
University of Virginia, University Hospital Expansion
Charlottesville, Virginia 

The 168-bed expansion extends from the existing hospital with a fluid, curvilinear façade that creates a memorable entrance to the University Medical Center. A new lobby serves both the expanded emergency department and the remainder of the hospital. The new emergency department includes 82 treatment rooms organized into seven modules of service, one of which is a pediatric unit with a dedicated waiting area and check-in. The expansion also includes an interventional platform containing four new operating rooms and 12 new interventional procedure rooms. Levels three through eight are designed to accommodate a 28-bed care unit, with universal rooms providing more appropriate hospital bedroom spaces for state-of-the-art care delivery.

Fullerton Health Lejing Clinic
Shanghai, China
Fullerton Health Lejing Clinic
Shanghai, China

Health Bronze Winner
Fullerton Health Lejing Clinic
Shanghai, China

Fullerton Health is a two-story, 1,120 square meter adaptive-reuse private international clinic in the heart of Shanghai. With its headquarters in Singapore, the project is the flagship clinic for Fullerton Health’s China network. The design creates a state-of-the-art facility that integrates many core elements of the brand’s patient-centric focus.

A simple and comfortable aesthetic was used to create a relaxing treatment space in all aspects. Seats in the carpeted waiting area are arranged face-to-face, breaking the sense of sequence and tension created by traditional hospitals’ parallel arrangement of seats.

The lighting design throughout the clinic is soft and rich, with direct lighting and introduction lighting complementing one another. A hidden light strip in the corridor has a guidance function, allowing patients to quickly locate the nurse’s desk and other inquiry points. Patients can gradually experience the atmosphere of the space, feel the reduction of stress, and even feel that they are not in a hospital setting when they enter this clinic.

Southwest Library
Washington, D.C.
Southwest Library
Washington, D.C.

Humanitarian Bronze Winner
Southwest Library
Washington, D.C. 

A reimagined, highly sustainable Southwest Library in Washington, D.C. was designed as an exciting destination for the community to gather, connect, and learn. This new timber, glass, and brick landmark affirms the important civic role a library plays in people’s daily lives.

While designing to LEED Platinum standards and using environmentally sensitive energy and water conservation strategies, the team also drew on research that has identified library trends, including increased public space, adaptable technologies that meet patron needs, and greater flexibility in the arrangement of space. The high-performance façade captures diffused northern daylight, maximizes visibility to the building’s surroundings, and optimizes energy conservation. Sustainable aspects include a living green roof to produce oxygen and absorb runoff, along with photovoltaic panels that collect solar energy. The exterior features an inviting porch and balcony, while natural bio-swath vegetation enhances the park-like surroundings.

The new Southwest Library, a design/build project with Turner Construction, replaces the existing branch library. The new library is the first public building in the District of Columbia constructed using dowel laminated timber (DLT). It also achieved LEED Platinum certification for environmental design, integrating energy and water conservation strategies, and environmentally responsive materials, which were sourced regionally.

“The catalyst for innovation is when the division between designer and builder is removed” says Carl Knutson, AIA, LEED AP, Design Director.