INSIDE World Festival of Interiors has announced the best interior designs of 2021 across categories including "Education, "Health and Fitness", "Retail", and "Workplace – Large". The annual awards encompass the best interior designs from around the globe.

The first category winners for the best interior designs of 2021 can be seen on WAC, which was announced 25 November. 

INSIDE World Festival of Interiors is the sister event of World Architecture Festival and both events will be going as a live-streamed event, from 1 to 3 December, 2021 in Lisbon, Portugal.

The 2021 WAF digital event will consist of three days of live conference programmes, awards, and fringe events, with talks by leading global architectural thinkers and industry personalities live-streamed exclusively to festival delegates.

The second set of interior design category winners features leading global architecture practices, including Rapt Studio, Bates Smart, Stiff + Trevillion and Atelier tao+c.

This year's theme for INSIDE is Art In Space, which will welcome high-profiled speakers including Penelope Curtis, Ex-Museum Director - Gulbenkian Museum, Kirsten Lees, Managing Partner - London Studio - Grimshaw, Alan Maskin, Principal & Co-Owner - Olson Kundig, Paul Williams, Founding Director - Stanton Williams.

World Architecture Community is official Media Partner of WAF and INSIDE and will be bringing you the latest news about the festivals' speaker line-up and sessions. 

See the confirmed speakers for WAF and INSIDE here. Book your digital festival pass from here by entering this promo code online: WAC2020.

Scroll down to the see the award-winning projects at INSIDE 2021:

Image © Michael Lyon

The Education category winner: Rapt Studio has won the award for The Schoolhouse in the USA. The Schoolhouse offers multiple layouts in an existing building, selected to create a Google School for Leaders, a unique initiative that helps executives develop the skills needed to lead effectively in the 21st century. 

Judges praised the project for being "an ambitious and innovative example of how it is possible to retrofit an existing building to create a dynamic, welcoming and comfortable work and learning environment."

Image © Peter Clark

The Health and Fitness category winner: Bates Smart is the winner of the ‘Health and Fitness’ category with the project Gandel Wing, Cabrini Malvern located in Australia. 

The judges felt that "the humane approach to this high-quality healthcare facility resulted in a project that is both functional and elegant." 

During the pandemic the top floor of the facility was used to treat Covid patients while the rest of the building was able to operate as intended; a kind of flexibility that points to an agile and thoughtful design approach.

Image © Su Sheng Liang

The Hotels category winner: Atelier tao+c has won the ‘Hotels’ category with Capsule hostel and bookstore in China. 

Judges were impressed by the project’s simplicity in "converting an existing rammed earth building into a complex and rich interior, combining a small capsule hotel and beautifully layered library". 

Judges praised the "simple but warm palette of materials that have been used, including brick flooring made from recycled demolition materials and bamboo strip shelving."

Image © Adam Mørk

The Public Buildings category winner: The winning project is The Museum of Copenhagen in Denmark by JAC Studios ApS - a sophisticated transformation of an 1891 orphanage. 

Judges particularly noted the "beautiful touches in every detail, like the mirrored pavilion which houses exhibition pieces as well as reflecting the gorgeous ceiling designs, and the hand-blown glass staircase lights inspired by the stained-glass windows of the original building."

Image © David Yeow Photography

The Residential (Housing more than one dwelling) category winner: Stiff + Trevillion has won the award for The Home For A Brand New Start, China. Judges felt the project offers "an empathetic reimagining of an existing apartment for a mother and her child," with the use of "flexible and interlayered spaces providing an array of ready to use interiors."

Image © Xia Zhi

The Retail category winner: Atelier tao+c is the winner of the ‘Retail’ category with the project JOLOR STORE located in China in an old mining factory building. 

Judges praised "the simplicity of design and the discipline and skill shown in material selection that connects with the original architecture and expresses the complicated roof structure and steel tie rods as a beautifully lit sculpture."

Image © Ministry of Design Pte Ltd

The Workplace (Large) category winner: Ministry of Design Pte Ltd has won the ‘Workplace (Large)’ category with YTL Headquarter located in Malaysia. 

Judges were impressed with the coherent scheme set within a challenging context, especially at the lobby level, and commented how "at times the images looked like renderings with all the clutter associated with interior office space removed."

> via INSIDE