BEST OF YEAR Awards 2020

In this most unusual year, the 15^th annual Best of Year Awards 2020 was held in front of a virtual audience for the very first time.

Hosted by Cindy Allen, Interior Design Magazine’s Editor in Chief, the event was broadcast on December 8^th to an audience of designers and architects on Sandow’s Design TV, as well as Interior Design Magazines Facebook Live. Considered the ultimate measure of design excellence, the Best of Year Awards honors the most significant work of 2020 from a plethora of submissions from around the world.

We are very proud that our partners have been honored with wins in five categories. Discover all the winners below.

In the Residential Storage category, Acerbis’ Storet earned the top spot.

Exemplifying the pioneering vision of Milan’s late, great Nanda Vigo, Storet is a spirited, playful pillar of drawers, reissued and updated in 2020 with vibrantly lacquered walnut and brand new proportions. In both its elongated vertical edition and in the lower nightstand — designed by Vigo, but manufactured for the first time this year — the Storet reflects both state-of-the-art advances in production, as well as Acerbis’ extensive wood surfacing expertise, evinced here in sumptuous, visible wood graining. Despite its mono-material construction, Storet offers a buoyant and rewarding choreography of color, texture and form.

In the Outdoor Seating category, Paola Lenti’s Hommock brought home the win.

Designed by renowned, Miami-based architect Rene Gonzalez, Hammock marries the spirit of its swinging namesake with the basic structure of a traditional sling chair. A gently draped seat — an original weave in Paola Lenti’s proprietary, high-performance Rope yarn — stretches across a playful, tubular metal frame varnished in a glossy lacquer. Conveniently lightweight, Hammock offers both easy transport and unique suitability to a variety of contexts — a minimalist silhouette equally at home on intimate urban balconies as it would be in a sprawling garden space, or indoors. Beyond its form, Hammock can be specified in almost 400 mono and polychromatic colorways (and unlimited custom hues) further distinguishing it as an exceptionally dynamic addition to any space.

In the Residential Desk category, Zanotta’s Tucano desk was pronounced the winner.

The Tucano writing desk represents a sophisticated, pragmatically-sized work-from-home solution, equally well-suited to contract and hospitality settings. Tucano’s deceptively simple frame, tubular, matte black-finished steel provides support for a trim but supple surface crafted of natural cowhide which overlays Tucano’s structure. Visible rivets become a playful decorative element, connecting cowhide flaps across the desktop frame. Over time, with wear and weathering, the cowhide will take on a warm patina, rendering Tucano — like so many of Zanotta’s enduring icons — an inevitable heirloom in the making.

In the Contract Seating category, Zanotta’s Dan chair took top prize.

Defined by a playfully minimalist frame of tubular bent steel — available in grey and matte black finishes — Dan was conceived for custom outfitting with colorful elastic belts, stretched directly across its lithe structure. Offered in the bold colorways Yellow, String, Anthracite and Blue, Dan’s polyester belts serve as something of an open canvas, welcoming personalization by the specifier in the form of custom-printed graphics and text. The result, therefore, becomes an opportunity for virtually endless personal expression: a branding tool for companies, or a chance for individuals to articulate a more personal message. Epitomizing design’s individualistic nature, Dan stands out in its category as a singular medium for communication.

In the Floor Lamps category, Foscarini’s Tobia got the first place.

The lightness of a sign that outlines a body and a form to narrate a function. Tobia is an example of how simplicity can have character: slender, compact, easy to move, Tobia is a portable luminator that projects powerful light upward.