Since 1955, the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Essen, Germany has been marking outstanding international product design with its famous dot. Manufacturers and designers of a wide variety of industrial products can enter their work all year round in different product groups for the coveted red dot award.

Following is a red dot: product design winner in the category Architecture and Interior Design:

Van Gogh Museum Shop
Museums such as the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam are true crowd pullers. This museum has a large collection of artworks by Van Gogh and other 19th century artists on display. Closely linked to its significance and popularity is the architecture by Gerrit Rietveld, who was also highly successful as a designer of the De Stijl group. The task to extend the museum shop and at the same time enrich the architecture both in function and aesthetics was therefore a big challenge. The new museum shop was to be larger than before, serve substantially more visitors, and live up to the international reputation of the museum. The architectural conclusion follows an environmental design, which subtly integrates the shop into the existing monumental museum architecture, while at the same time retaining the shop’s sense of architectural uniqueness. The entire entrance area was taken into account in order to integrate the shop in the flow of the building. The detailed grid of the building developed by Gerrit Rietveld served as a visual guideline for the shop’s interior design: it was used as a point of orientation in proportioning all components of the store into a well-balanced unity. The result is a shop that aims to impress museum visitors though its bold design. With clear lines and balanced contrasts in black and white it embodies an invitingly staged world for visitors and consumers. Dark natural stone, which varies according to sections, and dark shelves meet white installations of sculptural appearance, which also serve as product displays and room partitions. Also visually enticing is the combination of natural and artificial light sources: the products and books as they are presented in the displays look like warmly illuminated objects that amaze and astonish visitors. This shop thus embodies both an architectural as well as consumption-oriented attraction within the museum – users experience it as a unified whole that leaves a lasting impression.

Design Day Creative Business Partners B.V. (Gesina Roters, Louk de Sévaux, Mette Hoekstra), NL

Via: Bustler.net