German Interior Design Award

The Association of German Interior Designers (BDIA) has honoured the children's day care centre of Messe Frankfurt with one of its German interior design awards. Rolf Pauw’s architectural firm 'Das Projekt', which is located in Hofheim, Germany, received the special award for social facilities.  

"With the newly designed rooms, our goal was to create something truly special for the children of our exhibitors, visitors and employees. We can tell that the facilities are very popular with the children because they enjoy spending time here. It makes us all the happier that the jury for the Interior Design Award was also impressed with the rooms,” says Dr. Michael Peters, member of the Board of Management of Messe Frankfurt.  
Professor Rudolf Schricker, President of the BDIA, considers the award-winning project "unusual in every way; it is hard to classify using established criteria, but it is outstanding in its originality and unconventionality. Its concept of a special space for children on the exhibition grounds is quite out of the ordinary." The award was presented recently at the ORGATEC trade fair for office and contract furnishing in Cologne, Germany. The "Forum for Planners and Designers" was the perfect occasion for the awards ceremony.  

The rooms of the childcare centre in the Messe Frankfurt Torhaus cover a total area of 180 square metres. They offer a wide range of educational activities, making it possible to care for up to 25 children of a variety of age groups. The facilities are available for use by the children of exhibitors, trade fair visitors and employees. The newly designed rooms were used for the first time during the 2007 Tendence Lifestyle trade fair.  

A reception desk and cloakroom are located in the entrance area of the centre. Here children are registered and receive a storage bag in which to keep their personal belongings.
Parents with babies can also make use of the centre which features a nappy changing area, an enclosed crawl area and a quiet room where mothers can go to nurse their babies. There is also a kitchenette where parents can warm up baby bottles and jars of baby food.
For the older children there are different play zones, ranging from a comfortable reading pit lined with cushions to an active play area (including a climbing wall), a children’s theatre and cinema and a multimedia counter with three PCs that offer age-appropriate games and learning software.
The multifunctional quiet zone serves as a place to be alone, nurse a baby or sleep. In addition to educational activities, the childcare centre also offers snacks and meals for the children. The food is provided by Accente Gastronomie Service, the catering subsidiary of Messe Frankfurt.  

The German Interior Design Award is the most important prize for interior designers and architects in Germany. This is the seventh time the award has been presented. With a total of 10,000 euros in prize money, this year’s awards were the best endowed in the history of the BDIA. Three winning prizes, three special awards and 24 awards were presented. The prize competition called for innovative projects in which the interior architecture was planned, developed and executed in an exemplary and holistic manner.  

A jury of first-class experts judged over 106 competition entries on 11 July.  

Members of the jury:

• Kees Spanjers (Architect NL), Past President of the European Council of Interior Architects (ECIA)
• Prof. Rudolf Schricker (Interior Designer/Architect BDIA, Stuttgart/Coburg), President of the Association of German Interior Designers (BDIA)
• Dirk Meyhöfer, Hamburg, architectural critic and publicist
• Gabriele Schönherr-Juli, Fulda, winner of the 2002 German Interior Design Award
• Prof. Johann Stief (Architect/Interior Designer, Halle), Professor for Interior Architecture/Design at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design