A woman stands beneath an intricate lattice of wood slats
Commercial winner Kigumi by Kengo Kuma & Associates is a sus­pended installation of 4,200 wood-look-aluminum hollow slats resembling traditional inter­locking Japanese joinery at the base of Alberni, the firm’s residential tower in Vancouver, Canada. Photography by Ema Peter.

October 17, 2023

Words: Athena Waligore

Raise a Glass to the 2023 CODAawards Winners

For the 11th annual CODAawards: Collaboration of Design + Art, which celebrates spectacular projects that integrate site-specific art into interior, architectural, or public spaces, 18 judges considered a record-breaking 411 entries from two dozen countries. The works represented over $54 million dollars in commissions. Among those tapped by CODAworx CEO Toni Sikes for the jury were INTERIOR DESIGN editor in chief Cindy Allen, Elkus Manfredi Architects principal Elizabeth Lowrey, Gensler Dallas principal and studio director Barry Hand, and various municipal cultural directors, collectors, and artists. Together, they selected winners across 11 categories, including a new collaboration award that recognizes the collective imagination of the professionals who work together on these projects. There were also two people’s choice winners, selected by popular vote. “The CODA­awards provide us with a particularly remarkable series of projects where designers demolish the barrier between their own stock in trade and the craft practiced by artists,” Allen says. “When artists become active contributors to spaces, trying to distinguish where design ends and art begins is simply an exercise in futility.” Hear, hear!

This Year’s CODAawards Spotlight Must-See Designs

Institutional Design Winner

A person stands in a large white shell-like sculpture
Winner of the institutional category, Marc Fornes/TheVeryMany’s Pavilion Nomad, a 16-foot-high, anodized-aluminum sculpture, was presented by Louis Vuitton at the Palazzo Serbelloni during Milan Design Week. Photography by Naaro.

Commercial Design Winner

A woman stands beneath an intricate lattice of wood slats
Commercial winner Kigumi by Kengo Kuma & Associates is a sus­pended installation of 4,200 wood-look-aluminum hollow slats resembling traditional inter­locking Japanese joinery at the base of Alberni, the firm’s residential tower in Vancouver, Canada. Photography by Ema Peter.

People’s Choice Design Co-Winner

A 21-foot-tall, resin-and-fiberglass flamingo
Both a people’s choice and the transportation winner, Matthew Mazzotta’s HOME is a 21-foot-tall, resin-and-fiberglass flamingo (named Phoebe after a contest with 65,000 entries) that greets travelers at Florida’s Tampa International Airport. Photography by Matthew Mazzotta.

People’s Choice Design Co-Winner

An airport passageway with vibrant ocean murals
The other people’s choice award went to marine conservation artist Janavi Mahimtura Folmsbee’s Aquarius Art Tunnel, a 240-foot-long passageway at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston about the Gulf of Mexico that incorporates acrylic painted walls, lenticular lenses, custom carpet, an AR filter, and a soundtrack. Photography by Raul Casares.

Residential Design Winner

A mural of zebras projected onto a residential building
Residential winner AD PACEM, a 50-by-85-foot mural, projection, and soundtrack by Faith XLVII, Inka Kendzia, and Stellamara animated the facade of an unoccupied 1880 single-family home during the arts festival BLINK Cincinnati. Photography by Agar.

Landscape Design Winner

A seven-story whale artwork rising from a river
StudioKCA collected 15 tons of plastic waste that have been assembled into the landscape category–winning Whale in Love, a seven-story entity that rises out of the Ai, a waterway in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, that’s referred to as Love River. Photography by Adam Lai.

Hospitality Design Winner

A red sculptural infinity loop in a city park
Claiming the hospitality category is Infinity, Gordon Huether’s 60-foot-long Corten loop on the grounds of the Auberge Resort Collection’s 700-acre Stanly Ranch in Napa, California. Photography by Micha Bruka.

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