Press Release
Silver A' Design Award in Interior Space and Exhibition Design Goes to Naturkundemuseum Stuttgart Exhibition, Museum and Gallery by Ralph Appelbaum Associates
Ralph Appelbaum Associates recognized for interior space and exhibition design by the international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 21, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Silver A' Design Award in the Interior Space and Exhibition Design category for Naturkundemuseum Stuttgart Exhibition, Museum and Gallery by Ralph Appelbaum Associates. The award was conferred within the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Silver A' Design Award
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
About Naturkundemuseum Stuttgart Exhibition, Museum and Gallery
Naturkundemuseum Stuttgart is an exhibition design for two central halls of a natural history museum in Stuttgart, Germany. Both halls are dedicated to evolution and biodiversity. In the Evolution Hall, six thematic islands with large historic specimens are arranged around a central multimedia table. The Ocean Hall is bathed in blue light and organized by marine habitats, from sea shores to the deep sea. A cutaway model of a sei whale carries a video projection. Daylight from the former courtyards is filtered and colored.
About Ralph Appelbaum Associates
RAA is the world’s largest practice dedicated to the planning and design of museums and narrative environments. Past and current projects—over 850 commissions in 52 countries—include many of the world’s most recognizable cultural attractions. With international studios located in New York, London, Berlin and Beijing, the practice draws together designers, architects, artists, historians, educators, media-makers, technologists, writers, and poets that are passionate about encouraging a mindful connection to the world around us. Since RAA’s founding in 1978, it has been honored with every major award for design and communication.
Award Record
With this recognition, Ralph Appelbaum Associates is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award
The A' Interior Design Award is an international interior design competition recognizing good interior designs by interior designers and architects worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to interior designers, interior architects, architects and decorators from all countries. Typical entries include residential interiors, restaurants, hotels, offices, galleries and retail stores. The awarded interior designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/interior
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/167635
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/167635
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!167635
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/270575
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://raai.com
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Naturkundemuseum Stuttgart Exhibition, Museum and Gallery
- Function
- Exhibition, Museum and Gallery
- Category
- Interior Space and Exhibition Design
- Discipline
- Spatial Design
- Industry
- Architecture and Packaging & Retail
- Colors
- Light Slate Gray, Gray, Dark Khaki and Dim Gray
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Ralph Appelbaum Associates
- Country
- United States of America
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2024 - 2025
- Design ID
- #167635
Credits
- Team
- Tim Ventimiglia, Sebastian Scheller, Sara Omassi, Hannah Wohlleb, Katharina Buchhauser and Anne-Maike Ewert
- Image Credits
- Photographer Daniel Stauch, Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History, 2023.
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Naturkundemuseum Stuttgart re-opened its two central exhibition halls dedicated to the overarching themes of evolution and biodiversity. In Evolution Creates Diversity, six thematic islands with spectacular specimens radiate around a central media table where visitors explore evolutionary concepts, while Immersion in Diversity immerses visitors in a captivating underwater environment exploring the topic of marine biodiversity.
- Inspiration
- Once courtyards of the castle, both exhibition halls were formerly outdoor spaces, filled with natural light and connected to the surrounding environment. Instead of blocking the natural light we embraced it, filtered and colored it to create a dynamic and immersive scenography of light. The Ocean Hall is dominated by a cutaway model of a sei whale, and the Evolution Hall by a large-scale taxidermy of an African elephant bull and European forest elephant.
- Challenge
- Biodiversity and evolution are fundamentally important topics for a modern understanding of the world and its many lifeforms. The exhibition aims to no longer present the topics in a textbook-like, instructive manner, but to become more engaging and transparent in the expression of their impact and interrelations. The new exhibitions are conceived in the spirit of public understanding of science, where not only Results and Truths are presented, but Ways and Processes of gaining scientific knowledge are demonstrated. This is especially important with regard to expressing the importance of natural history collections for current and historic research.
- Realization and Technology
- The design approach leverages the power of the building’s former courtyard spaces as iconic day-lit halls, and re-utilizes the Museum’s large historic specimens in dramatic new presentation within an immersive scenographic setting filled with intuitive interactive learning tools for exploring complex scientific concepts. The atmosphere of each of the two halls is very different, but each corresponds with the interpretive goals of the museum. The Ocean Hall is completely bathed in dynamic blue light and enables immersion in diverse marine ecosystems.
- Operation and Interaction
- The design of the Ocean Hall and the Evolution Hall aims to create a stunning spectacle that stirs the imagination and feelings of wonder and awe. Each room delivers an immediate visual impression and can be experienced as a ‘big idea’ before diving into secondary and tertiary levels of content. The Ocean Hall as an experiential space which primarily explores diversity and ecosystems. Designed as a space to explore and discover, the hall is organized by habitats, from sea shores to shallow reefs, to the open waters of the oceans and into the depths of the deep-sea bottom.
- Project Duration and Location
- This project started in March 2021 and opened to the public on February 17, 2023 at Schloss Rosenstein in Stuttgart, Germany.
- Keywords
- Natural History, Environment, Biodiversity, Science, Museum, Gallery
