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Audity Haider - First Prize - Bangladesh
Traditional carved door with metal hardware reflecting the crafts and techniques of Bangladesh by Audity Haider
"Traditionally, doors of the Indian subcontinent were made out of wood, often having intricate hand-carvings as ornamentation and were fitted with metal hardware. Similarly, for this project, I imagined a wooden door with ornate carvings of flower motifs fitted with brass hardware of similar floral details. Rather than a door knob, the traditional doors often had a door hasp and lock, which is what I also incorporated in my design, along with embellished brass door knockers and door handles. The frame of the door is also intricately decorated and indicates a hand-carved house number. Meanwhile, the cornice provides protection to the door while elevating its elaborate design. "
Audity Haider - First Prize - Bangladesh
Traditional carved door with metal hardware reflecting the crafts and techniques of Bangladesh by Audity Haider
"Traditionally, doors of the Indian subcontinent were made out of wood, often having intricate hand-carvings as ornamentation and were fitted with metal hardware. Similarly, for this project, I imagined a wooden door with ornate carvings of flower motifs fitted with brass hardware of similar floral details. Rather than a door knob, the traditional doors often had a door hasp and lock, which is what I also incorporated in my design, along with embellished brass door knockers and door handles. The frame of the door is also intricately decorated and indicates a hand-carved house number. Meanwhile, the cornice provides protection to the door while elevating its elaborate design. "
Envel Ollivier - Second Prize - France
Project for a Breton door and details of the hardware by Envel Ollivier
‘The sculpture of this Breton door will remind our descendants of the legend in which an ermine preferred to face the dogs that were tracking it, rather than soiling itself in the mud, thus giving birth to our motto: ‘Rather death than soiling’. The door will be engraved with sand bindweed, which slows down the inexorable advance of the Breton dunes. As for the hardware, it will be engraved with gorse from the local moors. The knocker will be forged like a Celtic torque, and the key will represent a Celtic cross adorned with knots, in keeping with tradition’.
‘I wanted to design a door that represented my region, Brittany, in terms of the materials used, the traditional techniques used and the ornamentation.
techniques used and the ornamentation. The door will face south, in keeping with tradition,
and will be set in a frame of granite, a local stone. The door itself is made from local oak.
The upper part is made up of 2 carved wooden panels. The ermine on the right and the Breton spaniel on the left represent Brittany's motto: ‘Kentoc'h mervel eget bezan saotret’ or ‘Rather die than be defiled’. It comes from a day when the Duchess Anne of Brittany, while hunting, saw an ermine, being stalked by dogs, preferring to die than get dirty by crossing a muddy pond. Fascinated, the duchess let it live and made the ermine her emblem.
Between these two wooden panels is a spinning wheel. This is a traditional motif that recurs on Breton furniture, made from turned wood. The centre of the wheel, where the symbolic ermine is located, is 2.345m high. This measurement comes from the dates on which Brittany was founded: 400 and 938 AD. If we divide the former date by the latter, we find exactly 2.345.
On the lower part of the door are 4 wooden panels decorated with sand bindweed.
These plants are found in the dunes of the Breton
Breton coastline. They help to fix the dunes and are found here as a symbol of stability against the ravages of time.
symbol of stability in the face of time, which sweeps everything away.
Finally, there's the hardware. The door handle represents a
bindweed flower. Underneath, the lock is decorated with
with gorse, a plant with yellow flowers and green thorns found in the
found on the Breton moors.
The knocker, meanwhile, is inspired by Celtic Breton torques. The
both ends, the dog and the ermine confront each other, in reference to the legend.
the legend.
Finally, I've drawn the end of a key. On it is a Celtic cross
cross, symbolising the union between the Celtic and Catholic religions that
existed in Brittany. The centre is decorated with Celtic knots, and these
throughout the region.
‘The sculpture of this Breton door will remind our descendants of the legend in which an ermine preferred to face the dogs that were tracking it, rather than soiling itself in the mud, thus giving birth to our motto: ‘Rather death than soiling’. The door will be engraved with sand bindweed, which slows down the inexorable advance of the Breton dunes. As for the hardware, it will be engraved with gorse from the local moors. The knocker will be forged like a Celtic torque, and the key will represent a Celtic cross adorned with knots, in keeping with tradition’.
‘I wanted to design a door that represented my region, Brittany, in terms of the materials used, the traditional techniques used and the ornamentation.
techniques used and the ornamentation. The door will face south, in keeping with tradition,
and will be set in a frame of granite, a local stone. The door itself is made from local oak.
The upper part is made up of 2 carved wooden panels. The ermine on the right and the Breton spaniel on the left represent Brittany's motto: ‘Kentoc'h mervel eget bezan saotret’ or ‘Rather die than be defiled’. It comes from a day when the Duchess Anne of Brittany, while hunting, saw an ermine, being stalked by dogs, preferring to die than get dirty by crossing a muddy pond. Fascinated, the duchess let it live and made the ermine her emblem.
Between these two wooden panels is a spinning wheel. This is a traditional motif that recurs on Breton furniture, made from turned wood. The centre of the wheel, where the symbolic ermine is located, is 2.345m high. This measurement comes from the dates on which Brittany was founded: 400 and 938 AD. If we divide the former date by the latter, we find exactly 2.345.
On the lower part of the door are 4 wooden panels decorated with sand bindweed.
These plants are found in the dunes of the Breton
Breton coastline. They help to fix the dunes and are found here as a symbol of stability against the ravages of time.
symbol of stability in the face of time, which sweeps everything away.
Finally, there's the hardware. The door handle represents a
bindweed flower. Underneath, the lock is decorated with
with gorse, a plant with yellow flowers and green thorns found in the
found on the Breton moors.
The knocker, meanwhile, is inspired by Celtic Breton torques. The
both ends, the dog and the ermine confront each other, in reference to the legend.
the legend.
Finally, I've drawn the end of a key. On it is a Celtic cross
cross, symbolising the union between the Celtic and Catholic religions that
existed in Brittany. The centre is decorated with Celtic knots, and these
throughout the region.
João Batista - Third Prize - Portugal
"My two entries are two different doors, both following the built traditions in my country, in a more classical and vernacular fashion.
Both entries are original designs, but I took inspiration from doors I have seen through my tours around my homeland (Portugal).
The first one is a door in Sintra, with a romantic archway with limestone blocks arranged and sculpted in a picturesque interpretation of a rusticated arch. The wooden door has three intricately carved panels, two forged iron hinges with vernacular motifs, as well as a door handle on top of an escutcheon (see detail drawing n1).
The second one is a colored pencil drawing of a Renaissance Door, here the doorway is composed of a simple classical granite frame, with a detail very common in northern Portugal during the XVI century, it being the suave curves instead of a sharp angle around the inner part of the doorway. The door itself is composed of various panels with complex geometrical lines, ending in a diamond, another typical motif found in renaissance architecture. The wood is painted green, with forged iron heads that hold up the massiveness of the door. The door knocker, inserted in a escutcheon, also turns, letting the bolt unlock the door after the key is turned, a mechanism found in every part of the country, but now unfortunately largely abandoned, which is a shame since I find it very practical, satisfying and gives an extra layer of security."
Servando de la Rosa - United Kingdoms
Design for a new drawing room door in London by Servando de la Rosa (UK)
"In the same way Georgian builders and craftsmen applied pattern books to construct a beautiful door, a handsome hall or an ingenious frieze, the design for this door has been composed following several pattern books. All of its elements have been taken from architecturally commended precedents: who said a wood carving on a bed in Hampton Court Palace, or a plaster moulding at Kings College, Cambridge, couldn’t lead to a brass knob, or a door carving?
In a magpie-like way, the door is composed of various fragments from London townhouses, palaces and other buildings. There is no use reinventing the wheel when we already have such inestimable wealth across the length and breadth of Britain.
Just as a building responds to its context, a door must respond to its location. The following design has been conceived to be in a new Georgian townhouse in London, one such that Quinlan Terry or Robert Adam might design.
The door opens into a drawing room. Its playful curved design offers an analogy of the two worlds it separates: a concave face represents the drawing room, to which the occupants can withdraw for more privacy, while its convex one opens up to guests as open arms to the much more publicly inclined great chamber.
The design has been conceived as simple in form but with very concentrated ornamentation in specific locations that emphasise its importance in the house. Its material composition is brass for the furniture, and well-seasoned hardwood painted in green with gilded detailing."
