the Forum Aid Award in 2009Cristal Bar, located on the ninth floor of a central Hong Kong high-rise is a unique 1,200 sq ft interior from 2008 in which Katrín Ólína pioneered a new solution for interior architecture through graphic design. The goal of the brief was to find ways to expand a challenging urban space by using large scale digital print technologies. Katrín Ólína's solution was to create a single continuous image that would act as an inner lining and weld the space together. Every wall, ceiling, and floor serves as a tableau in which etherial imagery dreamily swirls and collides adding another dimension to the hospitality industry.  The project won numerous international awards including the Forum Aid Award in 2009 for best interior and The Merit SEGD Global Awards. 

Using up-to-the-minute 3M film printing technology and imagery that combines the traditions of murals, grotesques, and symbols, Katrín Ólína created a huge, seamless painting that spanned the bar’s four interconnected spaces.   

Industrial designer Michael Young designed the bar countertop: a sparkling crown jewel encrusted with more than 300,000 Swarovski crystals. Illuminated from above by a ripple projector, and below by multicolored LEDs, the counter’s surface changes hues while shimmering in undulating waves over the course of the night.

Industrial designer Michael Young designed the furniture for Cristal bar including the pure-white, tables, chairs and barstools.  

The central space awash with graphics depicting seaweed-like forms and hybrid water creatures that float by. Where distinct areas met, their differently colored graphics were made to overlap in fluid transition.