Dezeen Magazine

A Frame for Life: The Designs of Studioilse.

Competition: five copies of Ilse Crawford's monograph to be won

Competition: Dezeen has partnered with British interior designer Ilse Crawford to give away five copies of her new book, A Frame for Life: The Designs of Studioilse.

Congratulations to the winners! Catriona Macdonald in Scotland, Jun-woo Seo in South Korea, Razvan Stoian in Romania, Maeve Nuijten in Australia and David Ong in Indonesia. They each win a copy of A Frame for Life: The Designs of Studioilse.

The hardcover book features 240 pages of work by her south London practice, Studioilse, and essays by Crawford and design critic Edwin Heathcote.

Duddell Hong Kong by Ilse Crawford
Duddell Hong Kong by Ilse Crawford

Studioilse's work spans interior design, architecture and product design – all of which are influenced by Crawford's belief on the importance of human needs and experience.

Spread from A Frame for Life: The Designs of Studioilse.
Page spread from A Frame for Life: The Designs of Studioilse

"When I look at making spaces, I don't just look at the visual," she said. "I'm much more interested in the sensory thing, in thinking about it from the human context, the primal perspective, the thing that touches you."

A Frame for Life: The Designs of Studioilse includes Crawford's work on private residences, hotels, restaurants, and retail projects.

Ett Hem Hotel by Studioilse
Ett Hem Hotel by Studioilse

"Over the last decade, through my work with Studioilse and my teaching, I have developed an agenda of working to create design that is a frame for life," she added.

"A design that starts with human experience, that prioritises our well-being and enhances our humanity."

A Frame for Life: The Designs of Studioilse.
Page spread from A Frame for Life: The Designs of Studioilse

The title is now available to purchase from online retailer Amazon.

This competition is now closed. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. The winners' names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

Here is more information from Studioilse and Rizzoli Books:


Groundbreaking philosophies in the field of design and living are revealed in A Frame For Life, a collection of Ilse Crawford's influential and humanistic interior designs.

For the first time, the renowned designer and academic articulates how her thought process has developed, using her works to show that design can be a powerful influence on human experience.

The book demonstrates Crawford's masterful ability to combine the fields of interior design, architecture and product design with the priority of putting the desires, needs, and wellbeing of the human being at the centre of all her projects.

A Frame for Life: The Designs of Studioilse.
Page spread from A Frame for Life: The Designs of Studioilse

Crawford shares with us her personal attachment to design, from growing up in London and watching with solemn nostalgia the demolition of nineteenth-century homes, to her career as a design journalist and ultimately, the moment in 2003, when she set up her own studio.

Through essays written by Crawford, this book captures these experiences, while sharing with readers the philosophies and processes Studioilse undertakes when tasked with a project.

A forerunner of the holistic design movement a decade ago, Crawford's humanistic approach has now become the norm. This volume illustrates why her design philosophy is so seminal, how her work has influenced a generation of European and American designers.

Ilse Crawford (right) with husband Oscar Peña
Ilse Crawford (right) with husband Oscar Peña

A Frame For Life presents revealing photography of Crawford's most interesting domestic interiors to public spaces, along with layout designs and individual products.

It also includes a photo essay showcasing a series of biographical objects in Crawford's studio, together with an essay by and a conversation with design critic Edwin Heathcote. This inspirational volume is sure to be one of the most important design books of the year.

A Frame for Life: The Designs of Studioilse.
Page spread from A Frame for Life: The Designs of Studioilse

About the author

Ilse Crawford is a designer and the head of the department of Man and Well-being at the prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Edwin Heathcote is the architecture and design correspondent for The Financial Times in London.

www.studioilse.com