Promosedia International Design Competition 2005

Furniture World Magazine

The Judges award First Prize in the “Caiazza Memorial Challenge” to a Swiss student at ECAL, Lausanne, after having examined 520 entries from all over the world. Honourable Mentions awarded to a young Slovak professional and a Russian designer working in Germany. A Special Mention for the idea of a young Frenchman. The winner of the Promosedia International Design ompetition 2005 - Caiazza Memorial Challenge, for the design of a chair, aimed at encouraging young designers, has been announced. Christophe Bourban, in his final year of Industrial Design at ECAL in Lausanne, with his chair “NORMA” beat competitors and students from all over the world. The 2005 competition was opened to the whole world for the first time, attracting the attention of students, architects and designers not only from Italy and Europe, as previously, but also from Australia, USA, Canada, Brazil, India, China, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong. The Panel of Judges consisted of Alexandra Bagner, design and arts editor of the international publication Wallpaper; Patrizia Moroso, creative director of Moroso SpA; Marco Romanelli, design critic; Paolo Ulian, designer; Alberto Pratelli, President of Association for Industrial Designers – Friuli Branch and Fabrizio Mansutti, President of Promosedia. The Panel was unanimous in conferring the Single Prize (3,5 thousand Euros) to the young Swiss because his design “confidently solves the two problems of structure and aesthetics for a timber chair. The characteristic feature, in a decorative sense, actually performs an excellent static function. A hyper-structural form is obtained, which is certainly not gratuitous”. At the same time, according to the expert judges, Christophe Bourban “seems to face the problem of overcoming the most banal components of the minimalist movement without betraying its basic principles; The chair demonstrates a remarkable knowledge of design and the chair, as a product, lends itself to real life and to a series of forms by the possible adoption of finishes and different covering materials for seat and back.” Apart from the single First Prize, Honourable Mentions were awarded. The first to the “ASKAN” chair by the young Slovak professional Marian Lassák. Worthy of a second Honourable Mention was the “TAIGA” hair by the young Russian professional working in Germany, Vadim Kibardin. Finally, standing out among more than 500 designs, was the chair “BURNT LOG” by the Frenchman Benoit Rougelot (Landfabrik) who was awarded a Special Mention, not withstanding that the materials proposed did not actually conform to the competition’s regulations, “for its symbolism of timber”. These designs will have prototypes built to be exhibited at the annual Promosedia - International Chair Exhibition - open to the trade and professionals only - in Udine from 8th to 11th September (6,000 products on display: seating, but also tables and furnishing accessories blending with the world of chairs). On the same stand will also be the prototypes of the “By Invitation” Section of the competition, under the curatorship of Marco Romanelli. This consists of works by 6 young promising international designers, selected by Konstantin Grcic, Jasper Morrison and Romanelli himself. Promosedia2005, driving force of young design, is a must to visit and should not be missed.