Bottega Veneta Presents Winners of Design Competition at Milan Fair
The winning designs were Kentaro Fujimoto's Domestic Landscape of Intrecciato table, Ayami Takada's Origami side table, and Shima Suzuki's Tube with Inner Luxury modular table.
Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 4/22/2010 12:00:00 AM
Tube with Inner Luxury by Shima and Suzuki
In a meeting of design minds from two of the world's most fashionable countries, Italian fashion house Bottega Veneta and Japanese academic powerhouse University of Tokyo presented the winning designs from their months-long student design competition at last week's Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan.
The competition challenge was presented to students in architect and associate professor Manabu Chiba's laboratory affiliated with the architecture department of the university's Graduate School of Engineering, alma mater to architects like Toyo Ito and Kengo Kuma, in October. They were tasked with designing a furniture piece that serves a function for someone seated and that took into account Bottega Veneta's storied tradition of handcraftsmanship.
Origami Side Table by Ayami Takada
Each student presented an initial sketch or idea to Tomas Maier, the company's creative director, who flew to Tokyo for the design review. Ten finalists were then selected and the three winners, Kentaro Fujimoto, Ayami Takada, Shima Suzuki, were selected on December 18.
In January, the trio were flown to the company's atelier where they inspected the prototypes that were being built based on their designs and prepped for the company's presentation at the Milan Furniture Fair, which also featured an exposition of Japanese crafts co-curated by Meier, along with a pop-up store featuring more Japanese items as well as special designs from Bottega Veneta.
Domestic Landscape of Intrecciato by Kentaro Fujimoto
"I have long admired Japanese craftsmanship and design so it's a pleasure and a privilege to be hosting a design competition together with the University of Tokyo," says Maier, who took the reins at Bottega Veneta in 2001. "The [university] is the preeminent educational institution in Japan, and the caliber of the architecture faculty and students is unmatched. The aim of the competition is to support these young designers and artists by enabling them to present their work to the widest possible audience."
To that end, Fujimoto's Domestic Landscape of Intrecciato table, Takada's Origami side table, and Suzuki's Tube with Inner Luxury modular table will now be available for special order through Bottega Veneta's stores worldwide and will be on display in Tokyo later this year.
Images courtesy of Bottega Veneta.
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