Launch of the 11th iteration of the Porada International Design Award. Eleven opportunities offered to young and intrepid creative talents to come to grips with various product types, and with one of the most outstanding companies in the field of Italian design. Over the years, the focus has covered sideboards, armchairs, chairs, desks, coffee tables… leading to a variegated catalogue of products for interior design, including experimental projects and others that have immediately gone into production, all sharing the same raw material – canaletto walnut – which is an earmark of the company and its background.
Porada now begins the contest for 2023 – in collaboration with POLI.design and under the aegis of ADI Associazione per il Disegno Industriale – to identify new and innovative concepts for the various types of mirrors (tabletop, wall-mounted, framed compositions, structures, décor complements, independent or incorporated in furnishings).
Students and professionals (the two categories of the competition) have until 31 January 2024 to submit their projects, which have to make prevalent (though not necessarily exclusive) use of solid wood. The entries will be evaluated by a jury of experts. Creativity, originality, experimentation and research on new workmanship solutions are the key criteria.
In the latest edition of the Porada International Design Award as many as 282 candidates took part from all over the world, submitting ideas on the theme of the armchair. The winner was Niccolò Devetag, in the professional category, with the project “Ginkgo”, an armchair inspired by nature; the starting point is the icon of the seat with armrests and a wooden structure, then developing a detail that is both aesthetic and functional at the same time. The outer shell, in fact, referencing the typical form of the Ginkgo leaf, makes it possible to attach backs of different heights, as a simple, reversible way to form different and complementary products. The seat is contained by a frame in solid wood, while the padding emphasized by piping of the cushions relies on the all-around craftsmanship typical of Made in Italy. It should be noted that this is the third victory for Niccolò Devetag in this contest, his first as a professional after two successful entries as a student.
For the student category, the win went to Benedetta Rocchi (student of Product and Interior Design at Accademia delle Arti e Nuove Tecnologie in Rome), with the “Xenia” model, a welcoming shell with an organic form. The width and low profile of the seat provide different ways of sitting for contemporary living, aimed at a new target of consumers. Another innovation has to do with a structural detail: Xenia seems to be suspended, because unlike other chairs it does not rest directly on the wooden boards. Where the type of wood is concerned, the piece has been originally formulated in canaletto walnut or hemp-stained white ash.
Guidelines and application at: www.porada.it, www.polidesign.net and www.porada-design-award.polidesign.net
