Winners of ‘One Good Chair’ competition announced at Las Vegas Market
Number of submissions topped 300
-- Home Accents Today, 8/5/2008 8:43:00 AM
Jessica Konawicz of Raleigh, N.C., and Jittasak Narknisorn of Woodland Hills, Calif., won the top prizes in the inaugural One Good Chair International Design Awards held at the July Las Vegas Market.
The program encouraged entrants to contribute their vision for an eco-chair that focuses first and foremost on form. The runners up, chosen from more than 300 entries, were Moon Choi of South Korea, Robert Corser of Lawrence, Kan., and Catherine Pena of Memphis, Tenn.
One Good Chair was sponsored by the Las Vegas Design Center at World Market Center, the Sustainable Furniture Council and Western Interiors & Design magazine. Winners received cash prizes and a book on the history of chairs from Potterton Books.
Judges looked for lounge chair or casual seating chair designs that demonstrated a new attitude and new conceptual design toward an old problem and transcended basic green standards by transforming the nature of the chair.
Lance Hosey, AIA, LEED AP, a director with Charlottesville, Va.-based William McDonough + Partners, said the idea for the competition came from his interest in how sustainability can be pursued through every aspect of design. Hosey is writing a book, The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design, that focuses on how form and image can enhance conservation and comfort at every scale of design, from products to communities. “In my research, I found relatively few examples of furniture that integrate aesthetics and performance, so I approached the Sustainable Furniture Council about organizing a design competition to promote this idea,” Hosey said.
Jessica Konawicz, who won for The Pandanus Lounge Chair, said her goal was to design a unique, beautiful chair that could be constructed from a single biodegradable and renewable resource material. “I also sought to address the need for conserving energy by striving for efficiency in both the method of manufacture and compact stack-ability for shipping distribution,” she said.
Jittasak Narknisorn won for Positive, an ergonomic design of plywood, metal and felt fabric. Narknisorn sought to design a good looking chair while minimizing waste of materials. “After I got the seat shape, I designed the leg that created an armrest for comfort and a chair that was stackable,” he said.
The One Good Chair judges represented a cross section of designers, researchers and academics with specific expertise in green design. Hosey served as chair of the group, which included Galen Cranz, a professor at UC-Berkeley, Michael Wollaeger, editor in chief of Western Interiors and Design, Bill Dowell, director of research for Herman Miller Inc., Jill Fehrenbacher, a green designer and founder of Inhabitat, Eric Pfeiffer, a designer and founder of Pfeiffer Lab and Susan Szenasy, editor in chief of Metropolis magazine.
Susan Inglis, executive director of the Sustainable Furniture Council, said, “We are delighted with such a strong partnership with World Market Center Las Vegas and with the fact that so many people are interested in this competition. Designers are aware of the difference they can make by designing conscientiously and we certainly saw that in the entries we received. The winners and finalists brought their imagination and excellent design skills to this competition.”
The submissions by the winners and runners-up may be viewed at www.onegoodchair.com.
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