1. About the contest 2. Why to join the caravan? 3. Presentation of awarded entries 4. Important dates 5. Awards 6. Guidelines for designers 7. Participation and application of entries 8. Judging criteria 9. How to apply and when 2 ND INDUSTRIAL DESIGN CONTEST ( Primeval ) Chair FROM IDEA TO PROTOTYPE KOČEVJE 9. 20. NOVEMBER 2016
1. About the contest 2. Why to join the caravan? Lela B. Njatin What is a tree without a man? Until a man didn t come near a tree with his thought, a stump was not a chair yet. Even when, at times, the man has been already sitting at it. Not before the man started to think of an essence of tree, not before he started to use the word wood, the man was able to think of a stump as of a chair. There is no wood in the nature, wood is the man s word for an idea of tree. Wood is the name of the matter, which is given to the man by a tree, when the man intervenes into the tree with its work. Therefore each chair reflects the man s thinking about a tree. It expresses the thought, which was a pattern by a man to design the chair. There is no chair in the nature, chair originates as an idea in the mind of man. The idea of a chair originates from a man s need for an object, which he will use for sitting. The object to sit on, even when the man will not be in the nature. When there will be no stump nearby. The Festival of Wood invites open applications for 2.International Industrial Design Contest of a wooden chair as a tribute to the primeval forests of Kočevska region in Slovenia, home of the Festival. The aim is to create a simple (primitive), functional and ergonomically designed chair, which will, in addition to its primary function, raise awareness of the user (contemporary person) about the importance of coexistence between man and nature. Wood is the raw material we have in abundance. Yet, it is not used in the extent it could be. With this, we want to promote the use of wood in everyday life and sustainable economic and qualitative use of wood - and thus increase its use. The purpose of the contest is not only to design. It is about bringing the story to life by creating a pre-production prototype made with modern tools and ready for wider distribution. It is about materialization of the idea which will not remain only on paper. By organising this competition, the Festival of Wood also wants to stimulate the application of new business models by connecting the global design community and local producers thus lowering or eliminating the role of the traditional intermediaries. By taking part in this design competition, you get a chance to materialize your design idea in the primeval forest contemporary human relation. Award winning design will receive the development of preproduction prototype that will be presented at the Festival of Wood, on the partnering platforms and promoted in the media. Manufacturing the final product from the initial 3D design model is the key step of the industrial design process. So often all these great ideas and concepts remain on paper and never see the end result a market-ready product. This contest wants to promote the use of wood in everyday life. It is a global trend but it also has a long tradition and great potential in Slovenia, especially in Kočevska region, the largest municipality in Slovenia, 85% covered in forest. We want to add our piece to the puzzle, helping to explore modern architectural design principles and the use of advanced design techniques with the help of modern CNC technology.
3. Presentation of awarded entries 5. Awards The proposal, chosen by competition jury will be publicly presented at the exhibition during the Festival of wood and on the partnering platforms. The form of presentation and media presence will be determined by organizers in the standardized way. The Chunk of Wood Award will be presented by the grand jury to the authors or groups of authors of awarded solutions. The Award ceremony will take place in Kočevje on 18 th November 2016. The chair, made of wood, is a combination of an idea of tree and a thought of sitting. When in relation to a chair we think only of sitting, we forget the tree. The chair, made of wood, without a thought of a tree, has an idea of nature in itself, but this idea is a dead one, it is not related to a thought of a tree, which would empower it with life. A tree in the nature lives by itself. In the wood, the tree continues its life even after it was already removed from the nature by a man. The tree is able to continue its life even after it was cut down, because the man thinks. The man thinks about the tree even after he cut it down already, sawed it to pieces already, turned it into boards already. This thought of the tree, which is not existing in the nature anymore, is bearing the name wood. As wood, the tree lives for the man. The winners of the competition, presented at the Festival, agree to actively cooperate with prototype production and the preparation of the contents for the brochure containing shortlisted entries in accordance with instructions, given by the organizers via e-mail. 4. Important dates Call for entries: 16 th October 2016 Selection of winners by the grand jury: 21 th October 2016 Production of prototypes: 22 th October to 17 th November 2016 Award ceremony: 18 th November 2016 5.1 Selection, made by the grand jury award 1: prototype production* + 40 hours usage of prototype workshop** + free participation on the prototyping weekend within the Festival of wood 2016 ( 18 th to 20 th November 2016) award 2: Best School Award The Commission may also select a special prize award. * 2 piece prototype production of awarded entry one for the exhibition at the Festival of Wood and the other given to author in permanent ownership ** Usage of organizer s prototype workshop in Kočevje one year from the reception of the award. Included in the prize is the usage of carpentry machines and professional support of technologist. Material is not included in the prize. The prize is not transferable. The Prize winner is not entitled to money compensation. General terms of workshop usage will be forwarded to the author together with the award.
6. Guidelines for designers 7. Participation and application of entries When he uses wood, a man preserves the essence of tree alive. It is after the essence of tree, how the man is designing a chair. Every man in his own way is thinking about the essence of tree. Every man is describing it with his own words. Every man is in his own way turning these words into objects. The name wood is common to all these thoughts, to all these words, to all these objects by all these people. In the nature, a tree is just a tree, but in a life of people, it is also wood. When a man goes into a forest, he visits a tree there. When a tree goes out of the forest, he visits a man there in the role of wood. A man goes into nature to cut down a tree, in order to produce a chair out of a wood. This means that the man has been thinking about the nature in relation to his own need for sitting. Even when he sits, the man wants to be in relation with the nature. When in a forest he cuts down a tree to gain a wood, the man breaks natural life of a tree, but this life remains, it is now the man s thought of nature. The man is not always aware of this thought. But when he is, then a chair, which was produced by the man of the wood, is closely connected to the life of tree in the nature. as an introduction to the concept of design solution, applicants should read philosophical text about the primeval chair (on the left) The final product has to be substantially made of wood; wood type should be locally available For the production process, the use of 3 - axis CNC machine is recommended (grooves, pins, notches, to a height 200mm of Z axis) in combination with other basic carpenter/ woodworking machinery The purpose of the contest is not to limit oneself how a (Primeval)-Chair would be made in the old times, but to design it and manufacture it with modern tools in a modern way Design solution should be affordable, not overcomplicated to manufacture, feasible for economically effective production in smaller quantities Participation in the contest is free of charge and open to all designers and authors all around the world. The number of entries for each author is limited to two solutions. In case one author applies more than two solutions, the organizer will include the last two applied entries from the author in the competition Applicants older than 18 years may be individuals, group of authors, higher and higheducation institutions. Participants younger than 18 years can only be applied by school. Participation in the contest is not permitted to grand jury, their family members and close co-workers. By applying entries, authors agree to all the contest conditions, evident from the call for applications. Authors also agree to public presentation and promotion of their entries. The winners who will not attend the public Award Ceremony will thus express its decision to renounce the prize. The winners may waive participation in the prototype production only for justifiable reasons. Authors can introduce their suggestions of unique, small-serial or mass industrial products that are based on past creative job. All the entries need to meet real economic circumstances, available technologies and be suitable for serial production (in rational and promotionally interesting form). Entries must be entirely produced in Slovenia, made predominantly from materials, present in Slovenia.
8. Judging criteria 9. How to apply and when Even when a man of our century has never been in the forest, he is able to think about wood. People, who lived before him, have passed a thought to him. Even in a distant past, a mankind produced a thought of wood and the thought of wood passed from generation to generation. Even when there would not be any forest more in the world, when there would not be any tree left, it would take long, before the mankind would waive the thought of wood. The idea of wood is empowered by generations of men, which were already thinking about wood, as they bestowed longevity to it. There is so much of this longevity that a man can bestow it to a tree, even after he cuts it down he prolongs a life of tree with it. This longevity is in the wood, which the man produces from a cut-down tree. The methodology of entries judging will encompass 5 technical aspects: 1. design aspect (innovativeness, functionality, material selection) 2. marketing stance (product adequacy for actual marketing segment, the size of potential market, realistically estimated and manageable production costs) 3. technological excellence (the quality of design, technological solutions) 4. environmental influence (taking into account C2C communication concept, resource usage in the whole life cycle) 5. presentation (the quality of entry presentation) Every member of the grand jury will assess each entry by the individual judging criteria. Each judging criteria is marked from 5 (the lowest grade) to 10 (the highest grade) as following: 5 not appropriate, 6 appropriate, 7 good, 8 very good, 9 great, 10 excellent. The grand jury will choose its president on the first meeting. Jury s decisions are final and cannot be appealed. The jury can additionally invite experts and professionals to collaborate within the judging procedure. The applications can only be registered via competition website www.festival-of-wood.si Application and upload of the required files is only possible via registration form on this website. Application of the competition entry involves: short title of the proposal a short written reasoning of the proposal the story of the designed chair; a written and/or visual description/presentation of the product and the concept behind the designer s idea - up to 1000 characters a visual representation of the product in the form of drawings, plans and visualization of the proposal in its usable capacity; (PDF file / minimum 225 dpi / A3 Landscape / color / up to 5 pages) CAD files compatible with AutoCAD, SketchUp, or Rhinoceros software (all files to be combined in a single ZIP file) indication of the author or authors, the list of members of the author group with data on participants birth, address, telephone number, e-mail address, a statement by the main author of the copyright, on the authenticity of the competition work and its authorship no part of the application should be marked in a way that allows the identification of the author. language of the competition application is English or Slovene. To authors of entries that will not be awarded, organizer will not reimburse any costs, connected to participation in the contest.
A man can go to a forest for cutting down a tree, in order to produce a chair, because a man can think of a wood, without seeing a forest. The thought of a wood is as old as the hills, it originated in the times, when a man was closely related to nature. In the forest, a man cohabitated with a tree in many ways, sometimes he even sat on a tree. So a thought of sitting connected to a thought of tree even before a mankind produced an idea of a chair. When thinking about sitting, a man might think of designing a chair, but before this he must think of a tree. Therefore a chair could have in itself more of a tree life than of a man s life. Therefore a chair can live also when a man is not sitting on it. And hence a wooden chair could be a life of a tree even after the last tree would be extinct from the world. A man with his thought, expressed in a chair, bestow longevity to a tree. At the same time this thought is a return for the longevity, which was bestowed to it by a tree. Each chair is just a redesign of an ancient chair, the first chair of them all, which was actually a tree related idea of a chair by a man in the ancient times. IMPORTANT: the title of authors, their names or other recognisable signs should not be mentioned or seen anywhere in the written description or visual files. Noncompliance with these rules results in immediate disqualification of the entry. Al the questions, related to the content of the contest can be sent to award@festival-of-wood.si by 10 th October the latest. All the answers will be sent to applicants in 48 hours or will be published on the Festival s website by 13 th October the latest. The deadline for entries is 16 th October by midnight through www.festival-of-wood.si website. The grand jury will take into account all the solutions that will be successfully uploaded through the website by the deadline mentioned above. The jury will conclude its judging and inform the winners by 28 th October 2016 the latest. The results of the contest will be announced in 10 days after the conclusion of jury s work on the organizer s website and in different media. The grand jury will turn down all the incomplete or unsuitable applications. The grand jury will disqualify every applicant that will breach these terms and conditions, send in false or misleading information or in any way to violate the integrity of the contest. The organizer is not responsible for mistakes, connected to website, network or other communication malfunctions that could cause the applicants to miss the deadline. The organizer detains the right to change the contest in case the change would be necessary to maintain the integrity of the competition. Possible changes will be announced by 16 th September 2016 the latest. Kočevje, 2015