Press release
16 April 2013
Toshiyuki Kita to be the curator of Habitare’s EcoDesign special exhibition
The fifth international EcoDesign special exhibition will be held this autumn in conjunction with the Habitare fair at the Helsinki Exhibition and Convention Centre, from 18 to 22 September 2013. The Japanese industrial designer Toshiyuki Kita has been invited to be the exhibition’s curator and chair of the jury.
Kita works in both Japan and Italy. He has designed many hit products for German, Italian and Japanese manufacturers. Kita’s clients include Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Cassina, Moroso, Magis, Stile Life, Ms System, Miz, Ligne ROSET and Giorgetti. He also designs traditional Japanese handicrafts.
Kita’s designs have been included in the collections of museums around the world, including the MoMAin New York and the Pompidou Centre in Paris. He has had two exhibitions in Helsinki, in 1992 and in 1999. He is Associate Dean and Professor of Osaka university of Arts.
Top international designers and young up-and-coming talent from Finland and abroad will be invited to the EcoDesign exhibition. Designs will be curated, and some 50 entries that fulfil the eligibility criteria will be chosen for presentation at the exhibition. The exhibition architecture will be by a team of design students at the Aalto University, led by Professor Jouko Järvisalo.
This year, as last year, the theme of the exhibition will be wood as a material. The designers’ brief is to create and present wooden pieces of furniture and interior design articles, or new, insightful and necessary commercial wood-based solutions. The entries must be made from 80% wood and 20% some other environmentally friendly material.
EcoDesign exhibition curators from previous years include KristiinaLassus, Konstantin Grcic, Ingo Maurer and YrjöKukkapuro.
At the exhibition opening, the designer or designer group whose creation best meets the set criteria will be awarded a €5,000 prize donated by the Finnish Fair Foundation. The exhibition is produced by Jari Pirhonen from the advertising agency Valo, and organised by the Finnish Fair Corporation.
More information on the EcoDesign exhibition:
Advertising agency Valo, exhibition producer Jari Pirhonen, tel. +358 50 525 7062, mail@mainostoimistovalo.fi, www.ecodesign.fi
More information on the Habitare fair:
The Finnish Fair Corporation, communications officer Tuula Sipilä, tel. +358 40 450 3173, tuula.sipila@finnexpo.fi
Habitare, the largest furniture, interior decoration and design fair in Finland, will take place from 18 to 22 September 2013. The event offers everything for the interior design and function of homes and public spaces. The previous Habitare fair in September 2012 attracted nearly 60,000 visitors, of which 17,000 were professionals.
www.habitare.fi
Press images of Habitare: http://mediabank.finnexpo.fi
10.10.2012
EcoDesign-näyttelyn valaisimia nyt myynnissä
Suunnittelija Miska Kuntsin EcoDesign-näyttelyyn suunnittelemat "Karto" valaisimet 80€/kpl
Etelä-Afrikasta kotoisin olevan suunnittelijan Porky Heferin puusta tehdyt ledlampuilla varustetut uniikit valaisimet 2 kpl yhteensä 319€.
Lisätietoja: mail@mainostoimistovalo.fi
puh: +358505257062
27.9.2012
Irvine, Merz and Sandelin given awards at Habitare's EcoDesign exhibition
Three designers were given awards at the 2012 EcoDesign special exhibition at the Habitare fair. James Irvine, Rudi Merz and Sebastian Sandelin shared the €5,000 prize donated by the Finnish Fair Foundation. The winners were chosen by the designer Kristiina Lassus, who acted as the chair of the jury and the curator of the exhibition. The Habitare fair will be on from 12 to 16 September 2012 at the Helsinki Exhibition and Convention Centre.
This is the fourth time that the international EcoDesign special exhibition is being held in conjunction with the Habitare fair. This year's theme was wood. The designers were given a free hand in creating a piece of furniture or an interior design object. The material used in the design had to be 80% wood, preferably certified, while the remaining 20% could be some other environmentally friendly material. The curator, Kristiina Lassus, chose 44 products for the EcoDesign invitation exhibition, out of a total of nearly one hundred entries. These ecologically manufactured pieces of furniture, light fittings and other interior design objects will be on show for the first time.
According to Lassus, the winning pieces of furniture best met the criteria set by the exhibition, including eco-friendly manufacture, material choices, packaging and logistics, use, maintainability and recyclability.
"James Irvine's solid-wood ‘Centanni’ stool is simple and elegant, even iconic," says Kristiina Lassus in her statement. "Rudi Merz's chair, with its high backrest and beautiful durable wood joints, displays premium quality and eco-friendly design," adds Lassus. “The design of Sebastian Sandelin's 'ReThink' table uses manufactured wood products in a meaningful way. This produces a light and functional aesthetic,” concludes Lassus.
The other members of the jury were the programme manager Päivi Kukkamäki from the Finnish Fair Corporation, the designer Kaarle Holmberg, and the producer of the EcoDesign exhibition Jari Pirhonen from the advertising agency Valo. The jury was unanimous on the prize-awarding decision.
8.6.2012
Piece of EcoDesign
First pieces of EcoDesign exhibition furniture is ready! Come and check out the prototypes at Ornamo
(Annankatu 16 B 35-36, Helsinki). Welcome!
1.6.2012
EcoDesign presents: Designers of 2012
The first phase of the EcoDesign exhibition is now complete. We received almost 100 product designs related to our wood theme and we selected 47 products to the EcoDesign 2012 exhibition. The curator Kristiina Lassus based her decisions on the following criteria: brief provided, exhibition´s theme and designer´s interpretation of the ecological design process. In addition, individual design, new kind of ideas and technological adaptations, all contribute to the final decision.
See the designers of the EcoDesign 2012 here.
30.4.2012
Happy 1st of May!
EcoDesign team wishes a happy 1st of May to everyone!
27.4.2012
Exhibition furniture on sale now!
Buy your own piece of exhibition furniture before others!
Unique, hand made, finnish, high-quality, wooden tables, shelves, stools etc.
More information, pictures and prices here.
16.4.2012
LUAS students design the exhibition architecture
The team of students in the Institute of Design and Fine Arts from Lahti has designed and will execute the architecture of the EcoDesign exhibition this year. The supervisor in the project is their teacher, interior architect Kaarle Holmberg. The team of students are studying furniture and spatial design in the third, second and first year studies. The responsible students are Julianna Nevari, Miska Kuntsi, Ville Lindstöm, Onni Aho, Feodor Mayof and Esko Ihalainen. Read more about exhibition architecture.
12.4.2012
Kristiina Lassus – The curator of EcoDesign
The invited curator of the exhibition is Kristiina Lassus, a Finnish designer who has built a career and works there. Lassus is one of the most successful Finnish designers globally. Her track record includes working as a design manager for the Italian design company Alessi. Lassus, who resides and runs her own studio in Milan, designs, for example, rugs that are handmade in India and Nepal using traditional manufacturing methods. Lassus received the German Red Dot design award in 2008 and 2010. She has also been on the jury for the Red Dot awards. In previous years, the EcoDesign themes and curators have included multifunction/Konstantin Grcic (2011), light fitting/Ingo Maurer (2010) and seat/Yrjö Kukkapuro (2009).
11.4.2012
Wood as a theme of the exhibition
The theme of this year´s exhibition is a material – wood (recommended certified wood, for example FSC or PEFC). Invited designers have a free hand in designing and implementing an interior design object under this theme. The other criteria for the designs are environmental friendliness in manufacture; material choice; packaging and logistics; usability; maintainability; and recyclability. The entries must be made from 80% wood and 20% some other environmentally friendly material. E.g. the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) label is an independent quality guarantee issued to products that comply with the principles of environmentally and humanly sustainable forestry, and it is currently considered the most reliable forest certification system. More about FSC and PEFC.
15.3.2012
The fourth EcoDesign will be held this fall
The international EcoDesign Special Exhibition will be arranged next fall fourth time. The exhibition will be arranged in conjunction with furniture, interior decoration and design fair Habitare at the Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre on 12 – 16 September 2012 in Finland. Helsinki is the World Design Capital 2012 and Habitare Fair is part of the official program. Read more.