Press Release
Ida Chair by Jairo da Costa Receives the Bronze A' Design Award in Furniture Design
Jairo da Costa recognized for furniture design by the international grand jury of the 2022 - 2023 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 20, 2023 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Bronze A' Design Award in the Furniture Design category for Ida Chair by Jairo da Costa, designed for Dextop. The award was conferred within the 2022 - 2023 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Bronze A' Design Award
The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.
More About Ida Chair
Ida embodies a unique design through an elegant and timeless aesthetic, focusing on simplicity, ergonomics, materials and modern craftsmanship. It showcases how prosumer products like Do-It-Yourself furniture can be intelligent, sophisticated, functional and, most importantly, sustainable. The chair can be customized and ordered online, ready to assemble or locally made by anyone using a web platform and digital fabrication technologies. The result is a versatile chair with a single sustainably sourced material and a few parts assembled in seven easy steps without nails, screws or glue.
About Jairo da Costa
Jairo is an Assistant Professor at the University of Twente and Adjunct Senior Lecturer and co-founder of the Bio-Based Materials Design Lab at the University of Western Australia. He is a proactive and passionate industrial designer and systems thinker with over ten years of experience in Design for Sustainability and Systemic Design. Jairo has a proven track record in publishing in high-impact journals, applying research in industry, managing multidisciplinary projects and winning international design awards.
Award Record
With this recognition, Jairo da Costa is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Furniture Design Award
The A' Furniture Design Award is an international furniture competition recognizing good furniture designs by best furniture designers worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to furniture designers, product designers, industrial design studios and furniture brands from all countries. Entries typically include chairs, tables, sofas, beds, cabinets and shelves. Awarded furniture designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/furniture
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/142927
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/142927
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!142927
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/333460
- Further Information from the Laureate: http://www.dextop.co/
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Ida Chair
- Function
- Chair
- Category
- Furniture Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Furniture & Home
- Colors
- Black, Gainsboro, Dim Gray, Dark Slate Gray and Gray
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Dextop
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Jairo da Costa
- Country
- Netherlands
- Recognition
- Bronze A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2022 - 2023
- Design ID
- #142927
Credits
- Image Credits
- Jairo da Costa
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Ida is the first in a series of DIY circular furniture. It is easy to make, simple, durable and uses a single sustainably sourced material. It can be made of certificated bamboo ply or hardwood plywood with natural oil finishing. It can be customised online, ordered ready-to-assemble, or locally made by anyone, using a web-based platform and digital fabrication technologies. The result is a sustainable chair with only eight parts assembled in seven easy steps without nails, screws or glue.
- Inspiration
- Ida is a do-it-yourself chair inspired by the overwhelming need for alternatives to the traditional mass-production model, like sustainable personal fabrication. The chair integrates the precision of digital fabrication technologies with the finest environmental-friendly materials and craftsmanship. It is designed to empower people and organisations to use sustainable materials and emerging technology to participate in the widespread implementation of sustainable production and consumption.
- Research
- Fabrication at a personal level is increasing remarkably due to the democratisation of access to digital fabrication technologies, the rise of makerspaces, and the widespread dissemination of the maker culture (do-it-yourself movement) on the internet. As the involvement of lay citizens in product fabrication processes is becoming more commonplace, it is paramount to accelerate the transition to alternatives to traditional centralised mass production. Ida chair and its business model make expensive networks of physical retail stores obsolete by focusing on-demand director-to-consumer sustainable solutions that connect consumers to local resources and production (prosumption).
- Challenge
- Despite the potential of the DIY market to provide more sustainable living standards via digital fabrication technologies and sustainable production practices, DIY furniture has not been widely implemented, particularly in developing and emerging markets. Ida chair is an easy-to-make, innovative, and sustainable DIY chair optimised for small 3-axis CNC Routers —the most common model available in makerspaces worldwide. It responds to a growing demand for solutions that prevent negative environmental impacts of personal fabrication, allowing for responsible prosumption.
- Realization and Technology
- Users can fabricate the chair using optimised digital files and equipment commonly available in makerspaces or at home, like a hand-held or small-size 3-axis CNC router. The use of materials like certified bamboo ply and circular design principles demonstrates special attention to sustainability. The surfaces are treated with non-toxic natural oil, and some options use HPL Laminated to increase durability. The design adopts parametric modelling and algorithms-aided design to facilitate the digital model analysis, modification and optimisation, thus ensuring greater material efficiency, modularity and adaptability to different CNC machines and local context requirements.
- Operation and Interaction
- A web-based platform with assistive/enabling tools (3D configurators, augmented reality, interactive manuals) and digital assets (CNC files, documentation) allows the design and fabrication process to adapt to users' knowledge, skill level, and needs. Hence, users can customise the chair to fit their personal or home style and easily download it using those digital tools. Alternatively, the chair can be ordered online and shipped flat pack to be assembled in a few easy steps by its new owner without glue, nails or screws. Assisted by interactive online manuals, users can repair, replace parts and upcycle the product.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in April 2020 in Itajaí (Brazil), with prototyping completed in June 2022 and a web-based platform in development.
- Specifications
- Height 750mm x Width 410mm x Depth 550mm
- Keywords
- chair, digital fabrication, bamboo, prosumer, sustainable, circular economy, furniture design, CNC, open design, distributed design
