Press Release
Bulent Unal and Elif Gunes Receives the Silver A' Design Award for Flexion Bench in Street Furniture Design
The international grand jury of the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Bulent Unal and Elif Gunes for street furniture design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 23, 2021 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Flexion Bench by Bulent Unal and Elif Gunes, designed for Atılım University, has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Street Furniture Design category. The recognition forms part of the 2020 - 2021 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 evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Silver A' Design Award
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
More About Flexion Bench
Flexion is an outdoor bench designed for public spaces. The bench has a sculptural form in which legs, seat and backrest flow into one continuous surface without visible joining details. The upper and lower surfaces are shaped with a metal structure and covered with Corian, a durable material suited to hygienic use. The Corian surfaces can be painted in different colors with a mirror-like finish. The bench is 300 centimeters long, 90 centimeters deep and 45 centimeters high, and seats at least two people at a comfortable distance.
About Bulent Unal and Elif Gunes
Elif Güneş graduated from İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, from the department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design. In 2007, she received her master degree and in 2011 she received her PhD degree from the same department of İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University. She is the head of the Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design at the Faculty of Fine Arts Design and Architecture, Atılım University, Ankara, Turkey. She also is the director of graduate program. Her previous professional experience has included appointments as a research assistant and instructor, and she is currently works as an Asst. Prof. Dr. in the same department.
Award Record
With this recognition, Bulent Unal and Elif Gunes is a winner of 3 A' Design Awards. The awards were granted between the 2019 - 2020 and the 2020 - 2021 editions of the A' Design Award & Competition.
About the A' Street and City Furniture Design Award
The A' Street Furniture Design Award is an international design competition recognizing good street furniture designs by leading designers and brands worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to street furniture designers, industrial design studios, street furniture brands and street furniture manufacturers from all countries. Typical entries include benches, bollards, bus shelters, bicycle racks, litter bins and planters. The awarded street furniture designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/street-furniture
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is 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. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously 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. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which 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, uploading a work and receiving a 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. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/120116
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/120116
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!120116
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/273166
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
- Flexion Bench
- Function
- Bench
- Category
- Street Furniture Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Architecture and Social Impact
- Colors
- Dark Gray, Dark Slate Gray, Silver, Gray and Dim Gray
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Atılım University
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Bulent Unal and Elif Gunes
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2020 - 2021
- Design ID
- #120116
Credits
- Team
- Bülent Ünal and Elif Güneş
- Image Credits
- Bulent Unal
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- This design aims to add a different identity to the bench design, where you can only sit for rest in daily life and do not pay much attention to its design. It is aimed to achieve this goal with a sculptural innovative touch like a mirror that reflects the identity of a concrete-filled city, the running of the people living in it.
- Inspiration
- The hustle and bustle of daily life has given us the greatest role of the city, neighborhood and street of which we are a part. However, in the flow we have lost the excitement of our greatest roles in the environment we live in. Our scenes are always the same and familiar, traditional and places with little innovation. This design conveys the leading roles and the reflections of their lives, just like an excitement from the future, with a touch apart from the traditional to our life scene.
- Research
- Bench design is a process where the design approach is solved with similar methods, generally by prioritizing the function. However, the design of these products with a different touch to the city, in the usual structure of daily life that repeats each other almost every day; adds richness and excitement to products where people rest for a few minutes. With this design, it is aimed to provide an innovative touch to the city with a sculptural seating unit that reflects the lives of people.
- Challenge
- While presenting a sculptural seating element that witnesses the concrete texture of the city, it also adds excitement with a different approach to the place we are in, namely the showcase of life. One of the design ideas of the product is to make an external touch to the different lives we share in the same space, even though the roles are different, that our almost identical rushing is actually a single reflection. Trying to touch human life with this approach is the challenge of this design.
- Realization and Technology
- The bottom and top surface of the design are thought to be shaped with a metal structure and covered with Corian material. Corian; is accepted as a durable and stylish use material that provides hygienic uses in living spaces with its structure that gives personality to the environment. In the design, it is foreseen that the surfaces covered with Corian material will be painted with the desired color in a way that reflects like a mirror.
- Operation and Interaction
- The parts of the design that can form the legs and backrests are reflected in the name of the design, and the body has been formed in a fluid way without showing distinct joining details between these parts. It is desired to create the effect that a surface is given the function of a sitting element by stretching and bending without using any combination elements. It is designed to seat at least two people in a way to keep people's social distance.
- Project Duration and Location
- The idea of designing a bank began in November 2019, and the project finished in January 2020.
- Specifications
- It is envisaged to be produced in different materials, textures and colors. What is important here is that the product is designed with an innovative touch to the city, with an approach that reflects the people and lives it contains. The design is 300 cm long, 90 cm deep and 45 cm high, as it is designed to seat at least two people (the length measure is also planned to keep people's social distance).
- Keywords
- bench, furniture, outdoor, social life, daily life, innovation, reflection, sculpture
