Press Release
Hiroshi Takahashi Receives the Bronze A' Design Award for Com Plates Wooden Tableware in Bakeware, Tableware, Drinkware and Cookware Design
Hiroshi Takahashi recognized for bakeware, tableware, drinkware and cookware design by the international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 28, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ Com Plates Wooden Tableware by Hiroshi Takahashi, designed for Koushin Die Mold, has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Bakeware, Tableware, Drinkware and Cookware Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The result belongs to the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined 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.
What the Bronze A' Design Award Means
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 Com Plates Wooden Tableware
Com Plates Wooden Tableware is created using a proprietary manufacturing process developed by a mold manufacturer, applying advanced metalworking expertise to wood. This technology overcomes the traditional drawbacks of wooden products, such as weight and bulk, redefining the possibilities of wooden tableware. Upcycled from discarded wood, each plate is precision carved to achieve remarkable thinness. Its refined form enables gap free stacking while offering a sculptural presence that supports creative table settings and functions as an art object.
About Hiroshi Takahashi
A manufacturer that, even back then, never turned down requests for items others claimed were impossible to produce, instead persevering through trial and error to bring them to life this was the metalworking business that was their livelihood. Metalworking and woodworking may seem like opposing materials, yet this manufacturer spares no effort in bringing designs to life.
Award Record
This recognition makes Hiroshi Takahashi a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Bakeware, Tableware, Drinkware and Cookware Design Award
The A' Kitchenware Design Award is an international design competition recognizing good kitchenware designs by best kitchenware brands and designers worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to kitchenware designers, product designers, industrial design studios and kitchenware brands from all countries. Entries typically include pots, pans, cutlery, plates, bowls and glasses. Awarded kitchenware designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/kitchenware
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/175449
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/175449
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!175449
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/371774
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://ourl.jp/kulle
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
- Com Plates Wooden Tableware
- Function
- Wooden Tableware
- Category
- Bakeware, Tableware, Drinkware and Cookware Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Furniture & Home and Food & Hospitality
- Colors
- Saddle Brown, Sienna, Peru and Black
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Koushin Die Mold
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Hiroshi Takahashi
- Country
- Japan
- Recognition
- Bronze A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #175449
Credits
- Image Credits
- The same person handles every step of the process, from product planning to design and manufacturing.
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Com Plates Wooden Tableware confronts the fundamental challenges of woodworking, achieving ultra-thin walls, ensuring dimensional stability, and maintaining high machining precision. Drawing on expertise developed in mold manufacturing, the project redefines what is technically possible with wood. Although woodworking and metalworking may appear fundamentally opposed, both disciplines ultimately share the same objective: identifying the most appropriate process for the material at hand. By setting aside conventional assumptions, the design arrives at a refined and precise form that expands the expressive and technical potential of wooden tableware.
- Inspiration
- Com Plates Wooden Tableware rethinks the limitations traditionally associated with wooden products, beginning with weight. While reducing thickness might seem like an obvious solution, conventional woodworking techniques impose clear constraints. Drawing inspiration from precision metalworking, the design achieves an ultra thin profile of just 1.5 mm, without compromising structural integrity. Thinning wood typically introduces risks such as cracking or warping, yet a proprietary processing method overcomes these challenges through heightened manufacturing precision.
- Research
- Com Plates Wooden Tableware explores how waste wood can be transformed into a high added value material through design and advanced processing. By positioning the objects not only as functional tableware but also as collectible, art like pieces, the project broadens public interest in upcycling and material reuse. While the conventional approach has been to enhance wood by resinizing its surface, this research reverses the logic, demonstrating that wood itself can serve as the base material for products typically associated with resin or plastic, achieving comparable thinness and precision.
- Challenge
- Using wood carving to shape blocks into extremely thin sections, rather than assembling thin boards, proved extremely difficult. Expansion and contraction vary with temperature and humidity, causing warping and cracking after processing. While some tree species are more suitable than others, finding them among scrap wood is challenging. The solution lies in creating numerous prototypes to explore the optimal processing method.
- Realization and Technology
- Many wood products were handmade or primarily processed using two dimensional machining. While 3D machining has been introduced in recent years, simply machining the material with a machine risks damage during processing unless it has a certain thickness. However, by embedding the material into a mold for machining, processing is possible not only at a thinness of 1.5mm but even at 1mm. Furthermore, surfaces precision machined through programming can be stacked with minimal gaps. This enables the creation of wooden tableware specialized for stacking, opening up a new market for wooden products.
- Operation and Interaction
- Com Plates utilizes waste and scrap materials. Items destined for disposal are transformed into value added products. This processing technology is not a secret; anyone can learn it. If the entire woodworking industry applies this processing technology to various products, it can reduce wood waste and contribute to preventing global warming.
- Project Duration and Location
- A prototype model was created in December 2023. It was submitted to the Dfa Design for Asia Awards 2024 in June 2024. It was submitted to the Wood Design Award 2024 in July 2024. It received a Bronze Award at the Dfa Design for Asia Awards 2024 in September 2024. Received the Wood Design Award 2024 in October 2024. This project was submitted to the Hkda Global Design Awards 2025 in February 2025. Received the Hkda Global Design Awards 2025 in March 2025. Received the Global Top 10 Award at the Hkda Global Design Awards 2025 in April 2025. Received the Silver Award at the New York Product Design Awards 2025 in October 2025.
- Specifications
- Size is Height 170mm x Width 250mm x Length 34mm. Weight varies depending on the type of wood, but each plate weighs between 29 grams and 39 grams. This product are designed to be stacked, and even when stacked 21 high, the thickness is only 104mm.
- Keywords
- tableware, wooden, very thin, ultra lightweight, compact storage, compact stacking
