Spanish designer wins Promosedia prize

UDINE, Italy — Spanish designer Tomas Alonso has won this year’s Promosedia International Design Competition — Caiazza Memorial Challenge for his Nube chair.

Three hundred designs were entered in this year’s contest, which recognizes architects, designers and students younger than 40 for their designs of wood chairs.

One first prize, two honorable mentions and three special mentions were awarded. Promosedia, the chair exhibition held here annually, will display the winning prototypes at its upcoming show Sept. 13-16 in this northern Italian city.

Promosedia judges called the Nube chair, which uses steam-bent wood, “a cutting edge project, though reinterpreting tradition; its reference to the classic Thonet chair and its use of curved wood is refreshed in form, color and proportion.”

Alonso has traveled extensively from his native Spain to work in America, Australia, France and Italy, and now lives in London, where he established the Okaystudio with five other designers.

Honorable mentions went to Daniel Fintzi of Israel for his Askew chair and Paolo Cappello of Italy for a design called IRI.

The judges also awarded a special mention to Ricky and Tommy Yuen of Hong Kong, Aleksej Sabirullov of Russia, and Akin Bacioglu of Turkey.

Model name:	NUBE Chair
Designer:	Tomas Alonso

Reason: The project was cutting edge even in how it reinterpreted tradition; its reference to the classical Thonet chair and its use of curved wood is refreshing in form, colour and proportion. The modular structure of some of its parts and the introduction of contemporary lines make the Nube Chair a new item. We also took its feasibility and construction stability into consideration.