Athens, Greece
The 2023 Prize Designs in Modern Furniture + Lighting Awards Ceremony was an extraordinary affair, held on the evening of Friday, October 6th, at the opulent Divani Palace Acropolis in Athens.
This grand event brought together a distinguished congregation of visionaries in the design world, gathering to pay homage to the exceptional design products that had garnered a coveted Prize Design this year.
Set against the silhouette of the Acropolis, the ceremony seamlessly wove together the threads of antiquity and contemporary innovation, fashioning an atmosphere saturated with boundless creativity and boundless inspiration for the 2023 winners of the Prize Designs for Modern Furniture + Lighting.
It was a night that transcended mere celebration, leaving an indelible mark on the world of design and standing as a testament to the heights that can be achieved through ingenuity and artistry in furniture and lighting design.
“In the era of Modernism,” asserts Christian Narkiewicz-Laine, President/CEO of The Chicago Athenaeum, “emerged fresh techniques and technologies that gave rise to elegantly straightforward, easily stackable, highly functional furniture.
Alongside this, advanced lighting solutions were developed, licensable and producible on a global scale, making them accessible to a broader consumer base.”
This transformation marked a pivotal moment in design history, democratizing access to sophisticated, user-friendly furnishings and lighting solutions.
“Democratic Design in the 1950s balanced by new materials and techniques – like tubular steel and wood-bending – gave a new zest to the design of furniture and furnishings, while lighting, textiles and wall and flooring were being experimented with in ways that they never had before.”
“The remake of Prize Designs for Modern Furniture + Designers seeks to recapture that same bold spirit of vitality and experimentation by the world’s most prominent architects, designers, and manufactures as was captured by MoMA in the 1950.”
“This international Prize Design competition hopes to redefine the term ‘iconic’ by introducing and awarding the “Best of the Best” from the world’s most prominent design and manufacturing hothouses,” Narkiewicz-Laine continues.
The 2023 Jury in alphabetical order:
Erik Behrens, AECOM
Alon Baranowitz and Irene Kronenberg Architecture,
Baranowitz + Kronenberg Architecture
Piero Lissoni, Lissoni & Partners
Yiannis Ghikas, Yiannis Ghikas Design
Chen Min, Chen Min Studio
Sotiris Lazou, Lazou Design Studio
For 2023, Prize Designs for Modern Furniture + Lighting awarded product design in the categories of furniture and lighting from the following 24 nations: Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam.
More information about the submissions on the official website: prizedesignsaward.com
