American hardwoods for Spanish furniture

Hosted by the Higher School of art and design (Easd) of Segovia, the brief was to design “a creative piece of wooden furniture for a reading room”. This year’s competition winners came up with stunning examples of how wood can be transformed into beautiful but functional items of furniture. Using wood donated by the Spanish Wood Trade and Industry Association (Aeim) to manufacture the winning prototypes, the Hay Festival Segovia kindly provided cash prizes to the winners with €2,000 for first place, €700 for second and €300 for third.

 

The overall winner and first prize went to Silvia Gómez Fernández, a student at the Cifp Pico Frentes of Soria. The judges decided her geodesic chair – Sillón Geodésico – was a piece of furniture that stood out for its ‘boundless creativity’ based on the art of topography and inspired by mountainous formations and karstic regions. The chair is made from American tulipwood with its exciting variation of colour highlighting the different angles of the furniture. From all perspectives, the reading chair is raised in space and the asymmetry seeks to attain soft, harmonious and natural features that give the chair a real personality. The open cavity system of the chair also means light crosses in and out of the object accentuating the nuances of the tulipwood.

 

Second prize went to David Blanco Gómez, a student from Ies Antonio Calvín of Almagro – Ciudad Real for his table – the Mesa Picassiana. This innovative desk is crafted from American walnut and hard maple with an unusual design inspired by the facial profiles of the paintings of Pablo Picasso. Created as a ‘standard’ desk size, the simple design allows its users the maximum amount of concentration without any distractions and consists of only three pieces, making simple to disassemble and transport. The dark-toned American walnut is used for the table top and lighter-toned hard maple is used for the two legs, with a view to creating a colour contrast between species and different structural parts.

 

Picking up third prize was a piece of multi-purpose furniture that can be used by children to enjoy reading, playing, relaxing or just talking to friends – and importantly where books and different toys can be stored. Made from American tulipwood and cherry to lend the piece a variety of tones, the Multifan is a simple but extremely practical group of squares, aligned inside a frame with an integrated table top.

 

Presenting the winner’s prizes, David Venables, European Director of Ahec said: “The winning prototypes bear testimony to the beauty and versatility of American hardwoods. In an environmentally responsible, globalised world, wood is the material of the future and design is a vital tool in order to compete effectively”.

 

During the 15 day exhibition, the Higher School of Art and Design (Easd) of Segovia gave up its exhibition space for the finalist prototypes, with Ahec installing an additional feature at the Casa de los Picos. ‘In the Clouds’ was an eye-catching bar area designed in tulipwood by the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. Here, ten blocks of solid wood float in space on transparent pedestals, so those attending the prize-giving ceremony could see the furniture and enjoy some fine Spanish wine while floating amongst the ‘clouds’.

 

“For centuries bars have basically revolved around a ‘single bar’ area,” said Fujimoto. “However, in this bar, there are several ‘bars’ all of which are unique and float in space as if they were clouds. Each cloud is a bar and they each create a stage which is conducive to interaction and generates communication. Visitors travel through the clouds to join together in groups, sit down or lean against them, passing from one to another, sometimes forming large groups around several clouds and others enjoying the intimacy offered by just one of them”.