Judges of the Dangerous Designs online wood design competition were faced with entries including a DIY timber trike with room to store shopping, an updated chook shed design (no more bending!), sculptural wind chimes and more…
Dangerous Designs is an online competition sponsored by FWPA’s WoodSolutions and is open to anyone in Australia. It is supported by professional associations, industry bodies, universities and other tertiary institutions.
All designs were rated by experienced professionals, using criteria such as originality, use of wood and wood products, usefulness, desirability, commercial potential and sustainability.
The winner of the inaugural Annual Prize of $10,000 was Geoffrey Marshall, who submitted the Conus Lighting Range.
Incorporating ‘the pared back elegance of a seashell’, the range of nine lights including desk lamps, a floor lamp and pendant lights is described as having ‘sculptural functionality’. Each light is hand-finished and hand-assembled, combining both timber and metal.
The designer used ‘strong-back’, a traditional boat-building technique which ‘allows the custom-made, laser cut 2mm plywood to maintain form when held in tension around the powder coated mild steel components’. Each light is finished with natural oils and waxes to enhance the timber’s characteristics.
The People’s Choice Sur(Prize)! Winner was the Gaijin Chair, submitted by Jeff Thornton. It’s a ‘stylish Japanese inspired dining chair adapted for Western tastes’. The prototype uses flexiply, with just a single sheet required to create one chair, limiting wastage. The design has been noted for its simplicity, which makes it ‘eminently suitable for mass production’.
For more information on the Dangerous Designs competition, visit dangerousdesigns.com.au
Image credits for all images: Dangerous Designs
Other entries included:
Windtrills
Timber leaning trike
Co-op
BD6touch
LOFT Bench
