Furniture

 The products we chose for awards all exemplify this idea. They reinforced for us the fact that design has become a central component in the dynamic development of contemporary culture. The traditional categories of form and function remained important for us, but we paid special attention to how products contribute to a better quality of life, whether on the large scale of the funicular railway designed to carry visitors to Ljubljana Castle, or on the more modest scale of a sample book for a paper company. We selected the funicular railway for a Gold Medal because we found it to represent an excellent integration of aesthetic, functional and user-centred qualities. Likewise, the booklet for Igepa Plana brought together in a clever way the two seemingly disparate worlds of poetry (and poetic imagery) with a pragmatic commercial concerns. In deciding on the other awards we chose to consider the multidimensional aspect of the products. We looked for indicators such as invention, durability, the satisfaction of special needs, and emotional experience as evidence of quality products or visual communication. Our participation as jurors has convinced us that beyond any doubt design is now central to the creation of a better quality of life for people everywhere. 

BIO Gold Medal
Funicular Railway to Ljubljana Castle
Design Miha Kerin, Majda Kregar, Ambient, d. o. o., Ljubljana, Slovenia
Co-authors Smiljan Buzeti, Brane Kregar, Irena Predalič, Martin Ravnikar
Producer Garaventa AG with partners, Goldau, Switzerland
Client The City of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia 2006

The unobtrusive contemporary design of the funicular railway complements the traditional cultural identity of Ljubljana Castle, contributing to a dialogue between old and new.

BIO Gold Medal
Booklet for 40ish sheets of paper
Design Studio Cuculić, Zagreb, Croatia
Client Igepa Plana Papiri, d. o. o., Zagreb, Croatia 2007