Moooi co-founders: art director Marcel Wanders (left) and CEO Casper Vissers (right).
Entries are now open for the Space + Moooi 2014 Design Residency. The successful applicant will spend eight weeks in 2014 at the home of Moooi in Breda and Amsterdam, under the guidance of Moooi co-founders Marcel Wanders (art director) and Casper Vissers (CEO).
The residency is open to Australian designers with a body of work that relates to the design brief, and ideally designers will have industry experience across object, furniture, and lighting design, based on strong, original conceptual ideas that are fully resolved and ready to produce, or already in production. The design brief is looking for a dining/desk chair in four varieties based on a single design: with and without arms, with and without upholstery. A chair may be a ubiquitous utilitarian object, but it is also one of the more challenging objects to design with a new language. Bearing in mind the moooi brand is built on a sense of the “unexpected”, an expression of originality is what the selection panel will be looking for.
All submissions will be assessed by a panel that includes moooi co-founders Marcel Wanders and Casper Vissers, and Space Furniture general manager Christina Caredes. The aim of the residency is to see the winning product become join the Moooi collection. It’s an incredible opportunity for young designers to have their work on the world stage and to be mentored by Wanders and Vissers, whose combined talents in design and brand-making are formidable: Wanders is a designer with a honed business instinct and Vissers is a marketer with an intuitive eye for design. Together they have forged a global collective built on a youthful design philosophy that not so much breaks with tradition, as bends it.
Edra creative director Massimo Morozzi (left) with Sydney designer Trent Jansen, winner of the 2010 Space Furniture Design Residency.
Space began the residency program in 2010, sending Sydney designer Trent Jansen to Italy for a two-month residency to work with innovating manufacturer Edra under the guidance of creative director, Massimo Morozzi. Since opening its first Sydney showroom in 1993, Space Furniture has led the way in fostering a local contemporary design culture through its relationships with some of the world’s most important manufacturers. Moooi was founded by Wanders and Vissers in 2001 to make “extra beautiful products.”
Residency key dates
4 September – 30 October 2013: Entries open
14 November 2013: Shortlisted applicants notified
11–12 February 2014: Finalists present to selection panel in Sydney and Melbourne
13 February 2014: Winner announced
May–June 2014: Winner undertakes residency
Designers can download the 2014 residency application from the Space Furniture website.
