Currently on show at the Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto are the four winners of the annual sustainable design and public art competition Design by Nature. Artists were given the challenge of creating functional furniture designs, plus other forms of public art made of at least 50% salvaged or recycled materials. The top four submissions were selected by a jury and are now on display for the remainder of the summer.
The winning projects are: Cast Composite Cubes by Jeff Forrest of STACKLAB; Unearthed by Luc Johnston and Nan Chao of Lloyd London Studio; End-Grain Block Bench by Scott Eunson of Scott Eunson Studios; and the BeeHive by Yvonne Popovska, Aleksandra Popovska and Leland Dadson of PopTarts.
The jury for the competition was comprised of: Andrew Davies, Executive Director of No:9 Contemporary Art & the Environment; Gord Peteran, artist, furniture maker, and professor at OCAD University; Janna Levitt, Partner at Levitt Goodman Architects; John Hellwig, Vice President of Design Strategy and Research at Teknion; and Matthew Cohen, founder of Design by Nature and currently the Director of Design at the Centre for Social Innovation in New York City.
“Design by Nature offers our emerging talents the opportunity to reimagine the creative potential of salvaged materials, and gain great exposure along the way,” said Matthew Cohen, Design by Nature founder. Cohen founded the competition in 2011 to continue to bring innovative design and interesting, sustainable furniture to Evergreen Brick Works. Currently the Director of Design for The Centre for Social Innovation in New York City, he was also responsible for managing the interior design and furnishing Evergreen Brick Works during its development.
Teknion Corporation is the founding sponsor of this event.
For more information on Design by Nature and the winning projects, please visit http://designxnature.ca/