Milano Salone Design Award 2022, sponsored by NPO Aoyama Design Forum (ADF), is an international design award for designers and creators from all over the world. After about 3 months, 3 works from 3 groups were announced on January 28 via the ADF's email magazine and website, winning the Best Performance Award and the Outstanding Performance Award.

Best Performance Award (Prize $ 10,000)
Lisa Ogawa / Tomomi Kawashima

Outstanding Performance Award (Prize $ 1,000)
Gaurav Wali
Futa Kobayashi

Congratulations to the 4 members for the awards. The winners of the the Best Performance Award will exhibit their award-winning work during Milano Salone at ADF's venue in Fuori Salone and attend the awards ceremony and awards party.

In addition, we would like to thank all the supporters of this award, the affiliated associations and the following judges for the award.

Piet Boon (Studio Piet Boon)
Magnus Gustafsson (Yarō Studio)
Kota Bando (Bando x Seidel Meersseman)
Eric Clough (212box)

Aoyama Design Forum is an incorporated non-profit organization whose goal is to "improve and promote the social status of artists, designers and architects. To achieve this goal, we launched the project in 2010, and this year was our twelfth.

Like last year, we had chosen the design theme "re_ ". "re_" literally means "to make something again" . re- BORN" "re- CYCLE" "re- USE" "re- BUILD" "re- NOVATION"... . Furniture, buildings, rooms, plans, etc., regardless of the form of "regeneration", we asked for their own suggestions.

Thinking about and working on environmental issues such as "recycling", "sustainability" and "regeneration energy" are extremely important in our daily lives.

In the field of design, we also need to look at the essence of things and think about things that lead to a future of the earth without harming the environment, without being tied to the appearance of beauty and taste.

Also this time, many proposals were free and not tied to a specific area. For example, one suggestion is to think about how to make things from recycled materials, how to add the latest technology to things that have served their purpose, how to create new things, and how to reintroduce ideas.

We will feature the winners' works next time. In this newsletter we would like to present the comments of four jury members who are active all over the world.

The judges's general comments on the works submitted for this award are as follows.

"It is fantastic to see so many young and creative participants, their ideas crossing borders, showing that there is still so much more to discover in the design field, especially with this yearʼs theme. From old forms re-imagined to the innovative use of technology, the participants this year remind us that thereʼs endless possibility for designing and redesigning our everyday objects and spaces for added aesthetics and functionality. We are proud to be part of the ADF awards. Together with the other jury members, we aim to create opportunities forfuture designers and creatives."

"The breadth of projects being submitted to this award is quite impressive, and it reflects the freedom of interpretation of the open brief. While the concept of 're_' can be seen from many point of views, against my expectation, it was not entirely focus on creating eco-friendly objects. While this topic is very present today and its importance is well known, it is still interesting to see designers, artists and architects immagining 're_' differently."

"In this examination, I was particularly impressed that the candidates interpreted the concept on this topic from different angles and that the individual interpretations were developed using different methods and procedures and completed as designs. That is what is really exciting about a 'design competition' where there is more than one answer."

"This year was full of wonderful submissions and thoughtful designs. I was impressed with the vast array of new product designs and re-use of important materials and recycling. Those that stood out brought further contemplation and thought to the designs - adding 're-THINK' to the competition's creedo. Congratulations to all.

It is the second year that the award was held in the midst of Covid-19. Restrictions on going out and traveling abroad have continued, and face-to-face relationships have decreased dramatically compared to the past though, it is extremely interesting to connect with designers and creatives around the world through the awards.

By using a theme, applicants from all over the world are thinking, developing ideas, dissecting them, re-proposing them and evaluating them. I have realized that we can create a connection that's not possible face-to-face."

We will inform you about the works of the Best Performance Award and the Outstanding Performance Award winners. Please look forward to it.