Space Furniture and Moooi have announced the names of the shortlisted applicants for the 2014 Space+Moooi Design Residency programme.
All applications were sent to the Moooi Headquarters in Breda, The Netherlands to be reviewed by Marcel Wanders, Moooi Founder and Art Director, and Casper Vissers, Moooi Founder and CEO.
Successful applicants who will go through to the final stage of the residency application process include Andrew Southwood-Jones & Alexander Kashin; Kristian Aus; Ross Gardan; Tom Fereday; Bradley Mitchell; Emma Elizabeth; Christina Waterson; and Daniel To & Emma Aiston.
Shortlisted entrants will present in person to the panel at Space Furniture, Sydney in February 2014. The winning designer will be announced the following day, and the successful applicant will spend two months working inside the Moooi business in Breda, The Netherlands, learning all aspects of the design process.
The Design Residency
The successful applicant will spend two months with Moooi in Breda and Amsterdam, The Netherlands, under the guidance of two of the world's leading design thinkers, Marcel Wanders and Casper Vissers.
Their ultimate aim for this Residency is to see the winning product become part of Moooi’s collection, offering an incredible opportunity to the winning designer while ensuring the Residency becomes a highly coveted award.
The winner of the Residency will be announced on Thursday 13 February 2014. The winning designer will complete the 8-week residency in The Netherlands over May-June 2014.
Moooi + Space
Celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, Space Furniture explains that the success of the Design Residency rests largely on partnering with the right manufacturer and brand. The decision to collaborate with Moooi this year on the Residency was, in many respects, an easy and obvious one for Space since the two companies have been working together for close to 10 years.
According to Christina Caredes, General Manager, Space Furniture, Moooi is a dynamic and daring brand led by people who have a high sense of integrity, are open-minded, and most importantly, have a passion for design and commercial product.
The 2014 Residency goes a step further than the first residency programme in 2010 because of Moooi’s commitment to ensuring that the winner will work with Moooi to have a product produced for the Moooi collection.
The Design Residency offers a unique and hopefully career-changing opportunity for an Australian designer, and is set to become one of the most coveted prizes in the Australian design industry.
Background – The Residency
Australia has developed a strong design language through its excellent universities and design institutions. However, the growth of designers is limited by the number of locally based manufacturers when compared to the international market. This gap requires Australian designers to look overseas to market leaders in design and manufacturing to develop their knowledge, and skills in networking at an international level. Space has developed this Residency to use their network of the world’s leading manufacturers to support the ongoing development of Australian designers.
Moooi
Founded in 2001 by Marcel Wanders and Casper Vissers, Moooi is named after their native Dutch word for ‘beautiful’; the third ‘o’ in the brand name stands for an extra value in terms of beauty and uniqueness. In addition to Marcel Wanders’ designs, the Moooi portfolio contains a range of work from nationally and internationally recognised designers including Jurgen Bey, Bertjan Pot, Maarten Baas, Jaime Hayon, Neri & Hu, Joost van Bleiswijk, Studio Job and Nika Zupanc.
Offering a unique and iconic mix of lighting, furniture and accessories, Moooi creates interior environments decorated with an inspiring variety of patterns and colours to embrace any kind of space and make people of different ages, cultures and personalities fall in love with their homes.
Moooi has expanded its horizons at a rapid pace over the last two years, opening several showrooms in strategically located cities including Amsterdam, London, Milan and New York.
Space
Space launched its first showroom in Sydney in 1993, quickly establishing the benchmark for design retailing in Australia. Since then the company has developed into South-East Asia’s largest and most progressive retailer of contemporary design with five purpose-built showrooms in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, each with architect-designed interior environments that represent the quality and rigor of their furniture collection.
