Interior design students Chen Shufei and Adeline Yeo Xiuyun from LASALLE College of the Arts have been named the winners of this year’s Space Nurtures design competition.

A partnership between Space Furniture, Vitra and the DesignSingapore Council, the programme was set up last year with the aim of nurturing Singapore’s pool of young design talents.

’Out of the Woods’ by Adeline Yeo Xiuyun

This year, the competition called for the submission of a conceptual sketch based on the task of reinterpreting the Bouroullec’s Vitra Vegetal chair. Close to 100 entries from various institutions were received, from which 10 were selected to produce a prototype of their design for a final round of judging.

’Out of the Woods’ – prototyping process

Judges in the final round included Kelley Cheng of The Press Room, Mark Ormsby of Mark Ormsby Interiors, and Peter Tay of Peter Tay Studio.

’Out of the Woods’ – prototyping process 

Shunfei says that the idea behind her winning entry ‘Camo’ “was to reveal a chair within the vegetal chair since its original idea drew inspiration from trees in North America that grew to look like chairs”. 

“Camo’s arms were painted green to reveal a chair, just like how animals camouflage themselves in times of danger,” she explains.

’Camo’ by Chen Shufei

Adeline approach to her piece, ‘Out of the Woods’, was quite different. “Taking inspiration from the Vegetal chair’s concept of natural growth, green woolen moss creeps up the chair’s seat and backrest to give an impression of a tree left exposed to the natural elements,” she says.

Commenting on the winning works, Kelly Cheng says, “Shufei’s ‘Camo’ won because she has a strong concept and a minimal but effective execution. Many times, a simple stroke that works is worth a million fumbling bolts and nuts. Adeline’s ‘Out of the Woods’ has a very poetic and surreal quality to it. It is a very personalised piece, almost like an exquisite piece of art. The beautiful crafting of the chair immediately becomes a unique signature of the designer.”

’Camo’ – prototyping process

In August, the two winners will be attending an all-expense-paid week-long summer design workshop by Ron Gilad titled ‘Something out of Nothing’ at Domaine de Boisbuchet, France followed by a week-long attachment with Vitra in Weil am Rhein, Switzerland.

Upon their return, both winners will share what they have learned and showcase their prototypes at an exhibition to be held at the Space Asia Hub in September.