Award Ceremonies at Heimtextil 2011

Young Contract Creations Award Upholstery

The "Young Contract Creations Award Upholstery" for 2011 goes to the Czech Republic; Václav Mlynár from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague won the judges over with his design "Ygo".

In addition, the jury conferred two special recognition awards: to Renate Dworschak from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and to Jani Jönsson from the Turku University of Applied Sciences in Finland.

Messe Frankfurt, in collaboration with publishers Matthias Ritthammer, fibre manufacturers Trevira and furniture experts Gepade, sponsored this award for outstanding achievements by young designers. Heimtextil 2011 was the fourth time that the award has been presented. As well as the function-oriented demands at the interface between interior architecture, product design and textile design, the competition seeks to encourage innovative ways of thinking and solutions that have realistic potential for practical implementation. The task this time was to develop multifunctional seating for commercial and public spaces.

The award ceremony 2011 took place at Heimtextil on 13 January in Frankfurt/Main. The photo on the left shows from left to right: Hans-Georg Pamme (CEO/Gepade Polstermöbel), Anja Greger (Product Developer/Trevira), Jouni Suvala (Lecturer/Turku University/Finland, substitutional for Complimentary Award Winner Jani Jönsson), Renate Dworschak (Complimentary Award Winner, University Vienna), Ulrike Wechsung (Director Heimtextil/Messe Frankfurt) and Detlef Braun (Board of Management Messe Frankfurt).

Young Israeli designers honoured

A further prize for young designers was awarded jointly by The Israel Textile & Fashion Association and Talbar Media Ltd., Messe Frankfurt's representatives in . The winners were Ester Yaloz, Anat Dotan and Or Glass from the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, Tel Aviv. Participants were asked, with an eye to the year 2020, to express the feeling of the essential nature of "home" in concrete terms.

Innovation Award Architecture Textile Object

The "Innovation Award Architecture Textile Object", another sector award for outstanding ideas and product qualities, was conferred once again in 2011. This was the eighth time that the specialist architecture magazines 'AIT' and 'xia Intelligente Architektur' had organised the competition at Heimtextil. It is aimed at designers and manufacturers of innovative products in the fields of home textiles, commercial furnishings and solutions for room design.

Important criteria in the adjudication, which was undertaken by a jury of architects, were the quality of functionality and design, the authenticity of the materials used and the variety of possible applications. The "Innovation Award Architecture Textile Object" went to the Christian Fischbacher company for their products BENU Flock and BENU Pet. The firm of Gebrüder Munzert received a special award for their upholstery fabric Hologramm 20807/9N. Other awards went to the manufacturing company Pixlip for their LED lightbox and to Hunter Douglas for their Hunter Douglas Duette.

Trendscouts discover "Hide & Seek"
For the second time, following 2010, some 25 trend scouts set out, on behalf of the architect and interior architect community, the sector's latest trends at the Heimtextil trade fair. Architects and designers sifted through the innovative products that were on show at Heimtextil and nominated 15 textile products. The 'trendscouting jury', under the aegis of the trade magazine AIT, finally selected the "Hide & Seek" collection from Swedish manufacturers, Mr. Perswall, as "Trend of the Year 2011".