We have determined one Kengo Kuma Award (the Grand Prize) and three Excellence Award winners of the 2nd annual "Kengo Kuma & Higashikawa" KAGU Design Competition. The theme of this year was "Unconventional Table. We now live in an era when the world and our lifestyle has been drastically changing. We chose this theme in the hope that various ideas of unconventional tables would be proposed reflecting the atmosphere of such the era. We received a lot of truly unconventional works.

Kengo Kuma Award (Grand Prize) was awarded to Wang Pin Huai and Ding Yi Jun from Taiwan. They proposed a table with a flexible structure. Tables are normally hard. On the other hand, however, this is a table of a very new concept that is soft and gets stable when you put weight on it or when people get on it. Since the tabletop is foldable, it can be folded and built up when it’s used, and furthermore, the way of building up with a leather strap is enjoyable. The perfect work for the theme of “Unconventional Table” was selected.

The Excellence Award was awarded to César Ikumoto from Japan for a table that changes its angle like "Okiagari-koboshi (a self-righting dharma doll)”, and to Tobias Pålsson from Sweden for a highly finished stackable table which can be arranged in a variety of ways such as in a circle or in a straight line due to its slightly different angles. Another winner of the Excellence Award is Minwoo Jeon from Korea for a table the judges nicknamed "Maru-batsu (circle-cross)". Its assembly tabletop and legs allow it to change the length freely and to be used in various ways.

All of them are filled with new ideas and challenges that go beyond the conventional concept of furniture and I am very looking forward to seeing them turned into actual furniture. We hope that you will keep paying attention to the KAGU competition and Higashikawa as “Unconventional Tables” with new ideas were born here in Higashikawa.

June 26th, 2022