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Hida Furniture Award 2018 – Design Competition

To “nurture a tradition” for the future, while adopting the tradition, Hida Furniture® Festival in Hida-Takayama — an old city with history and tradition, is hosting a design competition for wooden products in June 2018.

The competition theme is “Designs for wooden products” and entry is open for proposal of designs for wooden products such as chair, furniture, lighting, sundries, and building products.

The best four (4) designs will be considered for commercialization and awarded a monetary prize. The first prize includes 300,000 Yen (more than $2,700) and the three, second prizes, 30,000 Yen (more than $270) each. Several Incentive prizes will also be announced.

The following competition rules are the most important for consideration:

  • Products are to be made of domestic lumber either entirely or partially
  • Different materials other than wood may be used
  • It is assumed that main processes of making products are performed in Hida

Applicants need to be able to communicate in Japanese or in English.

When applying as a group, a representative should be designated, under whose name an application is made.

The number of applications is not limited.

About Japanese domestic lumber

Japan has about 25 million hectares of forest (as of 2012), which is equivalent to two thirds of the area of the whole country. This ratio is one of the highest in the world, and in this sense, Japan can be called as a country of forest. In spite of such abundant resources, however, extensive use of cheap foreign lumber practiced for more than a half century has put the domestic forestry into an almost devastating situation. Forests have been left without adequate proper maintenance such as pruning and thinning, and thus they are increasingly losing healthiness. Essentially, forests can maintain their blessed and rich figure by keeping the “circulation or chain” of using trees and growing trees. We believe it is important to link the forest circulation with our daily consumption behavior by promoting development of products that are made of domestic lumber.

Hida Furniture Award – Application Fees

  • General: 3,000 Yen (about $27)
  • Students: 1,000 Yen (about $9)