Origami Inspired Stool Wins Inaugural Core77 Design Award

An environmentally conscious event seating design has won Melbourne-based industrial designer Thomas Hurd the inaugural Core77 Award for the student furniture/lighting category.

Watch the jury's announcement // Read and watch all about Polytope X-board seating's entry

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Credits: Thomas Hurd

Thomas developed the design during a furniture class at Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology, where all students were restricted to Xanita board as their material “I loved the hands-on experimentation from the start that drove the whole project. I wanted to move away from common slot-together construction to create something really robust”

Announcing the Core77 judging panel’s awards, jury captain and editor and publisher of London Design Guide Max Fraser said the Polytope X-board seating’s assembly from flat-pack to completion was “satisfyingly quick, its strength is evident and its shape more appealing than a simple box”.
The jury found it easy and cheap to transport, making it ideal for temporary events, or when conventional seating runs the risk of getting damaged or dirty.

As a single material product it could have a short life and be discarded responsibly through standard recycling schemes.

“This seemed like a very confident, very commercial, thoroughly thought through idea, simply for seating, and won all our hearts.”

Thomas is now working to bring the stool into mass production and hopes to have it available on the market in the next 3 months.

Credits: Thomas Hurd, Michael Kitchenham

About the Core77 Design Awards
Recognizing excellence in all areas of design enterprise, the Core77 Design Awards celebrates the richness of the design profession and its practitioners. For our inaugural year, we present 15 categories of entry, providing designers a unique opportunity to communicate the intent, rigor and passion behind their efforts. From client work to self-initiated projects, entrepreneurial to pro-bono engagements, we embrace a wide diversity of design enterprise: commercial, cultural, social, environmental, or discursive. We welcome projects in all these spheres and honor the time, effort and quality of the endeavors, no matter their provenance.

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