Wei Jingye and Yu Xiaowei Is Honored with the Bronze A' Design Award for Branching Lounge Chair in Furniture Design

Wei Jingye and Yu Xiaowei acknowledged for furniture design by the international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 25, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ Branching Lounge Chair by Wei Jingye and Yu Xiaowei, designed for Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Furniture Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The recognition forms part of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

The Bronze A' Design Award Explained

The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.

About Branching Lounge Chair

Branching is a lounge chair inspired by the growth of tree branches. The frame is made of aluminum alloy and shaped by CNC machining. The seat and backrest are made of elm wood, formed by CNC machining and handwork. Bolt connections join the parts, so the chair can be taken apart and packed flat for transport. Finite element analysis was used to refine the thickness and balance of the metal supports. Seat height, seat depth and backrest angle follow ergonomic data. Branching suits homes, galleries and office waiting areas.

Award Record

This recognition makes Wei Jingye and Yu Xiaowei a winner of 41 A' Design Awards. The awards were granted between the 2016 - 2017 and the 2025 - 2026 editions of the A' Design Award & Competition.

About the A' Furniture Design Award

The A' Furniture Design Award is an international furniture competition recognizing good furniture designs by best furniture designers worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to furniture designers, product designers, industrial design studios and furniture brands from all countries. Typical entries include chairs, tables, sofas, beds, cabinets and shelves. The awarded furniture designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/furniture

About A' Design Award & Competition

Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://designers.org/170000
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/170000
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!170000
Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/180555

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: Branching Lounge Chair
Function: Lounge Chair
Category: Furniture Design
Discipline: Industrial Design
Industry: Furniture & Home
Colors: Light Gray, Tan, Saddle Brown, Sienna and Dim Gray
Images: 5
Client: Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts

The Recognition

Laureate: Wei Jingye and Yu Xiaowei
Country: China
Recognition: Bronze A' Design Award
Edition: 2025 - 2026
Design ID: #170000

Credits

Team: Wei Jingye, Yu Xiaowei, Gu Mingtian and Zhao Jiahui

Design Details

Unique Properties: The Degenerate Lounge Chair explores the tension and balance between natural organic forms and modern industrial logic. The core design element lies in the abstract extraction of the logic of tree growth, simplifying the complex natural branching into a powerful metal frame that supports the warm, solid wood seat. The piece blends the warm texture of solid wood with the cool, dynamic metal, presenting an upward-growing modern industrial aesthetic that interprets modern craftsmanship's tribute to and reconstruction of natural vitality.
Inspiration: The design draws inspiration from the phototropic growth of tree branches in a forest. It captures the dynamic moment of branches stretching and supporting each other, transforming this into a structurally sound language. Through digital refinement, the originally random natural forms are transformed into a geometric language that aligns with modern aesthetics and industrial production. The chair's form, based on minimalism, incorporates biomimetic lines, aiming to inject a flowing life energy into the otherwise cold interior space.
Research: This study focuses on how to use parametric tools to simplify and refine traditional biomimetic furniture. By analyzing the relationship between the branching angle of tree branches and gravity support, it seeks the optimal solution between artistic expression and industrial manufacturing. This research successfully transforms complex organic forms into detachable structures, solving the bottleneck problems of logistics and mass production in biomimetic furniture.
Challenge: The biggest challenge was maintaining the visual appeal of the slender branches while ensuring their load-bearing safety as a seat. By repeatedly refining the structural nodes and connection details, the stress relationship and connection logic between the metal frame and the solid wood panels were clarified, making the overall structure both lightweight and safe.
Realization and Technology: The main frame is made of aluminum alloy and manufactured using CNC machining technology. The seat and backrest are made of high-quality elm wood, shaped through CNC machining and handcrafting. Bolt connections are used at the joints, ensuring the chair's smooth curves while also accommodating mass production and convenient flat packaging.
Operation and Interaction: The cascading lounge chair is suitable for modern home spaces, galleries, or upscale office waiting areas. Its design strictly adheres to ergonomic data, with precise control over seat height, seat depth, backrest angle, and support curves to conform to the contours of the back and hips, providing stable and comfortable support and enhancing comfort during extended use. The warm texture of the natural wood contrasts sharply with the precision craftsmanship of the metal structure, achieving a balance between natural aesthetics and rational construction.
Project Duration and Location: It will begin in Shenyang in January 2025, and the prototype will be completed and produced in June 2025, and then exhibited at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts Museum in Shenyang.
Specifications: 520 mm × 600 mm × 760 mm. Finite element analysis was used during the design process to optimize the thickness and center of gravity distribution of the metal support, ensuring a lightweight visual effect while maintaining extremely high stability. The product features a detachable structure design, significantly reducing carbon emissions during transportation and reflecting a sustainable design philosophy.
Keywords: Branching, Lounge Chair, Bionic Design, Organic Modernism, Material Contrast