Press Release
Michael Budig and Kenneth Tracy Receives the Bronze A' Design Award for Carbon Activated Timber Bench Bench in Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design
The international grand jury of the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Michael Budig and Kenneth Tracy for sustainable products, projects and green design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 23, 2020 /DesignNewswire/ Carbon Activated Timber Bench Bench by Michael Budig and Kenneth Tracy, designed for Singapore University of Technology and Design, has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The result belongs to the 2019 - 2020 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 assessed 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 Carbon Activated Timber Bench Bench
Carbon Activated Timber Bench is designed for public areas and is made from reclaimed wood planks. It challenges the notions of weight and stability. While the volume of the wood planks appears as seemingly massive blocks, they are only loosely connected and in an unstable state. Tiny threads of carbon fibres tie the massive blocks together to give them their stability. They also reinforce the blocks to even add strength to the wood planks.
About Michael Budig and Kenneth Tracy
Michael Budig is Assistant Professor in Architecture and Sustainable Design at SUTD, director of the REAL Lab for Research in Renewable and Regenerative Architecture and director of REACT Studio. His research is driven by computational design and fabrication, and the desire to provide innovative solutions for the decarbonisation, digitalisation and changing demographics in the built environment. He held academic positions at MIT, ETH Zurich / FCL Singapore, University of Applied Arts Vienna and University of Innsbruck, and he practised as an architect and principal of Moll Budig Architecture, a multi-disciplinary office on architecture, urbanism and design strategies in Austria.
Award Record
This recognition makes Michael Budig and Kenneth Tracy a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design Award
The A' Sustainable Product Design Award is an international design competition recognizing good sustainable products by leading designers and brands worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to sustainable product designers, green product manufacturers, eco-friendly product brands and industrial designers from all countries. Entries typically include sustainable projects, environment friendly designs, recycled, upcycled and bio-degradable products. Awarded sustainable product designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/sustainable-product
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission 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. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated 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. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates 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, the upload of a work and the 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. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/89216
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/89216
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!89216
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/254077
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
- Carbon Activated Timber Bench Bench
- Function
- Bench
- Category
- Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Sustainability
- Colors
- Dim Gray, Black, Dark Slate Gray and Saddle Brown
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Singapore University of Technology and Design
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Michael Budig and Kenneth Tracy
- Country
- Singapore
- Recognition
- Bronze A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2019 - 2020
- Design ID
- #89216
Credits
- Team
- Michael Budig, Kenneth Tracy, Sachin Gupta, Kerine Kua, Dhileep Kumar, Lee Le Xiu Jean, Melissa Lee Wen Hui, Seah Jia Neng, Daniel Yong Kaijie, Singapore Composite Cluster and Hon Nam Lee
- Image Credits
- Michael Budig and Kenneth Tracy, Singapore University of Technology and Design
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- The bench uses reclaimed wood planks that through their re-application continue to store carbon, since the living trees absorb CO2 from the environment. The re-use of the wood hence contributes to a positive ecological balance. Carbon is re-combined with the wood in a different state, as minimal amounts of high tech fibres that are strategically placed to enhance the capacity of the wood planks.
- Inspiration
- Juxtaposing old, weathered hardwood with precise smooth carving and high-tech carbon fiber gives the piece a unique character. This novel expression fuses high tech carving, patina, natural wood grain, digitally designed weaving patterns and precise manufacturing. This points towards an optimized, calibrated future of sustainable design and recalls vernacular traditions of textile and wood construction. Lashing, wood joinery and timber frames act as both cultural and technological precedents.
- Research
- The bench design highlights the expertise present in large-scale furniture carpentry in a combination of experienced labor with new forms of craft, digital calibration and robotic fabrication. By augmenting the reclaimed wood with carbon fibers, the project proves that small amounts of high-performance materials can be used alongside carbon-negative wood elements. This new design direction increases productivity and sustainability through the use of new design and manufacturing technologies.
- Challenge
- Reclaimed wood simultaneously diverts waste and reduces the energy by forgoing the effort needed to obtain virgin materials. The finishing and fabrication contribute to making a durable, robust piece of furniture sequestering carbon for longer and reducing the need for replacements. Finally augmenting the performance of wood beyond its inherent structural capacity increases the potential range of use so it can be used differently for both industrial design and architecture.
- Realization and Technology
- The bench reflects craftsmanship in a contemporary context, where computational design and fabrication have become state of the art. After stacking reclaimed wood planks into solid blocks, an industrial robotic arm mills the blocks into their final geometries with paths for the subsequent reiforcement with fibres. The reclaimed wood planks store carbon and contribute to a positive ecological balance, whereas carbon is re-combined as minimal amounts of high tech fibres, strategically placed to enhance the capacity of the wood planks.
- Operation and Interaction
- Initiated by the opportunity to reuse wood decking boards the project leverages high performance materials and new techniques to renew the old materials and create a sustaining piece of furniture. An elongated pattern of tightly wound carbon fiber strands rest within robotically carved groves to hold the massive stack of blocks together. Precise, continuous curvature combined with tapered edges form a comfortable low-profile object that looks lightweight despite being 140kg
- Project Duration and Location
- Conversations started in late December 2016, and the design was completed in November 2018 and installed on the grounds of Mapletree Business City 2, Singapore
- Specifications
- Dimensions: 3000 x 830 x 400 mm Volume: 0.1736 m3 Mass: 128 kg of reclaimed hardwood from outdoor deckings Carbon fibers, total mass: 0.623 kg (around 800m of 12k carbon fibre tow)
- Keywords
- Reclaimed wood, carbon fibres, robotic milling, traditional crafts
