Ceramics Studio Atelier NL Wins <i>Modern Painters</i>' Inaugural Design Award

(Photos: Paul Scala) Last month, Modern Painters magazine invited emerging designers in the fields of furniture, lighting, product, and interior and environmental design to "revisit, rethink, and re-imagine how we live in our homes and to conceive an object that offers a new, more enlightened lifestyle." An esteemed panel of jurors wasted no time in reviewing the more than 100 entries submitted from twenty-some countries and selecting a winner. And the inaugural Re:Vision Design Award goes to...Atelier NL! The Eindhoven-based ceramics studio of designers Nadine Sterk and Lonny van Ryswyck (both 2006 Eindhoven grads) won for its "Drawn from Clay" series of hand-crafted pottery (pictured). Each piece is made from a specific plot of soil taken from different farms across a 175-square-mile polder (which Hella Jongerius fans will recall refers to a flood-prone tract of land reclaimed from the sea by means of dykes and drainage canals). "We wanted to make tableware so that the vegetables prepared for dinner could be served from vessels made from the same soil the vegetables came out of," explains Van Rijswijck. A ratio system was created to determine the size of each piece, which is also stamped with a geo-code reference to match the plot the soil came from. Atelier NL wins $10,000 and a feature in the May issue of Modern Painters. The jury also selected two runners-up: Rochus Jacob's thermodynamic cooler and the Klappwand (folding wall) designed by Pegah Ghalambor and Jan Hormann of IDMODUS. Both were awarded $2,500 and will be profiled in Modern Painters. "In these times of economic uncertainty, I think we are all thinking smaller, longer lasting, sustainable, modest," said David Revere McFadden, chief curator at the Museum of Arts and Design and a Re:Vision Awards juror. "Each of these winners, and particularly the grand prize winner, eloquently express these ideals." McFadden was joined on the jury by designer Ross Lovegrove, Droog co-founder Renny Ramakers, furniture maker and RISD professor Rosanne Somerson, dealer and gallerist Cristina Grajales, and Rob Forbes, founder of Design Within Reach.

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Ceramics Studio Atelier NL Wins Modern Painters' Inaugural Design Award

Stephanie Murg

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Stephanie Murg