(Prime) Chair 12th International Industrial Design Competition 2026
Festival lesa
📌About the Event
The (Prime) Chair 12th International Industrial Design Competition 2026 invites designers, students and creative professionals to design innovative wooden chairs inspired by the virgin forests of Slovenia’s Kočevsko region. Organised by the Festival of Wood, the competition aims to explore the relationship between humans, forests and sustainable design while transforming winning concepts into functional chair prototypes. Participants can create either an expressive, artistic chair or an industrially viable chair suitable for commercial production.
ℹ️ Event Details
- Edition: 12th edition
- Theme: Designing wooden chairs as a tribute to the primeval forests of the Kočevsko region
- Design categories:
- Expressive Chair – A Tribute to the Richness of the Kočevje Forests: An artistic and symbolic chair expressing a connection with untouched nature.
- Industrial Chair – Forest Design for the Future: A commercially attractive and production-ready wooden chair.
- Mode of conduct: Online design submission
- Award ceremony: Conducted offline during the Festival of Wood 2026 in Kočevje, Slovenia
- Submission languages: English
- Participation type: Individual or team participation
- Geographical eligibility: Open worldwide, including Indian students and designers.
📅 Important Dates
- Competition opens: June 5, 2026
- Last date to submit questions: August 14, 2026
- Registration and submission deadline: August 28, 2026
- Selection of winners by the grand jury: September 7, 2026
- Festival of Wood award ceremony: October 15, 2026
🎯 Eligibility & Rules
- Eligibility:
- The competition is open to designers, students and other creators from any country.
- Participants must be at least 18 years old.
- Entries may be submitted individually or by a group of authors.
- Each participant may submit a maximum of two design proposals.
- The chair must use wood as its primary material.
- The proposed prototype must be feasible to manufacture in Slovenia using locally available wood.
- Participants must submit their proposals through the official online application form.
- All mandatory fields in the application form must be completed.
- The visual presentation must:
- Be submitted as a PDF.
- Use A3 landscape format.
- Be in colour.
- Have a minimum resolution of 225 dpi.
- Contain no more than five pages.
🏆 Benefits for the Participants
- Two winning designs will be selected—one in each competition category.
- Expressive Chair winner:
- €1,500 cash prize before tax
- Production of the winning chair prototype
- Winner’s certificate
- Free accommodation for one room in Kočevje from October 15 to 17, 2026
- Participation in the Festival of Wood 2026 award ceremony
- Expert-guided visit to the Krokar virgin forest
- Industrial Chair winner:
- €1,500 cash prize before tax
- Production of the winning chair prototype
- Winner’s certificate
- Free accommodation for one room in Kočevje from October 15 to 17, 2026
- Participation in the Festival of Wood 2026 award ceremony
- Expert-guided visit to the Krokar virgin forest.