DESIGNED TO DIE
German designer Janek Beau came in second place for his soy wax urn titled Designed to Die, which was designed to be a ceremonial part of a funeral service. It comprises two parts, with the inner part holding the ashes of a deceased person.

Decorated with flowers, the intention behind the design is to place it over a grave so the wax of the outer part melts, making the part holding the ashes drop into the ground.

"I wanted to design an urn that would be more enjoyable for the bereaved and more joyful for the deceased person," Beau told Dezeen.

"I designed the dropping of the urn because I wanted the urn to be able to end the ritual of the funeral itself, giving a final sign of life before saying goodbye." ->

DIG IN
Other finalist projects included German designer Lilli Malou Weinhold's collection of silver jewellery titled Dig In, which includes rings with tongs and shell dishes designed to eat food with.

"I've noticed cutlery's declining importance among young people today, unlike my grandparents who had silverware for special occasions that they received for their wedding," Weinhold told Dezeen.

"I've wondered how cutlery can evolve to match our changing dining habits and empower users to choose how and with what tools they want to eat." V

"At London's Gallery Fumi, British designer Max Lamb is showing 33 different furniture pieces made using cardboard waste from his own studio in a bid to push the material's structural capabilities.

The Box exhibition features a menagerie of 23 chairs alongside heftier pieces such as a sofa and a dining table, all constructed using nothing but cardboard and a homemade glue consisting of flour and water.

Occasional stripes of paint, made from mineral pigments and linseed oil instead of petroleum, provide the furniture's only decoration.

As a result, Lamb says the collection is entirely free of plastic, infinitely recyclable and easily fixable using tools that most people will already have at home.

"I've chosen a very simple, readily available and humble set of materials to make this collection," he told Dezeen. "And all the pieces can be infinitely repaired."

"You just need some extra cardboard boxes and some flour out of your baking cupboard. Mix a bit of flour and water and you can paste on a little patch.

No new cardboard was purchased as part of the project. Instead, Lamb formed the collection entirely from waste that had accumulated in his studio over the last couple of years, ranging from postage boxes to toilet rolls and contact lens packaging.

The aim was to explore whether this ubiquitous material could be structural in its own right, without the need for plastic reinforcements.

SALVAGE CHAIR
Jay Sae Jung Oh has designed the Salvage Chair, as part of the Salvage series.

Within the Salvage series, manufactured objects conspicuously transform into unexpected new forms, eliciting strong statements about the current cultural issue of abundant waste.

By collecting mundane, discarded objects and meticulously encasing them with cowhide leather cords, the piece communicates how conflicting elements can combine in unexpected ways spurring subtle messages of awareness of society's wasting culture.

"I hope that upon viewing the piece, people will reconsider the ordinary and find value in these products reborn," said designer Jay Sae Jung Oh. "Innovation, invention, and beauty can emerge from anywhere even from the most mundane, everyday objects that we put to waste."

LIGHTWEIGHT CHAIR: https://www.dezeen.com/awards/2023/shortlists/lightly/