I"Cadre" by Wirawan Hasbi Suryanto a graduate from Nanyang Polytechnic, earned an Honourable Mention from the Young Designers Category in this year's Furniture Design Award (FDA). "Cadre" is a series of art-inspired furniture. When one stops to admire paintings on the wall, we create out own interpretations according to how we feel and respond to the art contrained within the frame. Similarily, Cadre is created as a chair that allows the user to respond to his or her personal space while seated in the chair's "frame". It then becomes an interactive art installation in itself whereby each frame tells a story. Made of fibreglass Cadre comes in a spectrum of colors. The chair can be used to create interesting contrasts when used in different environments. For instance, Cadre can easily be arranged in a variety of configurations to create interesting color flows and visual impact whether in indoor atrium spaces or outdoor parks."

The entries for this year's FDA, an annual event organised by the Singapore Furniture Industries Council (SFIC) reached a record 637 submissions from 19 countries that included Australia, Belgium, China, France, Italy and Mexico. From these, 26 finalists were shortlisted and the eventual 18 winners picked for the Open Young Designers and Students Categories. Unlike previous years, there was no specific theme in FDA 2009, and so all participants had free reign over what they wished to design. The entries were judged on their creativity, marketability, functionality, environmental-friendliness and ergonomics.

Said Simon Ong, Chairman of the Design Development Committee for SFIC, "One of the aims of FDA is to provide students and young designers with relevant industry experience. FDA has in place a mentoring scheme for participants in the Student and Young Designers categories. This scheme aids the participants thoughout the conceptualisation and product design process, making FDA a boon and a launch pad for fresh talents looking for some real-world design experience."

Among the distinguished panel of judges were architect Aamer Taher; designer Patrick Chia of Design Incubation Centre at the National University of Singapore; Kelley Cheng, Editor-in-Chief iSh magazine & Singapore Architect; Lim Choon Hong, Founder & CEO XTRA Designs Pte Ltd and international designer Naoto Fukasawa from Japan.

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Last updated on 17 June 09 by Garry Tan and Siti Zahara