Bottega Veneta announced today a design competition organized in partnership with the world-renowned University of Tokyo. The competition, for students of the architecture department of the School of Engineering, will culminate in the presentation of three winning designs in April at Bottega Veneta’s 2010 Salone del Mobile presentation at their new headquarters in Milan.

Portrait of Tomas Maier together with Manabu Chiba, very famous Japanese architect and associate professor at Tokyo University.

The competition challenge, which was presented to students in early October, is to design a piece of furniture that serves a function for someone seated, taking into account Bottega Veneta’s traditions of quality, timeless design, and handcraftsmanship. Each student had the opportunity to present his or her initial sketches and ideas in person to Bottega Veneta Creative Director Tomas Maier, who flew to Tokyo specifically for the design review. Students are now in the process of refining their design proposals for formal submission, after which ten finalists will be selected. On December 18th, the three winners will be announced. For these young designers, winning is the beginning of an experience that will take them to Bottega Veneta’s atelier in Vicenza in January, where they will inspect the design prototypes being built for them, and then back to Milan in April to present their projects to the design world and global press attending Bottega Veneta’s 2010 Salone del Mobile presentation. Finally, the winning designs will be available for special order through the Bottega Veneta stores worldwide and on display in Ginza later in the year.

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