urban matters

Deadline: May 12, 2024, at 11:59pm, CET

The new edition of this ideas competition, founded in 1995 by Italian scholar of aesthetics and design Gillo Dorfles, is an initiative towards “GO! 2025 – Nova Gorica and Gorizia European Capital of Culture 2025” event. The initiative is carried out under the patronage of the Central European Initiative (CEI) and the ADI, the Italian Association for Industrial Design.

Candidates are invited to submit an original and unpublished project for an iconic item of street furniture: a functional seating installation (e.g. a bench), that could also represent symbolic meanings linked to historical location of Nova Gorica/Gorizia (cities forming one continuous urban area on the Italian-Slovenian border) and the sharing of cultural values.

Participation is open, without charge, to professionals of any age from Central Eastern Europe.

Contestants have to apply by May 12, 2024 through the online application form on the Trieste Contemporanea website.

The competition has a total prize fund of € 10,000,00: the BEBA Award for the youngest designer individually participating (€ 1.000,00), the Kathleen Foreman Casali Foundation Award for the best design from Trieste (€ 2.000,00), the CEI Award for the best design from one of the non-EU CEI countries (€ 3,000,00) and the Gillo Dorfles Award / First Prize Trieste Contemporanea for the best design (€ 4.000,00).
Winning designers will be invited to the award ceremony that will take place in Trieste by the end of June 2024, their travel and accommodation expenses paid for by Trieste Contemporanea. The panel of judges will also select a number of best designs to be displayed in a final exhibition in Trieste alongside the award ceremony.

Read the RULES of the competition.