The 2012 re-structured edition of the Interieur Design Awards, taking place during the 23rd Interieur Biennale in Belgium October 20-28, aims to target the broader ‘home environment’ and has extended the renowned Awards with an additional category. Pure object-oriented design is now joined by the living environment itself, in a new category called ‘space’.

Belgian Designer of the Year: Nathalie Dewez

Alongside well-designed products aimed at the mass market, the 2012 Interieur Design Awards now also invite proposals for interior spaces of 30 m2. Such smaller living areas can function as work or leisure spaces or just to allow a momentary escape from reality. They are experimental spaces which in Belgium do not require a building permit. Since an average student room measures around 20 m2 and a basic hotel room just 26 m2, this represents a true challenge.

Maria Bonita chair - Francisco Torres (Mex)

Inspired by the Bruno Vermeersch pamphlet entitled ‘Tom Thumb and the Seven-League-Boots’, the Interieur Biennale not only invites product developers and designers to reflect upon products for tomorrow. For the 2012 edition, it also calls on artists, architects, space planners and other creative talents to introduce suggestions which play upon and enhance the present trend of DIY design.

Wood Stove - Yanes Wühl (CH)

Ideas and prototypes for both categories can be submitted until the end of April 2012. The international jury who will decide the winning entries includes designer Tomás Alonso (ES), design retailer Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah (KW), journalist Felix Burrichter (DE), graphic designer Sara De Bondt (BE), artist Jan De Cock (BE), Torafu architects (JP) and architect/designer Oskar Zieta (PL).

Vase & Leuchte - Miriam Aust (DE)

The Interieur Design Awards continue to prove their function as a stepping stone for young design talent. Entries face not only the judgment of a professional jury, but also the opinion and perhaps the likelihood of commercial interest from a wider professional audience.

Designers Yanes Wühl (CH) and Miriam Aust (DE) were the main Award winners in 2010. Apart from the benefit of widespread international press reports, both winning products went on to find international manufacturers: Wühl’s Wood Stove now features in the French Wanders collection, and the Vase & Leuchte lamps by Aust are manufactured by German dua. MOMA in New York discovered one of last year’s participants: the Maria Bonita chair by Mexican prize winner Francisco Torres was selected and will be distributed by the MOMA store from next year onwards.