Design Miami/ Basel and W Hotels Worldwide have announced the winners of the 2013 W Hotels Designers of the Future Award. The 2013 winners include Seung-Yong Song from Korea, Canadian Jon Stam (pictured) and Bethan Laura Wood from the UK.
This year for the first time, the winning designers were sent to specific new or renovating W Hotels to solve a specific design challenge or need. Entitled “Making Connections”, their brief was to create a site-specific installation that could “deepen the appreciation for the distinct regional characteristics found in each destination”. Stam spent time in Verbier, where the W brand's first ski retreat will open later this year; Seung-Yong Song visited W Bangkok, which opened December 2012; while Wood traveled to W Mexico City, which will undergo renovations.
The newly commissioned works will be unveiled at Design Miami/ Basel from June 11 to 16, and later installed at W Hotels in Verbier, Bangkok and Mexico City.
This is the fourth occasion that W Hotels and Design Miami/ Basel have collaborated on the award. Started in 2006 at Design Miami/ Basel, the Designers of the Future Award recognizes up-and-coming designers and studios that are expanding the field of design. Each year, three designers or studios are selected to honor a variety of approaches in contemporary design.
The winners were selected by an international jury that included Jan Boelen of the Design Academy Eindhoven and Z33; Tony Chambers of Wallpaper* magazine; Aric Chen of M+ Museum Hong Kong; Alexis Georgacopoulos of Ecole Cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL); Marianne Goebl of Design Miami/; Benjamin Loyauté, author, curator and journalist; and Mike Tiedy of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, parent company of W Hotels Worldwide.
