Gandiablasco has announced the winners of its 16th International Outdoor Furniture Design Competition, reaffirming its commitment to nurturing emerging talent in contemporary furniture design. Since 2006, the Spanish brand has used the contest as a platform for young designers, students and professionals under 35, to challenge the limits of outdoor living. This year's theme, "Outdoors is the new indoors", invited proposals for upholstered seating that seamlessly bridges indoor comfort and outdoor durability.
© Gandiablasco
A jury of industry leaders, including architect Belén Moneo Feduchi and the company's president José A. Gandia-Blasco Canales, selected projects that demonstrated sensitive geometry, lightness, and the use of sustainable, recycled or recyclable materials—qualities increasingly defining next-generation furniture design.
First prize went to Eterio by Sancho Martín Merino (Zaragoza), an armchair that channels the refined structural purity of Classic Modernism. With its curved tubular frame supporting a soft upholstered body, the piece subtly echoes Bauhaus references while reinterpreting them through a contemporary, organic lens.
Second prize, Alis, by Caitlin Kao (Peoria, USA), presents a biomorphic bench with playful, rounded contours reminiscent of 1960s and 70s sculptural seating. Its fluid, landscape-like form encourages movement and breaks away from traditional linear typologies.
© Gandiablasco
First Prize: Eterio, the lightness that embraces (Sancho Martín Merino, Zaragoza).
Two runner-up projects were also recognised. PuffCoral, by Enrique Soriano Muñoz (Valencia), celebrates materiality through oversized knotting and tactile surfaces, echoing textile-driven design languages made popular by Patricia Urquiola. Meanwhile, Noodle Armchair, by Blanca Santacruz Oehling (Zaragoza), offers a bold, pop-inspired composition, segmented volumes and expressive colours that pay homage to the radical experimentation of 1970s Italian design.
Together, these winning works signal a new direction in furniture-making: a soft architecture that dissolves boundaries, between inside and outside, structure and sculpture, sustainability and expression. For Gandiablasco, the results underscore the brand's ongoing mission to support young creatives who view spatial fluidity not as a trend, but as a fundamental condition of contemporary living.
More information:
Gandiablasco
www.gandiablasco.com
