About the Festival of Wood

Entering the Kočevska region, green vastness is the first thing you notice. The forest spreads to the horizon and further. More than 80% of the municipality of Kočevje is forested so it is quite unusual that the wood, this fantastic natural resource, is so underused here.

To challenge this, the Festival of Wood was launched in 2013 to encourage the people about the opportunities that lies within the forest. To remind the local community about the value of wood as natural resource and to connect with entrepreneurs and increase positive thinking in town that struggles with one of the highest unemployment rates in Slovenia.

The Festival of Wood wants to become the focal and gathering point of carpentry, wood processing and the industrial design profession in Slovenia and beyond. Every year there is a diverse events schedule with a buzz about the town. This year the international industrial design contest “Primeval Chair - from idea to prototype” was launched as part of the festival.

You can submit your design before 26 October to enter the contest.

The Challenge

The Festival of Wood invites applications for a industrial design contest of a wooden chair as a tribute to the primeval forests of Kočevska region in Slovenia, home of the Festival. The aim is to create a simple (primitive), functional and ergonomically designed chair, which will, in addition to its primary function, raise awareness (contemporarily speaking) about the importance and effect that man and nature have when co-existing.

Wood is a raw material we have in abundance yet, it is not used in the extent it could be. That being said, we want to promote the use of wood in everyday life in a sustainable, economic way and promote the qualitative use of wood - and thus increase its use.

The purpose of the contest is not only to design but, bringing the story to life by creating a pre-production prototype made with modern tools and ready for wider distribution.

The four winning designs will receive the development of pre-production prototypes that will feature at the Festival of Wood, on the partnering platforms and promoted in the media. Manufacturing the final product from the initial 3D design model is the key step of the industrial design process. So often all these great ideas and concepts remain on paper and never see the end result – a market-ready product. Here’s the chance…