Art. 1 – Purpose of the Competition

TABU Spa, located in Cantù, reference company at international level in the dyeing of natural wood and technology of multilaminar wood, organizes and promotes the 7^th  edition of the Design Contest IDEASxWOOD 2025/2025, aimed at the design of geometric, organic or combined decorations according to one of the following methods:

1. multilaminar wood veneers (650 x 3100 mm) for the furniture industry and the wall coverings for interiors;
2. inlays both on dyed natural veneers and on multilaminar wood veneers – or freely assemblable – for the production of panels (1250 x 3050 mm, ex. Burls and Graffiti Collection by Tabu), for the furniture industry and the wall coverings for interiors;
3. three-dimensional surfaces made with the technique of the embossed relief or the bas-relief for the production of panels (1250 x 2500/3000 mm, ex. Groovy Collection by Tabu) for the furniture industry and the wall coverings for interiors;
4. surfaces for state-of-the-art boiserie carried out in sheets (60 x 3000 mm, ex. SKEENS Collection by Tabu Boiserie).
5. wooden floors, carried out in slats or with other free geometric shapes.
6. For the design of the categories set out in points 1 to 5, the use of Artificial Intelligence is permitted. For designs developed with the aid of different AI systems, it is mandatory to indicate the use of AI and the system used.

The submitted solutions shall be original. Furthermore, they shall be aimed at enhancing the company’s work. The aesthetic quality of the presentation and considerations about the technical feasibility of the project will be positively evaluated. The indication of at least one wood species/veneer certified as per the FSC® list (Document section www.i4w.it) and the attention to the re-use of the wood and to the optimization of its use in the production processes will also be positively evaluated.

Art. 2 – Terms of Participation in the Competition

The participation in the competition is open to:

• Professionals Category: all Italian and foreign designers (a specific qualification or diploma/degree is not required) regardless of age. All those who, on the date of the registration to the competition, are not enrolled in Schools, Institutes or Academies and work in the field of design, interior design or industrial design must be considered in the Professionals category.
• Students Category: all Italian and foreign students of the Universities of Design, Architecture and Engineering, Design Schools and Institutes and Fine Arts Academies.

For both categories, it is allowed to participate as individual or in a group. In the case of group participation, it will be necessary to appoint a group leader, who will be the sole responsible and contact person for the project. Each participant of the group will be asked to fill in the Annex A with personal data, signature of explicit acceptance of the Announcement, indication of the members of the group and name of the group leader.

If a group includes both students and professionals, the group will fall into the Professionals Category. Each participant, as individual as well as group, is permitted to submit up to a maximum of 2 projects, freely chosen from the 4 points of the Purpose, Art. 1 of the Announcement.

Upon free registration, participants accept unconditionally the terms of this competition contained herein. If the terms are not, in whole or in part, respected, the design and the participants may be disqualified. The members of the Jury, their relatives, the employees of Tabu Spa and their relatives may not take part.

Participants should periodically visit the website www.i4w.it and the Facebook page to check for any further notifications relevant to the procedure.

Art. 3 – Application of Participation

The application of participation in the competition, both for individual participants and for each member of a group, must be made as follows:

1 filling in Annex A in all its parts ( the module is available in the section Documents on the website www.i4w.it)

2 uploading Annex A to the personal page of the Reserved Area. In the case of Groups, the Group Leader enters the names and uploads Annex A of each member to its personal page.

Art. 4 – Official Languages

The languages admitted for the application of participation and the project descriptions are Italian and English.

Art. 5 – Required documents

Each participant of the contest, as individual as well as group, can upload up to a maximum of 2 projects to the Reserved Area of the website www.i4w.it (wood surfaces), and 2 projects to the Reserved Area of Carpanelli Award (furniture).

For Groups, the project must be uploaded to the personal page of the Group Leader. No personal data and signatures should appear in clear text on the projects, under penalty of disqualification from the competition.  All the technical tables belonging to a project must be anonymous.

Each uploaded project must be in a dedicated .zip folder, named with the USER CODE  including the graphic design, formed by a maximum of 4 horizontal A3 tables (42 x 29,7 cm), in a single pdf file, indicatively including:
–  Tab. 1: reference scenarios and methods of use, mood board, general concept of the design in its intended use and sources of inspiration, a short introduction describing the motivations, the general concept, the characteristics of the project and foreseen materials;
– Tab. 2: technical drawings of the panels in the requested sizes, details, details relating the chosen materials. For a project in residential area, the decoration must be designed in micro-medium scale on a piece of furniture and if it is considered  opportune, in adapted medium-macro scale on wall ;
– Tab. 3 and 4: design of the object, rendering, preview image of the project summarizing its main features (may correspond to the rendering or to another significant image): for a project in residential area,  the decoration must be rendered in micro-medium scale on a piece of furniture and if it is considered  opportune, in adapted medium-macro scale on wall.
The tables must be combined into a single .pdf file named “tables_title of the project” (maximum file size 10 Mb).

Art. 6 – Open Day and Webinar

To let experience its working activities, Tabu will organize one or more Open Days or Webinars – on dates to be defined, which will be communicated by email to the already registered participants and announced on the website www.i4w.it – open to all the participants who want to have a training session on the company, its production and strategies. On these occasions, it will be possible to ask for more information aimed at the development of the projects.

Art. 7 – Delivery Deadline and Award Ceremony

Projects must be uploaded to the appropriate section of the website www.i4w.it strictly no later than June 10^th, 2025 h 12 p.m. (Midday, Italian time).

During the first week of September 2025, the Award Ceremony will be held in a prestigious location in Milan.

Art. 8 – Jury

The Jury is chaired by Architect Silvia Piardi and composed of architects, journalists and members of the Associations of the wood-furniture sector. The judgements of the Jury will be unquestionable and unappealable.

Art. 9 – Information and Publication of the Results

The finalists of the competition will be officially published on the website www.i4w.it immediately after the Jury’s deliberation. Tabu Spa has the right to present the initiative to the press and to communicate the results of the competition during a dedicated event, for which information will be provided in due course on the website www.i4w.it and on the Facebook page of the Contest.

All participants authorize the company upon acceptance of this Announcement to show their designs during public exhibitions and events and to publish them on a catalogue and on paper and online media; for this nothing will be due apart from the obligation to quote the author. The company will not be in any case responsible for the theft or loss of the works.

Art. 10 – Prizes

The total prize money will be distributed as follows:

PROFESSIONALS Category: 1° prize € 5,000.00

STUDENTS Category: 1° prize € 5,000.00

PROFESSIONALS Category Carpanelli Award: 1° prize € 3,000.00

STUDENTS Category Carpanelli Award: 1° prize € 2,000.00

What follows will be a plus to reach Awards and Mentions:

• Design the decoration within a project area;
• The use of colour palette of the 555 Collection, the largest collection in the world of natural dyed and multilaminar wood veneers organized in chromatic scale ( 13 Folders are available in the section Documents on the website www.i4w.it)
• A transversal approach to the project as a synthesis of the sustainability values (FSC® forest certification), circularity and excellent use of the raw material (sustainability.tabu.it).

The FSC® Mentions will be awarded for the works that have reserved a special attention to the values expressed by the FSC® Certification ( Official FSC ® Italia Summary is available in the section Documents on the website www.i4w.it)

The Contest also includes:

• IQD Magazine Special Award: for the project featuring the best architectural vision, which will be awarded with the publication on the international architecture magazine and a one-year subscription to the magazine.
• RodaForYou Special Award
• Sherwin Williams Special Award
• CARPANELLI Special Award for furniture, objects or furnishing accessories to be created with the use of the Tabu surfaces from the Collections mentioned in Article 1 and available in the DOCUMENTS Area of the website www.i4w.it.

The Announcement of the Carpanelli Special Award is available in the dedicated special section of the website www.i4w.it.

All candidates are allowed to participate in the IDEASxWOOD Contest as per this Announcement and simultaneously in the Carpanelli Special Award, according to the dedicated Announcement.

In any case, Tabu reserves the right to produce prototypes of the projects of the competition and to eventually put them into production. In this case, the designers will be paid a royalty fee regulated by an agreement independent from this Competition Announcement.

Art. 11 – Rights and Ownership of the presented works

The authors will maintain the ownership of the presented works. The authors will grant the company the option to use the winning and mentioned projects for the duration of one year from the date of the Jury’s deliberation. Within this period, the company will evaluate whether to put them into production and, in this case, the relationship with the designer will be regulated by a separated and specific contract between him/her and Tabu Spa. The company also undertakes not to modify in any way the presented works without the approval and authorization of the designer.

Art. 12 – Acceptance of the Competition Announcement

Participation in the Competition presupposes the total acceptance of this Announcement. In accordance with articles 13 and 15 of the GDPR 2016/679, the acquired personal data will be used solely for the purposes of this announcement and of the related reports. The parties are granted the right to access their data, to request correction, integration and any other right therein. Responsible for the data processing is Tabu Spa – Cantù.

Art. 13 – Jurisdictional Protection

The Milan Court is competent to deal for any controversy concerning this announcement and the acts related and connected to the procedure of the Competition.

For further information, technical assistance or clarifications contact:

info@i4w.it  – Tel +39 031 714493 – asking for the Competition Secretariat

Cantù, I October 2024