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Esa Vesmanen and Akira Minagawa awarded for the best table light of the year in Athens

The Global Design News and The Chicago Athenaeum Architecture and Design of the Year awards were presented in Athens on 6 October 2023. Esa Vesmanen's and Akira Minagawa's Sieni table light is a fusion of Finnish and Japanese design, creating a captivating blend of cultural influences and design philosophies.
Sieni valaisin vehreän ikkunamaiseman edessä.
FINOM x minä perhonen design collaboration sieni (mushroom) light. Photo: Hua Wangmina.
sieni valaisin puisen lipaston päällä.
Sieni light casts warm glow around the room. Photo: Younes Bonhar

Designers Esa Vesmanen (Pure Design) and Akira Minagawa (mina perhonen) have been collaborating for three years on furniture design. Their sieni (mushroom) table light won the Best Table Light award in Athens. despite their stylistic differences, they shared a deep reverence for nature and a desire to create enduring and emotive everyday objects. Sieni was created from these shared ideals. The light is part of a collaborative series of lamps designed to be both a source of light and a source of dreams. 

Flexible and durable aircraft plywood-veneer is the material used for producing the sieni table light. The material is only 0.4 mm thick, making it semi-transparent and allowing minimal use of the sustainably harvested birch. No toxic glues or varnishes are used in the manufacturing process. The design celebrates thin birch veneers, playful mushroom shapes, and natural stone, casting an elegant and warm glow around the room.

Esa Vesmanen worsk at Aalto University as a univeristy lecturer. His FINOM – lighting series has been awarded Habitare EcoDesign Award in 2014 and the German Red Dot Award in 2016.a vuonna 2016. 

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