Best in show at Stockholm Furniture Fair

Belgian Bihain is this year’s +1 prize-winner

The 2008 +1 diploma has been awarded to the Belgian furniture designer Michael Bihain for the shelf Libri. The award is given annually by the magazine Forum AID to the most interesting new product at Stockholm Furniture Fair.
 
Bihain trained as a butcher and carpenter. He studied interior design at the St Luc Institute in Liège, Belgium and the University of Hull, England. He has designed several shelves and chairs which have aroused a great deal of interest and are all characterised by ingenious simplicity.

The jury of the +1 diploma is always last year’s winner. One year ago, designer Damian Williamson won the +1 award for his screen wall Outline, produced by Gärsnäs. Now he has chosen the Belgian furniture designer Michael Bihain as 2008’s winner.

Bihain receives the prize for the multifunctional bookshelf Libri. The motivation is as follows:
"Libri is a unique example of simplicity at its best. But the shelf also has   exemplary details. The uppermost part does not touch the wall and the legs are very simple to adjust. This contributes to the excellent quality of its design. Libri works just as well on its own as in different combinations. Several shelves together strengthen its graphic expression. And when two bookshelves are placed opposite each other a wall is not even necessary. Michael Bihain has used the material very economically and the product has few components, thus making Libri well suited for production."

Libri is produced by Swedese and comes in black or white lacquered wood. The shelf is composed of two gables with several transverse shelves and leans against a wall just like a ladder.

The rules for +1 are simple. The last year’s winner selects who will be awarded the Forum AID prize from the exhibits on show at Stockholm Furniture Fair. Possible winners are all those exhibiting new products, - furniture, lighting, textiles and fittings. The winner will then select the following year’s prize-winner. In this way the same designer can never win the prize two successive years. 

Previous winners have been Damian Williamson (2007), Björn Dahlström (2006), Eero Koivisto (2005), Norway Says (2004), Matti Klenell (2003) and Eero Koivisto and Ola Rune (2002).

Download high resolution press pictures here.

For more information, contact Forum AID’s press officer:
Elina Smidlund Sigray, Forum AID, Strandvägen 19, SE-114 56 Stockholm, E elina@forumaid.com T +46 8 555 400 62, F +46 8 555 400 74