Press Release
Marco Balsinha Receives the Bronze A' Design Award for Scenic Table in Furniture Design
The international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Marco Balsinha for furniture design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 18, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ Scenic Table by Marco Balsinha, designed for Tensai Furniture, has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Furniture Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The result belongs to the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
What the Bronze A' Design Award Means
The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.
More About Scenic Table
The Scenic Table stands out with its adaptable leg design, offering versatile attachment options for various environments, from commercial to domestic. Its plastic tabletop features multiple holes for different leg positions, concealing technical areas while ensuring durability, safety, and ergonomics. Inspired by the Calla lily, the leg can take on two distinct forms, maintaining consistent formal language and produced using the same mold for efficiency. The table includes interchangeable parts, balancing aesthetics and functionality, and combines design innovation with practical versatility
About Marco Balsinha
Creativity through form, as the fusion of dreaming and making, positions Marco Balsinha’s design practice as a mediating force. His work stands out for its ability to balance and materialise ideas with the potential to generate economic, social, and environmental value, critically questioning reality through form. He has built a career focused on valuing design in industrial contexts, where each project becomes an opportunity to explore new ways of integrating design into engineering-driven environments. His practice bridges professional experience in industry with academic engagement, establishing research lines that are both rigorous and applicable.
Award Record
Marco Balsinha is a winner of 1 A' Design Award, including this recognition.
About the A' Furniture Design Award
The A' Furniture Design Award is an international furniture competition recognizing good furniture designs by best furniture designers worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to furniture designers, product designers, industrial design studios and furniture brands from all countries. Typical entries include chairs, tables, sofas, beds, cabinets and shelves. The awarded furniture designs are published at https://desingers.org/design-category/furniture
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://desingers.org/163947
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/163947
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!163947
- Laureate Profile: https://desingers.org/d/357926
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://tensaifurniture.pt/
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Scenic Table
- Function
- Table
- Category
- Furniture Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Furniture & Home
- Colors
- Gainsboro, Sienna, Dark Olive Green, Peru and White Smoke
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Tensai Furniture
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Marco Balsinha
- Country
- Portugal
- Recognition
- Bronze A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2024 - 2025
- Design ID
- #163947
Credits
- Team
- Tensai Indústria, Ângela Correia, Marco Balsinha, José Queirós, Carla Costa, Hugo Patrício and Cristiano Ribeiro
- Image Credits
- Image #1,#2, #4, #5: Cristiano Ribeiro; Designer Marco Balsinha, 2024
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- The Scenic Table features adaptable leg, central to its originality. Its design offers versatile attachment options for spaces from HoReCa to homes. The plastic tabletop allows multiple leg positions, concealing technical areas. Compatible with various chairs, it balances safety, ergonomics, and durability. Its versatility, combined with a range of colors and configurations, adds aesthetic and functional value to any space, maintains the consistency of its formal language.
- Inspiration
- Expanding the product portfolio and enhance design quality, the Scenic Table project was created as a versatile solution concerning competitive references. Centered on a leg design inspired by the Calla lily, it blends elegance with mechanical efficiency. Using plastic injection molds, the table features interchangeable components, pushing technical boundaries. Developed with client feedback and rigorous testing, it balances corporate goals with innovation, ready for global market presentation.
- Research
- Focusing on the leg as its original element, the Scenic Table design is inspired by the Calla lily. With interchangeable parts and plastic injection as its main technology, it incorporates innovation and boldness, key traits of design exploration. The project allows for multiple creative configurations, maintaining its envisioned language and ensuring formal and conceptual alignment. It serves as applied research in organizations and an educational example within European design's strategic role.
- Challenge
- The Scenic Table project addresses technical, corporate, aesthetic, and visionary challenges. It uses interchangeable parts to enhance aesthetics and user experience, with precise connections managed through material shrinkage and injection molding. The project demonstrates design’s role alongside engineering and marketing, despite limited recognition. It balances designer vision and production, promoting bold, risk-taking concepts within corporate, consolidating design's role in the industry.
- Realization and Technology
- Driven by research into company and market needs, the project was a collaboration between multiple departments, establishing guidelines for the designer with process inspired by Gui Bonsiepe. Initial sketches were modeled digitally. Plastic injection molding was chosen for precision and durability, using polypropylene with fiber. The process involved feedback loops, 3D prototypes, and tests to refine the design. The table was finalized with technical adjustments, ready for mass production.
- Operation and Interaction
- The Scenic Table excels in versatility and application, featuring a range of accessories that inspire creative professional solutions. It can be assembled from individual sets or supplied in bulk for large spaces. Customizable components allow for personalized solutions and easy part replacement, directly contributing to its tosustainability. The table’s design sets it apart from competitors, offering a unique, elegant way to transform spaces, meeting commercial sector needs effectively.
- Project Duration and Location
- Design development is fully underway in March 16, 2023. News publicly released at Spoga Gafa in Cologne 2024 (June 16, 2024) - Germany. The final demonstration unit will begin operation and be showcased at EquipHotel Paris 2024 – France (November 3, 2024). The first mass production is scheduled for December 2024.
- Specifications
- The table leg offers two distinct designs: a masculine, fully closed version with bag support for practicality, and a more open, feminine, delicate, and customizable version. Both are produced using the same mold with inserts, optimizing sustainability and industrial efficiency. This innovation maintains consistent texture, color, and size across both versions. Assembled table 738mm x (450/700/800mm or more), CLASSICA: 720mm x 175mm x 175mm, CURVE: 807mm x 175mm x 175mm.
- Keywords
- Furniture, table, design, contract, plastic furniture, plastic injection, industrial design, modern design
