Pakistan’s premier home couture brand, YOCA – led by architects Sarah Najmi Bilgrami, Zayd Bilgrami and Ahsan Najmi, has won the “Silver A’ Design Award” at the A’ International Design Award and Competition 2017 making it the first Pakistani brand to win the one of the most influential design awards in the world.
YOCA specifically, has been awarded for its design project “Amoeba – The Coffee Table” in the Furniture, Decorative Items and Homeware Design Category. Award recipients are selected from thousands of nominated projects from around the world by an international jury panel.
Creative Director YOCA, Sarah Najmi-Bilgrami said “It is an incredible honor to receive recognition from such an innovative and internationally acclaimed awards competition; one that sets the benchmark for design authority in Italy.”
We are so humbled to represent Pakistan at a platform that essentially sets the tone for design excellence worldwide.
According to Sarah, the winning table which examines the synergies between shapes and structures. It was a great challenge to find suitable pieces of the rosewood tree roots and bark formations that complement each other well enough to have formed “Amoeba – The Coffee Table”
“However, the end result is worth the effort when we know we have created a distinctive, stand-out furniture piece,” she said.
Amoeba – The Coffee Table
The table is a reflection of the brand’s belief that all natural elements can be used to create something aesthetically pleasing. Inspired by its literal meaning, a cell organism that can change its shape by expanding and contracting, the main focus in designing “amoeba” was the exploration of materials, their restraints and characteristics and how even discarded pieces can be harnessed with proper care and attention.
Skillfully utilizing the trunk of a rosewood tree, which is normally discarded, the team used primarily hand sketches with graphite pencils and paper to design this project with the beauty of the bark itself as the most unique aspect of the design and the fact that no two barks are the same yet they connect so effortlessly. The design elements of the Amoeba Coffee Table involved extensive research to ensure the strength, stability, balance and symmetry of each unique piece.
The team worked also worked with brass artisans, who meticulously handcrafted the brass legs inspired by vernacular forms such as minarets and spinning tops and local wood craftsmen to create this distinctive piece.
The team at YOCA will be taking this award-winning Pakistani design to various exhibitions and fairs across the globe including the A’ Winners’ Exhibition at “MOOD” Ex Chiesa di San Francesco in Como, Italy this June 2017.