A Toronto designer’s curvaceous, low-lying bench has been crowned the winner of Grand Cru/ation, a design competition and collaboration between Design Exchange and Nespresso.
Grand Cru/ation asked designers, artists, architects, and engineers to reimagine the environment of the conventional coffee break. A collaboration between Design Exchange, Toronto’s design museum, and Nespresso, the brief required a proposal for a sustainable, aluminum structure that would both reference and encourage the recyclability of Nespresso coffee capsules.
Lilly Otasevic, a Serbian-born, Toronto-based artist and designer, was crowned the winner by a judging panel that included designer Alessandro Munge of Studio Munge, architect Janna Levitt from LGA Architectural Partners and interior installation artist Pascale Girardin.
Otasevic’s winning concept, Break~Wave, is a low-lying, rounded bench with an undulating top and a curvaceous shape whose form is inspired by that of a Nespresso capsule. “This is an elegant solution, the design merges the seating experience with the flow of traffic, within a busy commute. The design responds well to the brand while adding a personal human touch,” says Girardin of the design.
Break~Wave will be manufactured in three hues, to match three varieties of Nespresso capsules, and displayed at Toronto’s Union Station, where passersby can interact with the structure while sipping their brew.
