For the second time, the Falstaff LIVING Design Awards for outstanding creative achievements will be presented this year in conjunction with the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK. Representing the award-winning works in the five categories, ranging from industrial design to restaurant design, objects by the award-winning newcomers Flora Lechner, Leo Mühlfeld, and Steven Dahlinger are on display at the Festival Headquarters.

STEVEN DAHLINGER: TENS

With the project “TENS”, Dahlinger explores the potential of self-supporting textile surfaces beyond their usual area of application. Instead of classic panel constructions, the diploma project uses the high tensile strength of SHRINX textile from the manufacturer KRALL+ROTH as a supporting element and develops an alternative surface logic from it. Designed as a modular prototype for light to medium loads – from hot desking and shared desking to concentrated work with a mouse and keyboard to meetings or use in libraries and educational institutions – “TENS” responds to the requirements of digitally influenced, flexible working environments. The project questions the common design of the surfaces we surround ourselves with every day: Work and storage surfaces made of composite materials that are often non-recyclable and whose actual use rarely reaches their intended load limits. “TENS” seeks new approaches in the spirit of circular design – using tensioned textiles as a structural element for lighter, more flexible, and more sustainable surface design.

LEO MÜHLFELD: LARGE LANGUAGE WRITER

Mühlfeld’s “Large Language Writer” is an experimental writing device that makes interactions with language models seamful rather than seamless. Seamful means making the seams visible – those transitions and decisions that smooth interfaces usually hide. Instead of seemingly magical automation, “Large Language Writer” opens up a controllable writing process in which users actively intervene. Its modular construction embodies an aesthetic of customization and places transparency and trust at the center of the experience.

FLORA LECHNER: COROLLA UND STAMEN

Lechner’s models “COROLLA” and “STAMEN” are part of a lighting collection that explores the tension between nature and technology and combines classic with contemporary aesthetics. Floral motifs, skeletal in the larger lamps, merge into technoid figures reminiscent of machine parts, which are intended to break with stereotypical notions of female and male. Surfaces are transformed into complex three-dimensional shapes using techniques such as laser cutting, bending, and layering. The individual aluminum parts – 64 per flower – are precisely formed by hand on a segment bending machine, while screws serve as both structural and decorative elements. The result is an interplay of ornamentation and utility that challenges conventions and creates a new aesthetic.