On March 28, there will be selected  the finalists for the best stand at TECHNOMEBEL and WORLD OF FURNITURE

The winners of the Ninth edition of the Bulgarian Furniture of the Year competition will be announced on 28 March, informed the organizers of the competition from the Branch Chamber of Woodworking and Furniture Industry, Inter Expo Center and MD - furniture design. This will happen at the official cocktail during the opening of the only exhibitions in Bulgaria and the region for the furniture sector - TECHNOMEBEL and WORLD OF FURNITURE.

This year, 12 products by 10 companies were nominated for the competition.

The first, second and third ranked prticipants will receive statuettes and diplomas. The evaluation criteria are - aesthetic appearance, practicality, comfort, ergonomics, innovation. The jury includes five well-recognized designers and architects. Prof. Vassil Zhivkov, PhD is an engineer in "Furniture Production" and a lecturer in the Department of Interior and Furniture Design, at the University of Forestry ,and has published the manual "Furniture Construction. Construction elements and joints in furniture ". He participates in the development of curricula and new disciplines. Prof. Vassil Zhivkov has been elected for 10 years in the management board of the Branch Chamber of Woodworking and Furniture Industry, five years as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board and six years as a Member of the Management Board.

He is the owner and manager of Prodiz Ltd.

The jury includes designer engineer Tatiana Stancheva ,who is the owner and manager of "Tanne Design" Studio. She has been dealing with interior design for almost twenty years. She has won Awards for Interior of the Year in various printed publications.She won the "Profile of the Year" at the Dibla Design Awards 2018. Many of her projects have been published in specialized editions, including "Bravacasa", "Our Home", "Ideal Home" and many others.

Another member of the jury is Eng. Nikolay Kostov, who graduated from the Technical University of Sofia with the specialty "Engineering Design" and in 2006 he founded "Proline" Ltd., developing it in the sphere of elaboration and production of non-standard and designer furniture. The projects carried out by his company have been awarded in prestigious international competitions. He won the "Bulgarian Furniture of the Year" 2015 and the BCWFI Award for the fastest growing small company in 2017.

Volen Valentinov graduated from the National Academy of Arts, "Porcelain and Glass", but focuses his interests on product and interior design. He is a member of the Bulgarian design group "Cherga". He is the founder of Voood Studio, which integrates product design into its own interior design projects. The studio has been awarded numerous awards, including the BigSee Interior Design Award 2018, the Dibla Design Award, the Young Balkan Designers Award and more.

The Alexander Safari and Radina Popova tandem are co-founders of WallStack.

Alexander Safari is one of the developers of the WallStack modular system. He manages a factory for the production of solid wood and veneered furniture.

Radina Popova graduated Master's Degree in Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Barcelona, then cane back to Bulgaria and joined the WallStack team, where she focuses on business development and branding WallStack on both Bulgarian and international markets.

For the third time within TECHNOMEBEL and WORLD OF FURNITURE, there will be organized a contest for the best stand among all companies participating in the exhibitions. The evaluation of the companies' performance concerns originality of the design, precision of the performance, arrangement of the exhibits.

The jury consists of a team of designers and well-established specialists in the field of stand construction:

- Vihra Ognyanova, managing owner of PRIM DESIGN and PRIM EXPO

- Andrei Trayanov, Manager of Andrit

- Associate Professor Miroslav Bogdanov, Associate Professor of Spatial Design at the Department of Advertising Design of the National Academy of Arts

- Senior Assistant Doctor of Design Ivo Popov PhD, Department of Design at the New Bulgarian University

- Toshko Kyosev, stand designer with many years of experience

The jury will select three finalists from the TECHNOMEBEL exhibitors and three finalists from the WORLD OF FURNITURE exhibitors.

More info about the program of the exhibitions can be found at : technomebel.bg.