The SIT Furniture Design Award 2026 Names Its Winners

A dining chair refined over decades, a Seoul retail floor reimagined as a home, and a folding chair that refuses to look temporary lead this year's selection.

The SIT Furniture Design Award has revealed the winners of its 2026 edition. This year the competition drew 420 projects from 46 countries across categories spanning furniture innovation and spatial design, with the jury asked to identify work that moves beyond craft to change how we think about the objects and environments around us.

The Furniture Design of the Year title went to Ignacio Merino for the Mezza Chair, a three-legged dining chair that distils an 18th-century Alpine seat typology into something quietly radical. Just 26 cm deep and cantilevered on twin rails for visual lightness, it joins eight interlocking beech-wood parts in a T-junction beneath the seat, achieving structural rigour through simplicity. The beech is sourced from legally harvested European timber.

The Interior Design of the Year award went to A Work of Substance for House of Shinsegae, located in the Gangnam flagship of Shinsegae Inc. in Seoul, South Korea. Designed by Maxime Dautresme and Seoyoon K, the project transforms a conventional retail floor into something closer to a residence than a store, layering solid timber, brass and high-gloss lacquer, jewel-toned upholstery and a circadian lighting system that shifts across the day. At its centre, a reimagined atrium acts as a social anchor rather than a transitional space, guided by the idea of discovery as ritual.

In the emerging category, the Emerging Furniture Designer of the Year title went to Allyssa Kim, a student at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, for Pitta, a folding chair that holds its presence whether open or closed. Its U-shaped laminated wood leg folds cleanly into the frame, producing a silhouette that is both structurally sound and distinctive.

The selection was made by an international jury of designers, educators and creative leaders, including Josh Owen (Josh Owen LLC), Alain Gilles (Alain Gilles The Studio), Lilian González-González (Anáhuac University of México / World Design Organization), Jeremy Myerson (Royal College of Art / WORKTECH Academy), Richie Moalosi (University Innovation Pod, University of Botswana), Sarah Hossli (Sarah Hossli Product Design), Javier Palomares (Curve Ahead Design) and Daisuke Nagatomo (National Taiwan Normal University), among others. Juan Mellen, president of the Design Institute of Spain (D!OS), also took part in the jury. Their expertise spans product design, spatial practice and design education across five continents.

Reflecting on the edition, SIT co-founder Astrid Hébert noted that what stands out each year is how different the winners are from one another, and that this difference is the point: some designs strip everything back to what is essential, while others build entire worlds from a single concept. That tension between reduction and abundance, she observed, is where furniture and interior design are most alive.

The full list of winners and honourable mentions is available at sitaward.com.