With participants from 35 countries and 500 projects
MUDEC Milan – The VII Final of the Contest IDEAS4WOOD by Tabu opened by celebrating President Enrico Tagliabue’s 88th birthday. It was a cheerful and festive atmosphere that filled the room: IDEAS4WOOD is the most glittering, surprising Contest in the world wood sector. An annual and international ideas competition aimed at both university students and designers of all ages, who can design wooden surfaces and furnishings.
The mission? To make participants understand that a perfectly natural material such as wood holds an enormous creative potential, multiplied by the art of dyeing in the depth of the fibre, which enhances the natural designs of the wood fibre, for dozens of wood species. A living and renewable raw material that can be grown and planned in its availability on a planetary scale for the next generations.
Andrea Tagliabue, TABU Vice President, said: “We are proud of our commitment to spreading the culture of wood in design, as a creative and renewable material. We are a cosmopolitan company, at the same time Lombard and Canturina, with deep roots. This dialogue with architects, university professors, Academies and Faculties students renew our enthusiasm and confidence in the values we transmit: love for nature, quality of materials, business ethics, enhancement of talents, creativity in defining the ever-new languages of architecture and design”.
After 7 editions, almost 6000 people have put themselves to the test, out of an audience of about 15,000 people, including Architects, Professionals and Faculties and Academies.
The overview of the almost 500 projects received at the end of the VII Edition shows that the Student category from the following institutions has worked with special intensity and “desire to win”:
In there, the professors have given a special boost to the class’s work, “they have embraced the contest” as an essential work moment, a technical format that fully enters the programs of university courses, as an exam subject or credits-giving project.
The students and professionals who participated in the TABU competition are of 35 nationalities.
The University of the Lombardy Region’s Councillor, Alessandro Fermi, said: “This contest is taking on a relevance of absolute cultural and strategic interest for the Lombardy Region year after year“.
Aileen Bautista and Wanda De La Rosa
Istituto Marangoni Milan
BOREA project
A project for a three-dimensional surface that creates a play of perceptions depending on the angle of observation.
Eleonora Bindellini – Martina Castellini – Asia Perotti
FILARE project
Inlay made of multi-laminar veneer sheets, which on an aesthetic level captures the energy of the wind and nature, of a lawn that sways under the gusts. Also in this case, the designers propose a special treatment on the surface that restores the scent of golden hay or freshly cut grass.
The call for entries for the eighth edition, open to professionals of all ages and students, has recently been released! The eighth edition of the Contest begins October 1, 2025.
