Tuscany: art, culture and nature.
Tuscan furniture: quality, innovation, design and more. In fact, since the beginning of the year 2002, the new Casa Toscana / Green Home quality label is going to award the companies involved in environmental sustainability projects and is going to be a clear indication of a state-of-the-art production.

With these considerations as its starting point, and with the aim of valorizing Tuscan furniture production and renewing its tradition, Consorzio Casa Toscana, in collaboration with the Centro Studi Giovanni Klaus Koenig, a division of the Department of Architecture and Design Technologies "Pierluigi Spadolini" of the Faculty or Architecture of the University of Florence, hereby announces the second edition of an international contest centering on design of furnishing elements with accentuated characteristics of environmental sustainability. Thus, priority value will be assigned to ecological awareness extended to all phases of product life: from industrial purchasing (use of renewable and recycled materials: in general, "clean" materials), to production (reduction of waste and scrap, adoption of the cleanest possible techniques and processes, etc.), to use (attention to consumer health, increased product life, etc.), to end-of-life and disposal (dismantling, recycling, single-material construction, composting, etc.).

With the aim of promoting a closer relationship between the world of design and engineering and the world of production, several selected companies (which will remain anonymous until the prizes are awarded) have prepared a series of project briefs, all of which are sufficiently detailed (on the typological, technical, and formal levels) - see brief page. The winning designer/contestants will receive cash prizes (Art. 8), while the companies will be guaranteed, for one year, the option to purchase the projects. The participating designers will, of course, be free to draw up projects different from those outlined in the company project briefs

The members of the contest jury are:
Roberto Cariani, Istituto Ambiente Italia • Lino Centi, University of Florence• Flavia Ciatti, entrepreneur • Biagio Cisotti, designer • Francesco Del Tongo, entrepreneur • Benito Giovannetti, entrepreneur • Stefano Giovannoni, designer • Gianfranco Gualterotti, designer • James Irvine, designer • Lorenzo Rubechini, entrepreneur • Massimo Ruffilli, University of Florence• Roberto Segoni, University of Florence• Lorenzo Toncelli, entrepreneur • Co-ordination: Giuseppe Lotti, University of Florence.

The contest is declared open in accordance with relevant international rules and is open to all Italian and foreign designers, architects, and students, whether free-lance or employees of companies (if authorized by their employer to participate). Teams of designers may also participate in the contest, but in this case there must be designated a team leader, who will be the sole referent to the promoting body. Members of the Jury, their families, and persons affiliated with organizations managed by the jury and/or by the organizers of the contest may not participate in the contest. Each contestant may present at most two projects relative to the same number of briefs. Participation in the contest implies full and unconditional acceptance of the rules and regulations set forth herein. .

The projects submitted to the contest must be novel and developed especially for the contest. Projects not meeting this requirement will be excluded by final and irrevocable decision of the jury.

The projects may be submitted on paper support (A3 format, from 3 to 5 plates set up on rigid forex panel) - all representative techniques are admissible. Whatever the format, the drawings must contain sufficient information to thoroughly illustrate the project. In order to better explain the environmentally-pertinent aspects of the project, the contestants are required to submit a technical-descriptive report no longer than three typewritten pages in A4 format. The motto chosen by the contestant (see Art. 7 herein) must appear clearly on all the plates comprising the project and the report.

The project documents must all be identified by a title or a motto, corresponding to a title or a motto submitted in a separate sealed envelope together with the personal data of the designer/contestant or team/contestant. The project documents must be in no way identifiable except by their title or motto.

IThe prize money amounts overall to € 10.500, subdivided as follows:

- 1st Prize € 5.500
- 2nd Prize € 3.000
- 3rd Prize € 2.000.

As mentioned in Art. 2, the "contracting" company is guaranteed, for one year, the option on purchase of the project based on its brief. At the end of that term, said right shall be considered forfeit. If the winning projects, or other submitted to the contest, are put into actual production, the relative business relationship with the author of the project will be regulated by the interested parties in accordance with going market terms and in any case with no responsibility on the part of the promoting body or the organizers of the contest.

The project presentations must be received by 12 a.m. on 4 April 2002 at contest headquarters: PMI, Via IV Novembre 119, 51100 Quarrata (PT), Italy.

The promoting body will inform winners by telephone of the jury's decision, by 8 April 2002. The prize-winning projects and other selected projects will be presented at a ceremony on occasion of the Salone del Mobile of Milan, as part of an itinerant exhibit in Tuscany, in sector exhibitions in Italy and abroad, and at a specially-prepared Internet site. With their acceptance of this document, the contestants authorize exhibition of their projects at said events and also authorize publication of the projects, waiving any recompense to the exception of mention of the author.

All the project presentations not awarded prizes or selected for exhibition may be picked up by their authors at contest headquarters within three months of the official announcement of the jury's decision. Beyond said term, the promoting body shall have no obligation in respect of safekeeping of the materials.

Each project presented will remain the property of its author, who is free to protect his rights in it in the manners provided by law. For this reason, the organizers of the contest hereby decline any and all responsibility for any controversies that might arise later regarding the originality and/or ownership of the works and for any claims by third parties regarding rights in the works.