There was a time when great furniture was designed by artists and craftsman to serve the overall vision of interior designers and architects. The Bauhaus movement was founded with the idea of creating a “total work” of art bringing together all of the arts, including architecture, and marrying form and function.

Designers like Eames, Noguchi and Nelson experimented with innovative materials, making great design accessible to the masses.  How can we not think of an Eames chair, Noguchi table or Nelson lamp as art?

In today’s world of quick turnaround and billable hours, much of that focus on furniture design as part of the larger design process has been lost.  For interior designers and architects, it’s easier to flip through a catalog and specify something that “does the job” and be done with it.

That approach doesn’t work for Reto Eberle, CEO of Burbank, Calif.-based dTank, a leading manufacturer of custom furniture.  Born in Switzerland to a furniture manufacturing family, Eberle came to the United States with a mechanical engineering degree and a creative hunger that eventually brought him to Los Angeles.  Coming from a European educational background, where interior architecture, interior design and furniture design are sometimes part of the same design education, Eberle thought that something was missing here in the U.S.

“In the past, furniture design was a much more integral part of the overall design, in the tradition of Eames, Wright and Schindler,” said Eberle.  “In recent years, however, less focus has been given to the art of furniture design, and that’s a shame.”

Never one to just sit around and complain, Eberle decided to do something about it.  In the fall of 2009, he created the F3 Foundation to inspire and provide learning opportunities to the next generation of designers.

F3 Foundation – for “Form, Function and Furniture” – is a private foundation dedicated to bringing furniture design back into the realm of interior designers and architects.  F3 Foundation promotes innovation in furniture design, and hopes to inspire architecture and interior design programs to incorporate furniture design as part of their core curricula.

The F3 Foundation didn’t waste any time reaching out to students and the universities where they study.  In January 2010, the newly established foundation launched its first annual F3 Awards - Student Furniture Design Competition. 

The goal of this annual student furniture design competition is to provide a launching pad for college or university undergraduate students to explore furniture design as an integral part of design practice. The winning designers receive cash scholarships of $3,500 for first place, $2,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place, and the first place winner works with engineers and designers from dTank to create a prototype of their winning furniture design.

Mobile Store – Mobile Office
The 2010 F3 Awards challenge was to conceptualize the exterior and interiors for a Music Utility Vehicle (MUV) – a pop-up mobile music store to promote a recording artist on the go. The footprint for the MUV is the iconic and much-loved Airstream Travel Trailer.

Contestants were required to design and call out one custom furniture design that expresses their overall concept for the MUV.  They also needed to satisfy specific programming needs with their furniture, namely: “play” (listening stations, seating and lounge furniture); “display” (digital billboard and product display for merchandise); “DJ” (DJ booth, speakers and mixing station); and “pay” (transaction counter for point of sale).

“We wanted to create a design challenge that was fun, exciting and relevant to students’ lives,” said Sean Kim, F3 Foundation creative director and principal of VIDA.  “We had to grab the students’ attention right away and keep them engaged throughout the competition.  We were blown away by some of the innovative designs - that also reflected social and cultural issues - that these students came up with.”

One such student was Alexander Nevarez of Art Center College of Design, who named his design the Nortec Movil.  Nortec is a blend of two musical genres featured in this MUV - Mexican music from the North and its Techno counterpart. Móvil is the Spanish word for mobile.  He noted that “Nortec Movil is a pop up music venue, where discussion takes place and voices are heard whenever music becomes a social taboo, currently highlighting the parallels between drug wars in Mexico, corridos, and techno music.”

Lauren Montgomery, a student at California State University Long Beach dubbed her design the “VIMUBU”, and described it as a “video music buffet that is metaphoric, playful, and smart.  When you walk up to a space and it tickles your sense of humor and piques your curiosity, that is VIMUBU.  Stimulating colors, cutting edge gadgets, and courses of music we know you’ll love.  VIMUBU is a sizzler colliding with your own personal super future music experience...on wheels.”

That’s saying a lot.
Whether or not any of the students’ designs have commercial potential remains to be seen.  But more than anything, Eberle just wants to get today’s students and tomorrow’s designers excited about furniture and its role in interior design. He hopes that by doing this he can revive interest in this important but endangered art.

Eberle wants to use the momentum from the inaugural F3 Awards as a launching pad for the continued work of the F3 Foundation.  Future programming at the foundation will include lectures, seminars and other educational opportunities.  And of course subsequent F3 Awards competitions in the years to come.

“By creating the F3 Foundation and the F3 Awards, I hope that we can inspire and excite young talent to think about form, function and furniture as they are designing buildings and interiors spaces, and bring back this great art,” he said.  “And judging by the results of our first competition, I think we’re on the right track.”

For more information on the F3 Foundation and the F3 Awards, visit www.F3Awards.com.