Nominator: Simon Morasi Piperčić

Nominator's statement

While still studying at the Zagreb School of Design, Dora designed the school chair Kos (mentor Ivana Fabrio and assistant Nataša Njegovanović), which won the Rector’s Award and the third place in the product design category on Zagreb Design Week in 2024, and most recently an award at the Exhibition of Croatian Design in the student category Industrial/Product Design.

She also has been working with fellow student and designer Slavko Petek, with whom she is planning to start a design studio. Together they have designed and won first place at the 15th International Design Contest at Trieste Contemporanea with a bench called GO SIT! She continues to work solo and with Slavko Petek. 

KOS CHAIR

Kos is a school chair reimagined to suit current times, all the while paying homage to The Standard Chair by Jean Prouvé. The chair consists of a steel frame and molded plywood seating and armrests. The chair’s form is derived by bending a steel rod and constructing geometrical shapes out of it, using empty spaces as defining geometry. The outlines of the shapes keep the chair visually dynamic and light. It also enables the change of shapes and their composition with a change in our perspective. The bent steel rod also ensures that the chair is stable and light.

The chair was used as means of connecting the community and strengthening the position of design in everyday discourse and public space through visual interventions. They were made in collaboration with colleagues from the visual communications department.

GO SIT!

The two cities are represented by the metal pipes that run continuously through and create the seating area, while the pipe that creates the back rest represents the cities symbolic divide through its border. It goes through and under the pipes, to represent the deep cultural connection of the cities.

It also represents the railway that used to be the dividing line, evoking shape of the railway while it goes through the city, irregular and dynamic. The seating area is fluid and allows different ways of sitting or lying down, thus encouraging conversations and interactions. The bench is made to be used from both sides, highlighting the two cities and their symbiotic relationship.

The material used are steel pipes, which can be coloured depending on the location and the occasion. The pipes allow for comfort while being weather resistant. The modern form of the bench creates a new language, the language of two cities that grow as one, and that share their history, but create a new one, together.