Bruno Mathsson prize 2011 awarded to Daniel Rybakken

The Bruno Mathsson Prize for 2011 goes to the Norwegian designer Daniel Rybakken, Gothenburg. Bruno Mathsson established the prize over 25 years ago to support and encourage primarily young designers in the Nordic countries. The Bruno Mathsson Prize has developed into a prestigious award. The prize amount is 200,000 kronor.

The Mathsson Foundation states in its motivation that Daniel Rybakken with consistent ambition has united form and function by stubbornly scaling away all non-essential elements, whereby the result has become an unexpected innovative aesthetic with exciting timeless quality, boundary-crossing design, architecture and art.

In a presentation of Daniel Rybakken, foundation member Hedvig Hedqvist writes:
– Since Rybakken received his master’s degree from HDK in Gothenburg in 2008, he has been active for three intensive years. He has received some prestigious awards but above all gained great attention in Milan. In April this year he was invited to both create an installation in Salone Satellite, which was part of the celebration of Salone del Mobile’s 50th anniversary, and to participate in Spazio Rossana Orlandi’s exhibition.

Rybakken has an ambition to express himself simply. And it is not just any simplicity he strives for but the elusive simplicity, the one that is both sovereign and surprising. Simply innovative simplicity. It is a delicate task that places high demands on its originator.

Daniel Rybakken always starts from function but wants to create something that is different – absolutely not something that already exists. His focus is to work with the experience of daylight and the contrast between outside and inside – the significance of light for the architectural spatial experience.

The Bruno Mathsson Prize will be awarded at the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg by the museum director of the National Museum in Oslo, Widar Halén, on Tuesday, September 20, 2011. At the same time, the exhibitions “75 years with Bruno Mathsson” from his debut exhibition in 1936 and continued appearances at the Röhsska Museum will open, as well as a presentation of Daniel Rybakken’s design. In connection with the awarding of the Bruno Mathsson Prize, the Mathsson Foundation will distribute the 2011 school scholarship of 100,000 kronor, which goes to second-year students at HDK in Gothenburg.

Bruno Mathsson © Bruno Mathsson International