Two Canadian students are among the winners of the North American FORM 2020 Student Innovation Competition. Alexandra Clément, interior design student at Cégep de Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, is the first Canadian to win the first prize of the competition.

The Origami desk designed by Alexandra Clément encompasses modular art in its simplest form, epitomizing creativity without sacrificing functionality. Inspired by the ancestral art of Japan, the desk plays with various shapes and volumes to maximize its possible uses, including multiple built-in storage compartments. She received a $2,000 US cash award and will see her design built and showcased at NeoCon 2021.

Jacob Ethier, master’s student in environmental design at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), won second place. Matthew Lam and Benjamin Ma, students at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, received an honourable mention for their joint project.

This year, the FORM 2020 Student Innovation Competition received a record number of 150 submissions from more than 40 universities, cégeps and colleges in Canada and the United States. To participate, students in interior design and architecture programs were invited to submit the design of a piece of furniture under the theme “Blurred Lines”, examining the intersection of nature and technology. Participants could win one of the cash prizes and have their creation built and exhibited as part of the NeoCon 2021 event.

“We are very pleased with the enthusiasm that many students and teachers from Canada had for the FORM 2020 Student Innovation Competition. We are particularly delighted that students from our country distinguished themselves this year to obtain the two first places and an honourable mention,” said Johanne Levesque, marketing director at Formica Canada. “This North American competition was created to stimulate creativity and promote the talent of the next generation of architects and designers. The participation of each student is a great learning experience and I am convinced that the winners of this 2020 edition will be strongly stimulated by their performance.”