Recently, the Muse Design Awards, one of the most influential awards in the global design sphere, announced their winners. The works “Nomadic Camping Tent” and “Nomad Campstool”, created under the guidance of Professor Gong Shuai from the SFD, with students Wang Yubin, Zhang Xu, Guo Longjie, were awarded the 2024 Muse Design Awards Gold in the “Product Design-Travel Accessories” and “Furniture Design-Outdoor ” categories respectively.

These award-winning works are outcomes of the 2024 PBL project “International Young Student Designers Exchange Programme - Kyrgyzstan” by the SFD. During the project, faculty and students collaborated with peers from Kyrgyzstan in educational exchanges, cultural exploration, and innovative design activities. The students integrated local traditional folklore and modern elements, along with Chinese traditional handicrafts, to create products and garments that uniquely reflect traditional characteristics and envision future lifestyles.

Work Title: Nomadic Camping Tent
Award Category: Product Design-Travel Accessories
Design Team: Wang Yubin, Gong Shuai, Guo Longjie

Design Description 

The modern camping tent shares a high degree of similarity with traditional Kyrgyz yurts in terms of usage scenarios, internal structure, and aesthetic form. During our exchange visit to Kyrgyzstan, we experienced firsthand the process of setting up a yurt and gained a deep understanding of its structure.

During our research, we discovered that people in Kyrgyzstan, when holding family gatherings outdoors, use both traditional yurts and modern industrial tents to balance ethnic style and practicality. They are keenly interested in having modern tents that feature ethnic characteristics. In China, inflatable tents represent the future lightweight camping equipment, popular among young families for their ease of use, and are gradually becoming mainstream in the tent industry.

The dome of the Kyrgyz yurt is the most important spiritual symbol of their nationality. In our tent design, we have preserved this element, especially maintaining the traditional yurt’s skylight structure. We use an electric air pump for inflation, employing transparent TPU, mesh fabric, and Oxford cloth layered into multi-tiered doors and windows, and incorporating reflective strips on the canopy, blending the nomadic wilderness aesthetic with a sense of futuristic technology.

Work Title: Nomad Campstool
Award Category: Furniture Design-Outdoor
Design Team: Gong Shuai, Zhang Xu

Design Description

The Nomad Campstool’s design was inspired by the shape of yurt pillars, their unique folding style, and distinct binding straps.

We infused Kyrgyz felt craftsmanship and traditional patterns into the product, boldly experimenting with materials and colours. The combination of wood, acrylic, genuine leather, and metal creates a unique “impossibility”, modernizing and rejuvenating traditional craftsmanship while maintaining its core playfulness and cultural significance.

The specific colour choices are drawn from classic Kyrgyz elements: the green of the grasslands, the blue of Lake Issyk-Kul, and the red of the yurts. Our packaging also draws inspiration from yurt wall-hung furniture and traditional baby cribs, allowing the entire product to seamlessly integrate into nomadic life.

Hosted by the International Awards Association, the Muse Design Awards are among the most influential international accolades in the fields of design and creativity. The awards emphasize aesthetics and functionality, aiming to recognize outstanding achievements in architecture, interior design, product design, landscape design, lighting design, fashion design, and more. In 2024, the Muse Design Awards attracted nearly 50,000 entries from over 100 countries/regions. This award not only showcases innovations that inspire and redefine the creative fields of design but also promotes international exchange and cooperation among designers worldwide.