DesignTalente Handwerk NRW 2026, Cologne

Our co-founder and designer Jonas Finkeldei has won the DesignTalente Handwerk NRW 2026 prize in the living and interior culture category with the Vitiva side table. The award was presented on 10 October at the opening of the 34th state exhibition at the Chamber of Crafts in Cologne.

Vitiva grew out of a material exploration with our BIO-HPL: panels made from recycled cotton fibres from the filters of industrial laundries, bound with fossil-free binders. The base is made using a dry-bending process. The table is built as a mono-material piece and finished with a beeswax preparation.

The jury praised the "fresh and unbiased approach to an unusual material". The material, they said, has been rethought in both design and technical terms. Rather than stopping at existing processes, new paths had been developed in design, construction and production.

That is also the core of our work at eudemia: developing material, craft and design together. Jonas brings both to the table, his training as a carpenter and his background in industrial design.

This award is a great honour for us. Thank you to DesignTalente Handwerk NRW, the Westdeutscher Handwerkskammertag and the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia, who organise and support the competition together. Thank you to the jury as well.

Congratulations to all the winners and to all the exhibitors. It was great to be part of this exhibition.

The exhibition runs until 24 October at the Chamber of Crafts in Cologne (Mon–Fri 10 am–6 pm, Sat 10 am–4 pm, free admission). More about the competition at designtalente-handwerk-nrw.de. You will find the table in our collection.