Aiming to comply with the European Union\u2019s Eco-design Regulation under the Green Deal, T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s furniture industry is ramping up collaborations to develop environmentally friendly, sustainable, and innovative designs.<\/p>\n
Organized by the Aegean Furniture, Paper and Forestry Products Exporters\u2019 Association and the Industrial Designers Society of Turkey (ETMK) \u0130zmir Branch, the \u201cDesign2Prototype: Furniture Eco-Design Workshop\u201d was held at the Historic B\u0131\u00e7ak\u00e7\u0131 Han on 4\u20135 October 2025 with the support of \u0130zmir Metropolitan Municipality and \u0130zmir Mediterranean Academy.<\/p>\n
Bringing together manufacturers, designers, and students, the workshop generated eco-friendly furniture designs suitable for production. Teams made up of five furniture manufacturers and exporters, five professional designers, and industrial design students produced innovative projects based on sustainable material use and circular-economy principles. Each team worked on up to two designs, resulting in a total of 13 concepts. Prototypes of these projects will be produced within three weeks and exhibited at the Historic B\u0131\u00e7ak\u00e7\u0131 Han.<\/p>\n
Kemer: \u201cEco-design Workshop highlights urgent compliance needs\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n M\u00fcjdat Kemer, Chair of the Furniture Working Committee at the Aegean Furniture, Paper and Forestry Products Exporters\u2019 Association, noted that the Eco-design Regulation has begun to be implemented in Europe with a three-year transition period, after which a Green Product Passport will be mandatory for furniture exports to Europe.<\/p>\n Describing the passport as \u201ca system where all information\u2014how the product is made, its lifespan, how it can be repaired, and ultimately how it will be disposed of\u2014is embedded in a QR code,\u201d Kemer warned: \u201cCompanies lacking this system will not be able to export to the EU. Our furniture sector is not yet ready for Eco-design\u2014this is one of our biggest challenges, and unfortunately the sector is not fully aware. A bottleneck is coming for exports to Europe. People think it\u2019s like an ISO 9000 certificate. It is not a certificate; it relates to the company\u2019s entire operating model. Without digitalization, a company cannot have a product passport. The green product passport allows products to move freely in Europe. This is a huge opportunity for us, but we must follow the rules and raise awareness through activities like this. Eco-design requirements apply to Italy, the Netherlands, Spain as well. We want to run workshops frequently to reach that goal. We urgently need design and innovation. Firms that take the leap may face risks, but those that don\u2019t will certainly fail. This also requires financial investment and technology. We are doing our best to alert the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00c7akmak: \u201cThe Eco-design Workshop changed my perspective\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Engin \u00c7akmak, Board Member of the Aegean Furniture, Paper and Forestry Products Exporters\u2019 Association and a producer of mattresses, bases, and headboards, said students produced excellent designs and that the two-day workshop made him consider issues he hadn\u2019t thought about before. He added that such events should be held more often.<\/p>\n Underlining their desire for deeper collaboration with designers, \u00c7akmak said: \u201cWe\u2019re demanding\u2014we can bring designers into our organization and offer them opportunities. Ultimately, we produce what the market wants, and we can stand out with new and different products. We manufacture mattresses, bases, and headboards. I really liked the new models; they have distinguishing features. We already combine products with appliqu\u00e9s and phone chargers. Here we saw different ideas\u2014there\u2019s even an arm-rested model that feels like a sofa when you lie down. We can produce that; we have the capability, and we believe it will sell. We\u2019ve entered a new world and are eager to invest boldly. In two days my outlook changed. We have an additional 3,000 m\u00b2 area in our factory; we want to enclose it and produce special, project-based products there\u2014essentially a prototyping lab where we can test new projects.\u201d<\/p>\n G\u00fcvenir: \u201cThe workshop will make tangible benefits more visible\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Good Design \u0130zmir Curator Can G\u00fcvenir emphasized that, unlike concept-only design competitions, this workshop involved producers and fostered collaboration geared toward deliverables. \u201cThe tangible benefits will be more visible. Factories will be visited, and partnerships will be long-term,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Observing that \u201cthe furniture industry needs to produce and sell products,\u201d G\u00fcvenir continued: \u201cThere\u2019s also a social dimension; it\u2019s a labor-intensive sector whose raw material is human effort. People must earn to feel good. Are we protecting nature or polluting it? Resources are limited; we must produce high-quality products from limited resources. That\u2019s why we must source raw materials from recycled content. The EU pushes us because resources are scarce. Good Design has been held ten times; it\u2019s a discipline embraced by \u0130zmir, encouraging good design. Design should be an interface that respects nature and people while targeting economic welfare. The EU is on the brink of transformation. Export-oriented industrial firms believe they can smooth the transition by working with designers. This event will yield outcomes that can be commercialized. We want to showcase \u0130zmir\u2019s creative and design side\u2014both domestically and abroad\u2014through cross-disciplinary, cross-generational, and cross-sector collaboration. We see this workshop as the starting point for cooperation among the furniture, export, and design sectors.\u201d<\/p>\n Onur: \u201cDesigners in \u0130zmir can stand out in Europe, too\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Ezgi Ezdar Onur, Vice President of the Industrial Designers Society of Turkey and Head of the \u0130zmir Branch, said one of their primary goals is to bring more designers into the sector, thereby strengthening industries\u2019 design capacity.<\/p>\n \u201cOur companies saw in this workshop that they can access designers in the Aegean Region who can create designs that stand out even in Europe,\u201d Onur said. \u201cWhen you want to compete through innovation, design is a powerful lever. These workshops lay the groundwork for sectoral collaboration\u2014exporters, universities, and designers come together. Firms unfamiliar with design\u2014or newly discovering it\u2014see firsthand how designers work and how to benefit from them, including how to gain commercial differentiation. Spreading good design is one of our aims, so ensuring high-quality outcomes is a priority. We also involved professional designers to mentor younger participants, conveying briefs received from companies.\u201d<\/p>\n Breaking down prejudices with hands-on work<\/strong> Durmaz: \u201cFive teams delivered 13 designs\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Didem Durmaz, Vice President of ETMK \u0130zmir Branch, said five teams produced 13 designs at the workshop. Companies will handle prototype production; students will visit factories during production to participate and gain insight into the conversion of a design into a finished product.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many gains here,\u201d Durmaz noted. \u201cFor companies, it\u2019s the chance to add new design products to their ranges. For students\u2014those who haven\u2019t worked in furniture or have but haven\u2019t seen production\u2014it\u2019s an opportunity to work with manufacturers and professionals. We also saw new collaborations forming\u2014with mentors, visitors, the Good Design team, and members of the exporters\u2019 association\u2014opening doors to future opportunities. Sustainability was our first criterion in the designs. We also considered companies\u2019 specific requests. When selecting firms, we aimed for variety\u2014an office-furniture maker, a mattress company, a baby-products company\u2014so the exhibition would show the full spectrum. That\u2019s why you\u2019ll see very different products in the show. After the three-week prototyping period, we\u2019ll open the exhibition at the Historic B\u0131\u00e7ak\u00e7\u0131 Han. We also observed that this process could lead to internships and job opportunities for some students.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aiming to comply with the European Union\u2019s Eco-design Regulation under the Green Deal, T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s furniture industry is ramping up collaborations to develop environmentally friendly, sustainable, and innovative designs. Organized by the Aegean Furniture, Paper and Forestry Products Exporters\u2019 Association and the Industrial Designers Society of Turkey (ETMK) \u0130zmir Branch, the \u201cDesign2Prototype: Furniture Eco-Design Workshop\u201d was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":53280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[251,254,179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-furniture","category-headline-news","category-journal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/orsiad.com.tr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1759733421_9-scaled.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orsiad.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orsiad.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orsiad.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orsiad.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orsiad.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orsiad.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53285,"href":"https:\/\/orsiad.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53284\/revisions\/53285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orsiad.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orsiad.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orsiad.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orsiad.com.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOnur added that a key aim in product development is to mediate the relationship between people and products: \u201cWe do this by understanding real user needs, empathizing, and creating solutions that address them. If it\u2019s a mattress, we question how it can be more comfortable and ergonomic to produce user-appropriate outcomes. The designer\u2019s role is critical. Companies must understand their target markets well. I see this workshop as a major starting point for spreading design across the sector. Design is a profession learned by doing; no matter how much we talk, firms truly grasp the difference when they experience working with designers. We\u2019ve heard directly that prejudices are being broken\u2014companies are beginning to understand whether design really makes a difference and how designers add value. We\u2019ve launched a strong alliance among universities, exporting firms, and our professional design body. We believe we\u2019ll collaborate on even more impactful projects going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n