News: Exhibition - Bombay Sapphire Blue Room

Tuesday, April 15, 2003 - 01:42 PM

The short-listed and winning entries for THE BOMBAY SAPPHIRE PRIZE – a major new international glass design award with a £20,000 prize fund – will be exhibited in The Bombay Sapphire Blue Room exhibition at Nottingham Castle Museum, from April18th to June 15th 2003.

THE BOMBAY SAPPHIRE BLUE ROOM EXHIBITION

Glass in Contemporary Life

This exhibition brings together outstanding projects by international artists, architects and designers who have chosen glass as the primary material for their designs. It demonstrates the incredible versatility of glass as a design medium and its importance in our daily lives.

Designer Thomas Heatherwick is this year’s winner of the £15,000 Bombay Sapphire Prize for excellence and innovation in glass design for his spectacular Glass Bridge, which is currently at developmental stage.

One of the judges - international designer Tom Dixon - commented on the winning design, “The Glass Bridge is simply an outstanding example of design innovation both in terms of its structure and the technical use of glass. It is also rare in public art for something as daring as this to be commissioned. I can’t wait to see it built.”
The exhibition features a selection of developmental drawings and photographic representation of Glass Bridge.

Award winners in the categories of Glass in Art and Glass in Design also displayed in the exhibition, are Chiho Hitomi for Rings – a hanging sculpture made from chains of very fine lead crystal rings - and Tord Boontje for his Dragonfly and Bird vessels, The Wednesday Collection and Wall Flowers. Both received awards of £2,500.

The selection panel for The Bombay Sapphire Prize included international designers and glass experts from The Bombay Sapphire Foundation established last year to support and reward contemporary glass design. The judges were: Ron Arad, Tom Dixon, Lesley Jackson, Dan Klein, Rachel Loos and Grant Gibson.

Thirty architects, designers and artists were short-listed from an original submission of over 500 entries from all over the world. All entries had to use glass as an integral part of their design and have been created within the last two years. Judges were looking for innovation and excellence in the use of glass in three categories: architecture, design and art.

Other particularly striking international exhibits are: Planet by Swedish designer Lena Bergstrom; the TwinWall Tea Set by Czech designers Michal Fronek and Jan Nemecek and the Atrium in Federation Square, Melbourne by Lab Architecture.

Bombay Sapphire Brand Manager Sharon Reid commented, “The close association of Bombay Sapphire – the premium gin in the striking blue bottle – with glass design is a logical and exciting development for us. We have been championing contemporary design for several years now and the more recent association with glass design comes naturally from the bottle itself.

“The Bombay Sapphire Prize clearly reflects our commitment to supporting and rewarding contemporary glass design and we have been delighted with the success and interest generated by this major new design award scheme. The new Bombay Sapphire Blue Room exhibition is an outstanding showcase of the very best in contemporary glass design.”

Nottingham Castle Museum
Maid Marion Way, Nottingham, NG1 6EL
April 18th – June 15th 2003
Open daily 10am – 5pm

Weekdays: Admission free
Weekends: £2 adults, £1 children/concessions


The Bombay Sapphire Blue Room exhibition is touring regional venues around the UK until August 2003. For more information on future venues contact: foundation@bombaysapphire.org