Student Startup winner to use funding to create ethnic furniture collections

Elvira Mingalimova, a master’s student of the Institute of Design and Spatial Arts, has been working as an interior designer for four years now.

“Many furniture brands have left Russia. In this connection, there was a need for import substitution. I am an architect and town planner by first education, I graduated from KFU. When I entered KFU’s master’s program in design, I decided to develop furniture that could be used in residential and public interiors. It would be produced from local, environmentally friendly raw materials and would have a national identity reflecting the specifics of the region,” says the winner.

She is currently studying Tatar ethnic patterns and then translate them to prints for furniture coverings and wood carving. Among the planned items are chairs, various tables, lamp stands, soafs, and drawers. The work is now starting with sketches.

The student’s research supervisor, Associate Professor Stepan Novikov, is convinced that the furniture will be of interest to all generations.

По словам научного руководителя магистранта, заместителя директора по развитию, доцента кафедры конструктивно-дизайнерского проектирования ИДиПИ Степана Новикова, мебель будет очень современная, она понравится и молодежи, и старшему поколению.

“One of the priorities of our institute is the development of object-industrial design. Elvira’s project will contribute to this. Russia is a large country with many regions. We believe that the characteristic features of the regions should be reflected in furniture design. Now our task is to develop furniture that will have the characteristic features of Kazanian design. In the future, we plan to create furniture collections that will reflect the specifics of different regions of Russia,” he concludes.

KFU’s Center for Industrial Design will partake in production for the project.