Traditionalized by the Istanbul Mineral Exporters’ Association, the winners of the 2016 Natural Stone Design Competition have been announced at the ceremony held on Thursday, May 5, 2016. Evaluated by the jury, 16 of the submitted projects have been granted awards. The jury made its decision considering the criteria of widening the areas of usage of the natural stone, producibility, environmental awareness and exportation potentials, creativity and functionality in utilization. Organized for supporting the product id that symbolizes the design quality of the Turkish natural stone industry and modern Turkish design, contributing to the structure culture and education in Turkey, promoting creative ideas, employing successful students and providing educational support; emphasizing the importance of design in Turkish natural stone industry and introducing commercializable design ideas, increasing the competitive capacity regarding natural stone exports, making contributions to the development of the industry and national economy, the competition hosted 248 students and 222 professionals. Among the universities, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University has been ranked first along with its 105 projects and Istanbul Technical University came right after with 96 projects. Giving a speech devoted to the students at the beginning of the award ceremony, Ali Kahyaoğlu, the Board Chairman of İMİB advised: “We should be able to process your product in our plants and studios. Because the used material is marble and it’s difficult to cut due to its naturality. In that case, you should design accordingly so that we can manufacture, give them to people and ultimately you will be earning money. Whether your product gets placed in a competiton or not, we can collect them into a book and you will have the copyright. One day during the process, your designs may rank among various countries worldwide.” Adopting the project goal as supporting the design quality of the Turkish natural stone industry and the product id that symbolizes the modern Turkish design, the competition represented the awards from the Board Chairman of İMİB, Ali Kahyaoğlu, the President of Turkish Mining Development Foundation, Prof. Güven Önal, Members of the İMİB Supervisory Board, Coşkun Bozanlı and Yakup Kadri Sürmen, Assistant Secretary General of İMMİB, Fatih Özer, Economy Manager of the Türkiye Newspaper, Fikret Çengel and Assistant Manager of Economy of the Hürriyet Newspaper, Sadi Özdemir. 
Categories • 1- Floor Coverings and Wall Cladding • 2- Hotel Lobby and Mall Entrance • 3- Turkish Bath and Bathroom • 4- Decorative Products (Products designed with natural stone and allowing indoor usage like Tables, Stands, Fireplaces and Domestic Furnitures) AWARD WINNERS CATEGORY: Decorative Products (Products designed with natural stone and allowing indoor usage like Tables, Stands, Fireplaces and Domestic Furnitures) 
