Modular furniture design competition

At PlyLab, we design and manufacture high-end plywood furniture in Petone. We believe the future of furniture is modular, digital, configurable — and rooted in good system thinking. This competition gives you the opportunity to show how you explore modularity, systems, and design for scalable production.

The design brief

Design a modular furniture/storage system that can adapt into multiple configurations — bedside table, bookcase, open shelving, cupboards with (sliding or hinged) doors or drawers — with modular height + width variations. This is real-world product development — manufacturability matters here. Use any medium to communicate your thinking — sketches, CAD, models, exploded diagrams, parametric diagrams etc. 

We want to see

• System thinking

• Modularity

• The product can be produced on CNC with minimal waste (flat sheet plywood logic) using 18mm and 12mm birch plywood + minimal hardware.

• Beautiful simplicity

Deliverables

• One page A3 pdf — core concept + system logic (visual + annotations)

• One page A3 pdf — modular variations (eg: bookcase / shelves / cupboards / drawers)

• Optional — Video with animation of how this system scales/behaves/can be used

Reward

$1,000 cash prize + 6-month paid internship with PlyLab — product development, lean design, CNC workflow, manufacturing exposure

Submission deadline

Tuesday 20 January 2026 – email submissions to marketing@plylab.co.nz

Final note

Show how your brain solves modularity, scalability, and CNC manufacturability — more than how shiny the render looks. We’re excited to see what you create — and potentially build the next generation of PlyLab products together. Any questions? Email marketing@plylab.co.nz