The Design Educates Awards takes us back to school

The Design Educates Awards has just announced a call for submissions for its 2023 awards cycle. Architects and designers can submit their projects in four categories: product design, architectural design, universal design and responsive design.

What makes the Design Educates Awards different from other awards for architects and designers? Above all, it is not the beauty of the projects that is most important for their evaluation. Aesthetics don't play the most crucial role. Instead, the awards focuses on each submission's educational element, because architecture and design can educate by influencing their audience, their surroundings and the environment. The Design Educates Awards were created to bring together like-minded designers for whom it is essential to develop an actual added value to their work and to promote their projects. The theme of the awards is inspired by the research titled 'Educating Buildings' (“Bildende Bauten”) by Dr. Peter Kuczia.

Visual arts and, even more obviously, language have long been accepted as forms of expression with social and even political impacts. But design and architecture, although generally quieter disciplines, can also communicate and speak to us. This opinion is shared by all the jury panel members, including Prof. Toyo Itō, Prof. Achim Menges and Lucy McRae.

The DEAwards are open to everyone, the project submission deadline is February 2, 2023, participants may submit multiple projects, there is no limit on the number of participants per team and individual entries are allowed. To join the awards, visit www.designeducates.com.

Product design

Products of all scales and types are welcome: e.g., industrial products, household goods and tools. Exemplary projects submitted to this category in previous editions include a deployable emergency shelter (Henry Glogau Studio) that can save lives during changing weather conditions in Alaska and a bicycle wheel (Kristen Tapping) that filters outdoor air pollution.

Architectural design

Buildings, landscaping and small forms that bring change to their surroundings. Examples from previous editions are a waste-to-energy plant in Copenhagen (BIG), which is an urban recreation centre with a nature park; ski slope; hiking trail and climbing wall, as well as an environmental education hub and a timber bridge (LUO Studio) which both pay tribute to tradition and complement the rural revitalisation.

Responsive design

A building, object or product that is capable of reacting to conditions in a given environment, recognising a problem and finding a solution by interacting with its surroundings and users. Examples from previous editions include a skylight that produces potable water from salt water in the Atacama Desert (Henry Glogau Studio) and an arts centre (Diller Scofidio + Renfro) that can double its surface to provide spatial flexibility for different events.

Universal design

Interdisciplinary designs, difficult to categorise into other categories, or those not strictly included in architecture or product design. Examples from previous editions include house building prefabs (Urban Beta UG) and backyard facilities elements, fostering the democratisation of construction through an open-source approach to building, and a set of emoticons written in Braille (Walda Verbaenen), building a bridge for visually impaired and blind people to a visual language.

The host of the DEAwards is Laka Foundation (nonprofit and non-governmental organisation) established in 2017 to implement projects focused on the promotion and popularisation of architecture and design.

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