Hasta La Ideas

We’re happy to share the winners of the sixth iteration of the Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge, presented by the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute in collaboration with Autodesk and Arconic Foundation. The series of six global challenges invited designers, sustainability professionals and students to redesign products for the circular economy in accordance with the Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM product standard. The fall 2017 jury included Core77’s own Stuart Constantine along with sustainability and strategy experts from Target, Ford Motor Company, BASF The C2C Institute and Arconic.

Over 600 designers across 30 countries submitted over 550 entries for all six challenges in the series. After receiving applications from 17 countries, this iteration of the challenge recognized winners in four categories: Best Overall Project, Best Use of Cradle to Cradle Certified Materials, Best Use of Aluminum and Best Use of Autodesk Fusion 360. Find out more about their work below:

Best Overall Project: VOLTA

by Koraldo Kajanaku, Interaction Designer – San Francisco

Volta is a battery that can be recharged simply by being placed in a bath of table salt and vinegar. The recyclable and compostable battery uses non-toxic materials, including Cradle to Cradle Certified Ingeo Biopolymer. Volta can also be remanufactured—its fastener-free, pill-form design make it easy disassemble and change parts for reuse and recovery.

Best Use of Cradle to Cradle Certified Materials: House 4 House

by Agnieszka Filipowicz, Ania Pieranska & Otis Sloan Brittain, AUGA Studio – Copenhagen

Through its non-traditional house building kits, House 4 House aims to educate children about sustainability and designing for the circular economy. Inspired by different ways of building from across the world, their kits utilize a dissolvable, starch-based mortar, along with Cradle to Cradle Certified materials, including Accoya® Wood, Alcoa Aluminum, Nispen Corrugated Packaging and Porotherm Bricks. Each kit includes building supplies, characters, furniture and guides for constructing a miniature house. For every toy house sold, House 4 House will help build a real house.

Best Use of Aluminum: TO Stool

by Robert Shudra, Industrial Design Student, Carleton University – Ottowa, Canada

The TO Stool is shipped flat then folded into its final stool form by the user, which considerably reduces packaging and manufacturing energy and costs.

TO aims to alter throwaway habits by encouraging and facilitating the reuse of used textiles. The removable bag under TO’s seat acts as a storage unit for textiles intended for donation or recycling. Once full, the bag can be transported to donation facilities. At the end of the stool’s life, its aluminum frame can be disassembled and recycled, and the renewable wood base and removable bag can be repurposed or composted.

Best Use of Autodesk Fusion 360: Bench32

by Ralf Schneider, Assistant Professor, Industrial & Interaction Design, Syracuse University – New York

Bench32’s repetitive structure, made up of of 32 wooden spars held together by 80 metal parts, is inspired by the imperative weight reduction in airplane construction. Comprised of FSC-certified wood or Cradle to Cradle Certified Accoya® wood, this project was recognized for its impeccable use of Fusion 360’s simulation capabilities throughout the entire design process.

View more about the winning designers and projects here.

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One of the world’s biggest architecture firms has taken over Danish office Schmidt Hammer Lassen – a move one of the founders claims will make the company less “vulnerable”.

Perkins+Will, an American firm with over 2,000 global employees, has bought all the shares in Schmidt Hammer Lassen, the studio founded by Morten Schmidt, Bjarne Hammer and John F Lassen in 1986.

According to Schmidt, joining the world’s fourth largest architecture practice forms part of a succession plan for the company, now that the founders are getting closer to retirement. He told Dezeen the buyout will secure the future of the company for the staff.

“We have been working in New Zealand, Australia, China, North America, Greenland, Iceland, the UK, all over the place, but we’re only 150 people,” he said. “It has been very very demanding in many ways and we’re vulnerable.”

“The bigger and more complex these projects become, the more management is required,” he continued. “If we lose some competitions then we are vulnerable, and we can’t secure our staff to be on board.”

Perkins+Will has previously bought other architecture studios, including Chicago- and Denver-based Sink Combs Dethlefs, retail specialist Portland Design Associates and transport designer NelsonNygaard.

However, unlike previous takeovers, Schmidt Hammer Lassen will retain its name – at least for the immediate future. The three founder will continue to lead the practice.

Schmidt claims that, being Danish, the company’s values are a desirable and sellable commodity.

“They are buying our brand and therefore they want to keep our brand, they want to keep our name, they want to keep the way that we work,” he said.

“The values that are very important for us, coming from Denmark, are something that around the world is appreciated and valuable – that is why we have become successful.”

Perkins+Will also has a reputation for being a responsible company. It performed better than most in Dezeen’s gender-diversity survey, and principal Joan Blumenfeld is a member of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation – a non-profit organisation that aims to highlight women’s contributions to architecture.

“Our firms share a clear mission: through architecture and design, we make a positive difference in the world and in the lives of others,” said Bjarne Hammer. “We both believe strongly in the transformative, healing power of design to address some of the most pressing social and environmental issues of our time. And, we both thrive in a design culture that encourages collaboration.”

Perkins+Will CEO Phil Harrison added: “We see the coming together of design cultures, aesthetics, and sensibilities as a positive force that leads to better, more thoughtful, more inclusive architecture.”

“At Perkins+Will, we appreciate and celebrate Schmidt Hammer Lassen’s Danish design legacy, and look forward to the many ways it will positively influence our collective body of work.”

Schmidt Hammer Lassen’s best-known projects include the Katuaq Cultural Centre of Greenland, the International Criminal Court in The Hague and Scandinavia’s largest library.

Upcoming projects include Shanghai’s new city library, the world’s largest waste-to-energy plant and the new library for earthquake-damaged Christchurch.

The post Global firm Perkins+Will buys Scandinavian office Schmidt Hammer Lassen appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen promotion: Made.com has developed an initiative to help emerging designers bring their projects to market.

TalentLab is a crowdsourcing platform that allows Made.com to launch products by up to 200 up-and-coming designers each year.

Aspiring designers are invited to submit their proposals to the TalentLab platform. If their design gets shortlisted, it will be presented on the website.

Made.com customers are then able to vote for designs they are interested in by pledging a refundable deposit of between £10 to £30. The designs with the most pledges are put into production and will be listed on the Made.com website for customers to purchase.

The designers will be paid royalties in line with the percentage that Made.com pays all of its existing professional designers.

“We know that there are many adventurous, innovative ideas in the world that never get brought to life,” said Made.com design director Ruth Wassermann.

“TalentLab will help shine a spotlight on creativity, helping designers get a foothold in the industry and helping customers get their hands on new bold designs.”

Shortlisted designs currently available to back range from a minimal clothes stand by Alvaro Diaz Hernandez to a clock-cum-key holder by Studio Memphis.

Other highlights include a floor lamp that doubles as a storage hanger and a wall light that can be used as a display space.

TalentLAB replaces Made.com’s Emerging Talent Award – an initiative launched in 2013, which gave a small selection of designers the chance to realise their proposed products. The new format opens the contest up to a greater number of designers.

“The success of the awards, attracting thousands of entries and tens of thousands of votes, showed that there is a huge pool of design talent but the format only allowed one winner,” said the brand.

“We hope TalentLab will become the number one destination for designers; the only place where designs can be brought to life, produced, promoted and distributed to the largest customer base in Europe.”

Made.com was founded in 2010 by Ning Li, Julien Callede and Chloe Macintosh.

In 2012, the company launched its first physical showroom on the ninth floor of a west London office tower, featuring QR codes and miniature 3D-printed models of furniture. It also now has a showroom in London’s Soho.

The post Made.com launches crowdsourcing platform for aspiring designers appeared first on Dezeen.

Carnegie uses its veteran industry knowledge on materials, spaces and emerging technologies to form some compelling and insightful color trend stories..