Designs of the Year category winners announced
The winners in all seven categories of this year's competition include a chair that allows movement of the sitter in all directions and a mobile phone app that does eye examinations
The Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan, designed by Zaha Hadid (and which appeared in the cover of Blueprint issue 332) hasbe name the winner in the architecture category of their year's Designs of the Year competition.
The seven category winners, announced today, also include the Pro Chair Family - Designed by Konstantin Grcic and Volkswagen'sXL1 CAR - the world's the most efficient liquid-fuelled production car.
The winning designs in all seven categories - architecture, digital, fashion, furniture, graphics product design, and transport, will now go before a panel of judges who will select one winner for the title Design of the Year.
The Designs of the Year competition first took place in 2008, when it was known as the Brit Insurance Design Award, after its thensponsor. Since then, overall winners, which include an energy saving light bulb, a folding plug and the 2012 London Olympic torch,have mostly come from the product design category, although last year's winner - the website for the UK government - was the firstoverall winner from the digital category.
This year the winner in the product design category is The Seaboard, a reinvention of the piano keyboard, reimagining the keys assoft waves that enable continuous and discrete real-time, tactile control of sound through three-dimensional hand gestures. This year's digital category winner is PEEK, a portable eye examination kit.
None of the six overall winner so far have come from the fashion or architecture categories, though the latter - a cultural building in Azerbaijan (main picture) by one of the world's most celebrated architects, Zaha Hadid, is surely in with a chance, as is the fashion winner, Prada's spring/summer collection.
Gemma Curtin, Curator of Designs of the Year, said: 'From the daringly innovative to the reassuringly good, Designs of the Year 2014is a condensed and vivid selection of the last twelve months in design. This spectrum of expert-chosen design is an insight into whatdesign can do for us both as individuals and as a society.
Here are details of all seven category winners:
Architecture: HEYDAR ALIYEV CENTER, BAKU, AZERBAIJAN - Designed by Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher. Elaborateundulations, folds and inflections modify this plaza surface into an architectural landscape that performs a multitude of functions.
Picture: Hufton + Crow
Digital: PEEK (PORTABLE EYE EXAMINATION KIT) - Designed by Dr Andrew Bastawrous, Stewart Jordan, Dr Mario Giardini, Dr Iain Livingstone. A smartphone-based system for comprehensive eye examinations, PEEK is easy to use, affordable and portable,meaning that it can bring eye care to even the remotest of settings.
Fashion: PRADA S/S14 - Designed by Miuccia Prada. Pop-art prints meet sporty details and structured shapes in this boldlycoloured, powerful collection. Vogue said of the show 'By next summer we'll wonder what we ever wore before.'
Furniture: PRO CHAIR FAMILY - Designed by Konstantin Grcic. Featuring state-of-the-art ergonomics and pioneering design, theconstruction of the chair not only allows movement in all directions, but actively stimulates it thereby promoting healthier sitting.
Graphics: DRONE SHADOWS - Designed by James Bridle / booktwo.org. A series of installations consisting of a 1:1 outline of amilitary unmanned aerial vehicle, or Drone. They have appeared in the UK, Turkey, the USA, Brazil and elsewhere.
Product: soft waves that enable continuous and discrete real-time, tactile control of sound through three-dimensional hand gestures.The design combines contemporary minimalism and traditional handcrafted quality.
Transport: XL1 CAR - Designed by Volkswagen. The world's the most efficient liquid-fuelled production car; it requires only 8.4 PS tosustain a constant 100kph on a level surface in still air, a speed the car can reach from rest in 12.7 seconds.
