Finalists Design Solutions for the Future
How can the world provide products that are not harmful? Four Master’s students from Design School Kolding have offered their own speculative suggestion. Under the heading 'Fungi Narratives', Sofia Fiorentino, Antonia Fedder, Mads Kodbøl Vindelev Jørgensen and Marianne Hansen have investigated and experimented with the use of fungi as a new basic material in design. This is part of their training at Design School Kolding's Master's programme, Design for Planet. The quartet's speculative design solution is just one of a total of three projects that have passed through the eye of the needle to qualify for Denmark's national design award, Danish Design Award.
- Fungi produce degradable materials (biopolymers), which can prove useful. But how do we feel about products made in this way? That is what this speculative design asks us, while at the same time creating a rational basis in terms of feasibility and examples,” the jury writes, adding that it sees a great potential here.
Reducing smoking
Matias Carbone's graduation project from Design School Kolding's Master's programme, Design for Planet, can also be found among the total of 53 finalists. The FLUX project is an innovative proposal for tackling our society's failed attempt to eliminate the smoking culture. The concept offers an idea for how barriers between smokers and non-smokers can be broken down, and at the same time it contributes to inclusion which in the long run can reduce smoking. In practice, FLUX works by following and also guiding the user's breathing through the use of interactive light and a digital app that boosts FLUX's applicability.
- We have not yet succeeded in eliminating this addictive habit, so there is still a need for innovation, the jury explains.
Breathe safely
The third finalist from Design School Kolding is Sara Lee Spanggaard Krogh, who attracted a lot of attention in the media nationally and internationally with her face mask that can cleanse airborne bacteria. Sara graduated during the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, and hence along the way she changed her original focus on air-purifying panels in the city's spaces to create a comfortable face mask that eliminates bacteria. Today, she continues her dedicated work with researchers in the UK and has started her own business, Breathe Smarter, to realize her idea.
- Research shows that Sara's face mask has a 99.95% efficacy in removing airborne bacteria. Sara's work shows how a rapid change of direction can be realized through design thinking and action, says the jury.
Sara is nominated in the category Young Talent – a category that graduates from Design School Kolding have won for the past three years. Danish Design Award is a collaboration between the Danish Design Center and Design denmark. The announcement of the winners and the award ceremony will take place online on Thursday 25 November and is a collaboration with Fredericia Furniture and the Danish Arts Foundation.
