Danish Design Award 2020

The world’s first MA programme in play and design. A suit for Lebanese refugee children, and a toilet that helps you “go”. These design solutions have made it through to the finals of this year’s Danish Design Award. And two of them are even nominated in more than one category. Quite an achievement in a strong field of contestants:

- This year we have seen more submissions than ever before, and the solutions are of an outstanding quality, says the team behind the Danish Design Award.

Jury Chairman Christina Halskov is pleased about the massive interest and says it’s been hard to make the selection:

- There are so many good design-based and meaningful suggestions for how to innovate or improve products, services and situations. And thank God! Because we have never needed design as much as we do now. Design as thinking, as action and as concrete product solution. This year’s finalists reflect the positive power of design and the areas that we need to focus on in 2020 and ahead.

The difficult poo x 2
244 years after the invention of modern sanitation, the two new designers, Ditte Marie Fog Ibsen and Julia Sand Skovsted, have redesigned the toilet to allow the body to automatically assume the optimal position. ’Poosition’, which they call their solution, is a 360 degree toilet design concept which includes ergonomic and anatomical corrections that provide a more healthy posture on the toilet. The entire concept is a communication tool that aims to challenge taboos around toilet behavior. Together the two designers run the company ’Pinkorange’. And now they are among the finalists in two categories: ’Visionary Concepts’ and ’Young Talent’.

The jury says:

- This is an area in desperate need of innovation. 13.000 children in Denmark alone are affected by constipation. The solution fundamentally rethinks the typology of a toilet, but in a way that is familiar and can work in both a domestic and public setting. The challenge of the future in this area is not a technological one, it is cultural – it is to change the pattern of behaviour. This would be a real, high-impact transformation within both hygiene and public health.

A world-class play education
Grounded in a strong Scandinavian design tradition and based on a direct collaboration with The LEGO Foundation and The LEGO Group, Design School Kolding launched the world’s first Design for Play programme in 2017. The programme produces a new generation of highly specialised designers who can help companies and organisations achieve their aim of supporting customers, users and employees in creating a world that supports children and people in general in becoming creative, engaged, lifelong learners.

The jury says:

- How do we train people to be more creative? This Master degree programme is doing exactly that. Design School Kolding focuses on collaborative skills and works with their students to enhance their potential. The Design for Play MA has the potential to be truly ground-breaking in the field of education.

Warmth for Lebanese refugee children
ResQKid is the title of a design solution by student Mona ElQut, which helps keep Lebanese refugee children warm with a three-in-one solution: sleeping bag, jacket and jumpsuit.

The jury says:

- With ResQKid, this designer demonstrates how a humanitarian design solution can have real social impact in an urgent crisis. She also demonstrates a business sense, as she has created an entire business plan to make sure this solution becomes reality. It is humanitarianism in action at its core and has the potential to create real social impact.

People’s Choice
You can join too! Vote for the solution you like best and get a chance to win the Børge Mogensen chair BM62 by Fredericia Furniture. Vote now. Deadline: 15 May 2020.

About the Danish Design Award
Danish Design Award is an annual design event that celebrates the difference design can make. The award show takes place on 2 June at Industriens Hus.