Coffins for animals, acoustic panels or designer furniture from waste. The Reborn Design 2023 challenge has a winner
From March to June, the Reborn Design 2023 competition took place, inviting designers, architects and creatives from prestigious Czech universities to propose innovative solutions for a sustainable future. The winners received awards from personalities from the field of sustainable design in Prague's Next Zone. The expert jury awarded prizes for eco-design in 4 categories. The purpose of the challenge is upcycling, i.e. increasing the added value of waste material through design.
Graduate student Barbara Rakovská won first place in the Recycled building material category. Wavy Pebble acoustic and visual panels combine mycelium and residual gypsum from waste plasterboard. The design imitates waves and pebbles, it is suitable, for example, for administrative spaces. Jiří Dufek won second place for the variable acoustic bar MY and third place goes to Tadeáš Rulík for the bar Akustina. Both projects combine residual plasterboard with underlayment.
The festival table from the winner in the Recycled PET category is practically oriented. Karolína Petřeková transformed advertising films into a design combining playful aesthetics and function. The colorful table serves as a tray for 8 drinks, and the legs allow it to be placed stably on the lawn, for example. Thanks to this, she won first place and the opportunity to produce a limited series of tables for this year's summer festivals. Second place was awarded by the jury to Leontina Pasková for a stringing system made of advertising foils, and third place went to Tereza Cvrčková with a bean bag suitable for outdoor use.
The playful design dominated many designs in the 3D printed waste plastic mix category. In the end, Tereza Johnová and Antonie Varja did the best. Waste from 3D printing worries the user community around 3D printing giant Prusa. The students literally transformed the waste prints into a colorful ping-pong set. In this category, Vojtěch Vydržel also did well with a board for people with reduced mobility who have difficulty moving between a wheelchair and a bed. The jury also awarded the bathroom set suitable for public events, the MUN hangers by Karolína Petřeková or the Vastum board game by Rebeka Bartoňová.
Mycelium is a material with good thermal insulation properties, it is easily decomposed and meets the requirements for original aesthetics. Vojtěch Vydržel won the public vote in the Experimental design category with the design of coffins and urns for Mykofin animals. The expert jury appreciated the originality of the product in terms of functionality and design. Sarcophagus-like caskets enable a dignified, gentle and environmentally sustainable farewell to pets.
Almost 100 students from 7 universities applied for the ECO-design challenge for product designers and architects this year. "The students once again exceeded our expectations. We invited talented designers and innovators to join us in the pursuit of sustainable design," said Elias Karraa, co-founder of the platform. "Our goal is to promote products that are not only environmentally friendly, but also practical and appealing to consumers.”
Participants had 3 months to come up with sustainable design solutions using at least 95% of material that would end up as landfill waste. The purpose of the challenge is to reduce the amount of waste, save resources and minimize the carbon footprint of products. At the same time, it is a practical education for students. Competitors could implement their ideas in 4 design categories according to 4 material challenges: waste plastic from 3D printing, recycled PET foil, recycled plasterboard and experimental mycelium design.
"Connecting design with circular economy principles has great potential to contribute to greater sustainability, especially in the construction industry. We believe that a circular approach should start at the beginning of project planning. An example is our Mercury building, in the construction of which we will reuse materials from the old building, which we will dismantle. We are looking for new ways to reduce waste, recycle and reuse materials. We realize that this is a very challenging and important task, which is why we support students who come up with innovative solutions," says Eva Nykodýmová, Health, Safety and Sustainability Manager of Skanska's Commercial Development Unit in Central and Eastern Europe.
"We are happy to participate in the education of a new generation of eco-designers. Sustainability is part of our A Better Tomorrow corporate strategy and our goal is to recycle 90% of waste by 2025. Students who participate in the challenge and thus give plastic a second life, have the opportunity to contribute to our common philosophy and thus create products whose production makes ecological and economic sense, and which we will further use at the points of sale of our products or as functional elements at summer festivals, for example, Colors of Ostrava," says Štěpán Michlíček, general manager of BAT for the Czech Republic and SK.
"When forming the sustainability strategy, the 3D printing community gave us a clear task, namely to solve how to effectively deal with waste from 3D printing. Among other things, we gave this challenge to the students in Reborn Design", Vladimír Víšek from Prusa Research.
The result of their work was on display during an exhibition at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague. "The Mykofin project already resonated with the public during the voting for the award. Pet coffins also attracted attention during the exhibition. It is an example of a project that connects a novel material with a new function and consumer demand", summarizes Jitka Hvězdová, co-founder of Reborn Design. "Students with proposals for acoustic panels made of mycelium in combination with plaster or paper from recycled plasterboard did very well with the jury. The students handled the advertising foils elegantly as filling for beanbags or weaving into a chair. Eye-catching, somewhat psychedelic, the furniture design was designed from pressed boards from waste 3D prints”.
The winning designs of Reborn Design 2023 were announced by an expert jury on June 13, 2023 in Prague's Next Zone. The jury was composed of representatives of academia, business and circular economy experts. The evaluation criteria are not only design, but also the potential for launching the product on the market and technological feasibility. Winners in individual categories received monetary rewards and the opportunity to continue developing their work with one of the partners.
ABOUT THE ORGANIZER
The challenge is organized by the Czech eco-design platform Reborn Design, which strives to design environmentally friendly and socially responsible solutions. The goal is to inspire the creation of innovative designs that minimize the impact of products on the environment while increasing their functionality and aesthetics.
Reborn Design combines creativity, innovation, practical education and the principle of sustainability. It thus prepares students for practice in a real environment so that they can think better and more ecologically when designing products and buildings.
Main partners: Prusa Research, Skanska, BAT, MYMO
Partners: FA CTU, IKEA, MIDA Consulting, PwC, Balance in Motion, Matério
Supporters: Nordic Chamber in the Czech Republic, AMSP CR, PETMAT, Preciosa, Next Zone, Prague Innovation Institute
Media partners: Newstream.cz, Průmyslová ekologie, circularnidotace.cz, Material Times, EnviWeb.cz, drevostavitel.cz
Organizers and founders: Lavaris & Plastenco design
Contact: Jitka Hvězdová, jitka@reborndesign.cz, 603163482
www.reborndesign.cz
@reborndesigncompetition