Design Prize Switzerland honors future-oriented projects
The Swiss Design Award, 25th Edition, demonstrates how effective design can be when it views the future as a responsibility. The award-winning projects contribute to new ways of living together, use resources more consciously, and further develop processes with clarity. Innovative design solutions were honored in eight categories—ranging from biodegradable sole material to a reimagined speculum and a compact electric vehicle.
The 25th edition of the Design Prize Switzerland highlights how design contributes to new forms of coexistence, uses resources more consciously and develops processes with attitude. The award-winning projects remind us that design always means rethinking the familiar.
Eight categories, eight winning projects
In the Circular Design category, Step Zero won with a biodegradable sole material that reduces microplastics and can be integrated into existing production processes. The Food Design category went to Sea Flavors, a campaign that researches marine flavors from plant-based ingredients and shares its knowledge through film, e-book and public formats.
The Furniture Design category was won by Bent Aluminium, a precise furniture program that combines industrial production and handcrafted control. Grid, a modular building system made of glass blocks that opens up new spaces between architecture and product design, was honored in the In Between category.
Inclusion, interior architecture and product design
Plato, a simple cork tool that helps people with tetraplegia to eat independently, won in the Inclusive Design category. The sensitive conversion of a church into a temporary parliamentary venue - reversible, functional and respectful - was recognized in the Interior Design category with the Rathaus Hard project.
The award for Product Design went to Microlino, a compact, lightweight electric vehicle for short distances that is designed to be efficient and save resources. In the Young Professionals category, the Peva Project, a newly conceived speculum that enhances autonomy, ergonomics and psychological well-being, was the winner. The public vote decided in favor of W2/T2 Nova Edition from Miele.
Circular design as an economic necessity
At the award ceremony, Dr. Sebastian Friess, Head of the Office of Economic Affairs of the Canton of Bern, presented the award in the Circular Design category. In conversation, he highlighted the economic importance of circular business models and explained why sustainability is no longer an ideal, but a prerequisite for innovative strength and competitiveness.
The vision of the Design Prize Switzerland is for more and more projects in all categories to take the principles of the circular economy into account in future - and for circular design to gradually become the standard.
