Inspired by the United Nations’ SDG Programme, BE OPEN and Cumulus have joined forces to hold an international competition for students of creative courses of universities and colleges worldwide. The competition ‘Second Life of Things in Design’ became an integral part of Cumulus Green 2020: For A New Circular Economy, and called for ideas that demonstrate a creative, design-oriented take on the problems of sustainability, wiser production and consumption formulated by SDG12.
BE OPEN and Cumulus turned to younger generation of creatives for these solutions, as both the organisations strongly believe in their potential and ability to look at the world with fresh eyes and to come up with ideas no one has found before.
The judging process was led by jury co-chairs and former Cumulus Vice-Presidents Dr. Sam Bucolo and Elsebeth Gerner-Nielsen. The multi-stage review process was conducted in the early spring by distinguished representatives and experts in design, cultural diplomacy, sustainability and circular economy. More about the jury>>
The three winning projects have been selected out of a total of 683 submissions from 44 countries, to receive the prizes of €5,000, €3,000, €2,000 from each BE OPEN and Cumulus:
1. FiloSkin by Valerio Di Giannantonio, a Master’s student at Iceland University of the Arts
2. Bloom by Natalie Ferry and Stefano Pagani, BFA students in Product Design at Parsons School of Design, The New School in New York
3. DYPP by Frida van der Drift Breivik and Frøya Thue, Master’s Students at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design in Norway
In addition to the three winners, the judges selected 50 honorable mentions, out of which two more winners of ‘Second Life of Things in Design’ were named:
4. PackZero, a circular delivery network that combines reusable packaging with hybrid pickup and delivery. The project by by Ruoyi An, Yanhui Ban and Shijie Luan, students at ArtCenter College of Design, US, has been selected as the winning one by the Founder of BE OPEN think tank, entrepreneur and philanthropist Elena Baturina, and received €2,000.
5. Agave Bioplastic project was awarded after an online vote has defined Fernanda Ordorica Bechelany, a student of National School of Architecture, Art and Design at Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico as the recipient of the Public Vote Prize of €2,000.
All the winners will be celebrated at an awards ceremony in 2021.
