2022

Award winners 2022

2harvest – OPV greenhouse foil

Hélène Fontaine | Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle

»Sun-exposed land is needed for agriculture and for solar energy, leading to competition for land. Hélène Fontaine's 2harvest project represents a forward-looking solution to this challenge. It uses organic photovoltaic cells on greenhouse foils, enabling the dual use of land. The energy generated can be fed into the grid.«

Dr. Bettina Rechenberg
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5 TONS

Maren Klamser | Bauhaus-Universität Weimar

»A clever design where the finesse is in the details. Masonry construction tasks can be accomplished with flexibility using only a few different bricks, which are made from construction waste and recycled brick dust. Intelligent stacking and interlocking replaces mortar, which also facilitates eventual deconstruction.«

Prof. Matthias Held
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AYNO luminaire range

Midgard Licht GmbH

»The luminaire convinces with its overall concept of minimal use of materials as well as its principle of tension, which significantly saves resources and generates a wide range of possible use cases. The components are not concealed, making AYNO a genuinely iconic design. The accentuation of the cable is likewise compelling.«

Prof. em. Günter Horntrich
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Bait protection box ToxProtect 1402

ball–b GmbH & Co KG

»Rat control generally requires the use of toxic baits. These poisons can seep into the surrounding environment, where they go on to accumulate, for example in fish. ball-b GmbH & Co KG’s bait protection box manages to minimise the use of poison baits, reduces contact with water and simplifies overall use through digital data transmission, all of which is incorporated through clever design.«

Dr. Bettina Rechenberg
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HIIVE

HIIVE UG

»HIIVE conceives of the habitat of a tree cavity as a smart home system for honey bees. Natural materials are joined together in a modular design that is easy to handle and repair. The interior climate and swarm mood can be monitored externally via sensors. It's a win-win for bees and beekeepers.«

Andreas Detzel
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PeakPick

Sascha Greilinger | Coburg University

»This clear and user-friendly application provides up-to-date and local information about the availability (or not) of green electricity. As such, users are made aware of the issue and their consumption behaviour is cultivated until the service, quite intentionally, makes itself redundant through the acquired routine.«

Prof. Matthias Held
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re:wet – peat:lab

Milan Bergheim | weißensee academy of art berlin

»Peatlands are of fundamental importance for climate protection. If peatlands are drained for agricultural or forestry use, they release considerable quantities of greenhouse gases. These releases can only be stopped by raising the water levels in the drained peat soils once again. re:wet – peat:lab is an impressive young talent submission that digitally monitors the rewetting of peatlands and bundles the corresponding data. It is an innovation that has the potential to provide technical support to the German government's National Peatland Protection Strategy.«

Dr. Bettina Hoffmann MdB
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reverse.supply

RS Recommerce Technologies GmbH

»reverse.supply enables fashion companies to seamlessly resell used and overstock products directly through their own website. In this way, they create incentives for brands to participate in resale and promote a culture of apparel appreciation and reuse.«

Prof. Friederike von Wedel-Parlow
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REX

Studio Ineke Hans for Circuform B. V.

»Outstanding design meets a well thought-out deposit system: REX is the quintessence of a recyclable piece of furniture. Made from recycled industrial waste such as fishing nets or plastics from office chairs, REX is reusable and repairable. Established collection points and a deposit system make it attractive for consumers to return the chair and ensure circular utilisation.«

Werner Aisslinger
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Shared Factory

ito ito GmbH

»Shared Factory offers small and medium-sized fashion companies a frictionless and appealing digital design approach for knitted products. This is supported by the real-world implementation of innovative supply chain and production solutions for on-demand and local production in the activated knitwear network.«

Prof. Friederike von Wedel-Parlow
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Steelcase Flex Perch Stool

Steelcase AG

»On the one hand, the Steelcase Flex Perch Stool impresses with its innovative material manufacturing process based on the recycled plastic developed by BASF’s ChemCyclingTM project, which helps close the fossil material cycle and reduce waste. On the other, it is a modular and stackable archetypical standing stool that can be optimally used in the ‘New Work’ context, among others.«

Werner Aisslinger
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V-Locker Smart Bike Parking System

V-Locker AG

»The Smart Bike Parking Tower guarantees secure storage for e-bikes or bicycles in public spaces, making travelling by bike and train far more appealing. The flexible facade design, easy installation, resource-saving production and simple operation via app make the V-Locker useful not only for train stations, but also for event venues such as stadiums, exhibition centres or concert halls. With regard to the transformation of transport, this is a highly overdue concept.«

Prof. em. Anna Berkenbusch
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Wind turbines: precast foundation

Smart & Green Mukran Concrete GmbH

»The transformation of our national energy supply will necessitate an expansion of onshore wind power. However, the construction of wind turbines also involves a considerable use of resources, in particular the casting of concrete foundations. The precast foundations for wind turbines by Smart & Green Mukran Concrete GmbH make in-situ concrete foundations obsolete. This is a true game-changer that can accelerate and simplify the expansion of onshore wind power.«

Dr. Bettina Hoffmann MdB
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X–Change Technology

Molto Luce GmbH

»These LED modules form the basis for a more sustainable design of future luminaires. This is thanks to their modularity, the ability for users to replace defective parts, and a material and cost-saving retrofit in the case of a shift in demand. The full potential of X-Change lies in the establishment of a new standard for replaceable LED modules.«

Prof. em. Günter Horntrich
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Nominated 2022

Ariadne Pathfinder

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Germany's goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2045 will necessitate rapid and far-reaching changes in energy policy. The Ariadne Pathfinder shows how this can be achieved. Interactive storytelling introduces users to the basic issues of CO2 emissions and energy supply. Animated graphics illustrate the implications of different technological approaches to the overall energy system as well as to individual sectors of transport, industry and buildings. The application is based on more than 16,000 data sets, from which the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research developed calculation models and future scenarios.

best wood CLT BOX - CEILING FS

best wood SCHNEIDER® GmbH

The best wood CLT BOX - CEILING FS is a tested and certified ceiling solution for multi-storey timber construction. The formaldehyde- and solvent-free glued hollow box form saves up to 38% of materials. The integrated insulation provides improved impact noise insulation in the low-frequency range. High static load-bearing capacity combined with comparatively low weight enables large spans in ecological timber construction. Thanks to the separability of the materials, the hollow box element, which is produced in southern Germany, can be deconstructed and the individual components of both wood and wood fibre insulation can be reused

Bio–(Floral) Foam

Irene Purasachit | Aalto University

Bio-(Floral) Foam is a lightweight, foam-like material that can absorb and retain water without immediately dissolving. Once wet, the material is soft enough for flower stems to be pushed in, and helps to keep flowers fresh. Bio-(Floral) Foam is made from 100% cellulose obtained from floral waste from the cut flower industry. The material is an environmentally sound alternative to the commonly used floral foam made using oil-based phenol formaldehyde, and thus offers a recyclable solution in the area of floristry.

Blattwerk

Daniel Silva Friedrich (studio KUSIKUY) & Alexander Ebert | Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar

In the experimental product series Blattwerk, the existing but unused raw material of urban foliage is processed into a material that has the potential to replace and/or complement conventional wood panel materials. The advantages lie in lower energy consumption during production and in the reduced impact of deforestation. Thanks to the use of plastic-free glues, the material can be completely degraded and returned to the biological cycle. The colour, shape and structure differ depending on the type of leaf.

BUGGI 52 Residential and Commercial Building

Holzbau Bruno Kaiser GmbH

Construction of the eight-story wooden building BUGGI 52 was completed in Freiburg at the end of 2020. It meets the highest environmental and ecological standards and is the first FSC-certified building in Germany. From the first floor upwards, it is constructed entirely of wood. The elevator shaft and staircase are also made of wood, meaning that there is no concrete core – unique to date for this class of building. Deconstructability and recyclability were taken into account in the design. Alongside the thirty residential units, there is also space for a supermarket, a bakery and a kindergarten.

Chiengora® – Wool from dog fiber

YarnSustain Schönrock Uhl GmbH

Every year, around 8,000 tonnes of biodegradable pet hair is accumulated throughout Europe in the course of pet grooming. YarnSustain has developed the first industrial process for producing yarn from pet fibres. The result resembles cashmere, only without the need for animal herding. Under the name of Chiengora®, cushions and knitted products are made from the combed-out undercoat of dogs. The production saves dye, water and energy, as Chiengora® is processed undyed. The dog fibres are collected and donated from private households, dog salons and breeders with the help of a crowdsourcing network.

Circular Sweater Project

Hannah Schorch

The Circular Sweater Project is characterised by holistic sustainability in the production, distribution and upcycling of its sweaters. The central and new features are two codes that are integrated into the fabric. Thanks to an RFID code, each sweater can be identified and returned for repair or new yarn production. The QR code is used to track the sweater's life to date, from the production of the fair-trade organic cotton to its various stops in retail contexts or at various businesses, to people who have worn it and left personal messages for subsequent generations of users.

Licht_Verschmutzt

Marius C. Merkel | Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design

The project “Licht_Verschmutzt” brings the debate about light pollution and energy waste into public space. Various installations modify "bad" light sources into media that criticize their own emission. Thus, recipients are confronted with and sensitized to the problem directly at the site of pollution. For the installations, leftover materials such as broken lenses or cuttings from cardboard boxes are upcycled and turned into small projectors and stencils. After the action period, all installations are removed, separated and recycled according to the principle "zerotrace".

LightPRO Shell

BioMat Team at ITKE Institute, University of Stuttgart under the direction of Jun.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. M.Eng. Hanaa Dahy | Project management: Evgenia Spyridonos

LightPRO Shell is an actively bendable structure made of biocomposite profiles. These are comprised of natural flax fibres combined with a bio-resin. The potential lies in its use as a load-bearing element in a variety of structural systems. The possibilities of this newly developed bamboo-like material are demonstrated in the real world in the form of a ten meter long canopy. The profiles can be recycled or transferred to other material streams.

monoplan

Tim Schütze | Berlin University of the Arts

monoplan offers a new concept for refilling stations for liquid detergents and cleaning agents. Unlike conventional canisters, the large bag empties without air or residues. During refilling, monoplan does away with the need for internal cleaning and enables a minimum return volume, which in turn increases transport efficiency and reduces emissions. The filler guarantees drip-free removal and the means of hanging saves space on the sales floor. Thanks to the mono-material, the bags and filler can be materially recycled at the end of the life cycle as well as reused as recyclate in the production of new bags.

New Sources

Matthias Gschwendtner | Berlin University of the Arts

The New Sources research project is exploring new possibilities in the direct utilisation of residual materials as alternative raw materials. Branches, which are usually waste material from the wood industry, have been little utilised to date due to their complex geometry. By linking 3D scanning, computational design and robot-based manufacturing, a scalable process is created that enables the use of this previously problematic material. The Computational Log Chair is a first use case.

PP Mono Orthoses and Splints

Farid Taher | Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle

For reasons of hygiene and safety, the field of medicine uses vast quantities of disposable products. The costs of disposal are correspondingly high. The robust PP Mono wrist orthoses and finger splints demonstrate how high-quality medical products made using reusable, recyclable and recycled components are indeed possible. The use of a single polymer facilitates single-variety waste collection and recycling into solid and returnable solutions. In this way, medical products that have previously been used only once and for a short time can be fed into a material cycle by means of reprocessing.

Transparent paper sleeves

Compostella GmbH

Compostella's transparent paper sleeves are pure paper products that do entirely without fossil raw materials in the course of production. Due to the chlorine-free bleached cellulose, they are both recyclable and fully compostable. And thanks to the high transparency, it is also possible to scan and copy documents without removing them from the sleeves. Production is carried out using machines powered by photovoltaic electricity from solar modules on the roof of the company building. The paper comes from a regional paper mill.

Yonda Chair

Wilkhahn Wilkening+Hahne GmbH+Co.KG

Yonda takes the classic shell chair for hybrid living and working environments and adapts it to modern requirements. Its contemporary form, seating comfort and versatile design are designed to meet the demands of the circular economy. For this reason, the chair, which is particularly easy to dismantle and is largely unmixed, uses a biocomposite shell, which can be later processed into a granulate for new components.