Each year the DOEN | Materiaalprijs challenges visual artists, designers, fashion designers and architects to develop innovative, sustainable materials and pioneering techniques for a better, more durable society. In 2012, the Materiaalprijs enters its fourth successive year with a broad spectrum of designs where functionality, aesthetic appeal and sustainability go hand in hand. From the 77 submissions received this year, an expert committee selected eighteen design ideas. The projects will go on display at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week October 20-28. An expert jury will announce the winning designs on the opening day.
Each year, the DOEN | Materiaalprijs amasses the best design ideas, highlighting the potential of Dutch creativity and ingenuity to develop and apply pioneering, eco-friendly materials and techniques. The competition serves as a platform for a wealth of designs that will help fuel innovative enterprises with a future. Once again, this year’s submissions feature a myriad of new materials and applications, a striking number of which are the outcome of personal, in-depth research resulting in fresh, original designs such as these, competing for a 15,000 Euro prize.
Marjan van Aubel designed The Energy Collection, a range of smart glassware able to gather sun from the surroundings, storing it in the accompanying cabinet that functions as a battery. Everything works on the basis of solar cell technology built into the tableware. So when you use a glass or plate, the built-in solar cell is constantly working to generate energy. An example of one of the latest technological feats integrated into an everyday product.
Less of an everyday commodity is Lieske Schreuder’s Snail Poop Linoleum. Discovering snails’ appetite for paper, she noticed that the colour of their excrement takes on the colour of the paper they eat. Schreuder’s research resulted in an entirely new material – snail poop used in the production of colourful linoleum.
Charcoal and diamonds share a chemical kinship, and belong to the same carbon group, C6. With this as her starting point, Gitte Nygaard achieved a remarkable alchemical transformation, creating diamonds from charcoal. She applied the process in Black to Binchotan, as an alternative to traditional diamond mining, often a drain on natural resources and responsible for appalling labour conditions.
These three nominated projects testify to the enormous variety of experimental materials and applications. Among the other nominees are: Overtreders W and Bureau SLA, Kirstie van Noort, Tristan Frencken, Jan Eric Visser, Gianata Gatto, Steven Banken, Jorrit Taekema, Elena Pereira, Niels Veraart and Daniël Coenraats, Sander Veenhof, Tom van Soest, Jo Meesters, Renée Boute, Formafantasma and Berber Soepboer.
The 2012 nomination committee comprised Max Bruinsma (editor-in-chief of Items Magazine), Aart van Bezooyen (founder and director of Material Stories), Tjeerd Veenhoven (winner of the DOEN | Materiaalprijs Incentive Prize 2011), Arjen Bangma (director of Transnatural Arts, Research & (future) Design) and Joanna van der Zanden (curator and artistic director of the Rotterdam Design Prize).
