Just announced last night, the INDEX: Award winners for 2011 were unveiled highlighting five categories: Body, Home, Work, Play and Community. The award ceremony was held in the Copenhagen Opera with a diverse audience from 48 countries.
The winners of the awards propose designs that focus on vastly improving the lives of people all over the world. The non-profit Danish design organization received nearly 1,000 nominations from 78 countries, which were narrowed down to 60 finalist designs with the five award winners announced last evening.
Receiving the INDEX: Award HOME Category was Chilean architecture firm ELEMENTAL for their project Monterrey, a revolutionary new model for social housing in Mexico. ELEMENTAL’s social housing design for Mexican citizens, provides residents with the opportunity to construct part of the home themselves. By only building half the house residents, when time, effort and resources permit, personalize the home reflecting the needs and wishes of each individual family.
In the BODY Category, the winner was See Better to Learn Better (VerBien) – a free eyeglasses program for Mexican children designed by former INDEX: Award winner Yves Behar (Switzerland).
In the HOME Category, the winner is ELEMENTAL Monterrey – a revolutionary new model for social housing, also in Mexico.
In the WORK Category, the winner is Design for Change from India – a design based school competition designed to give children an opportunity to express their own ideas for a better world and put them into action.
In the PLAY Category, the winner is Swedish Hövding – an invisible airbag for cyclists’ head, shaped as a collar worn around the neck.
In the COMMUNITY Category, the winner is Design Seoul from South Korea – the first ever coherent design based approach to improve life for citizens in a very large city.
