Elemental Wins a 'Design of the Year'
John Hill
18. May 2015
Photo: Nina Vidic, courtesy of the Design Museum
The Design Museum in London has selected six Designs of the Year in its eighth annual awards. Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena and his firm Elemental have won in the Architecture category with the UC Innovation Center - Anacleto Angelini.
The eleven-story center for innovation in business and research, completed in 2014, is located on the Universidad Católica de Chile's San Joaquin Campus near Santiago. In a statement, the Design Museum describes it as an "open and eco-friendly university building in Santiago [that] features a thermal mass on the perimeter and open air squares throughout. It creates the right environment for knowledge-creation and reduces energy costs by two-thirds."
The UC Innovation Center - Anacleto Angelini beat fourteen other finalists in the Architecture category, including buildings designed by Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel, and Barozzi / Veiga's Philharmonic Hall Szczecin, which recently won the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2015.
Photo: Nina Vidic
The list of the six winners in their respective categories:
Designed by ELEMENTAL
DIGITAL: THE OCEAN CLEANUP
Designed by Boyan Slat, Jan de Sonneville PhD and Erwin Zwart
FASHION: THOMAS TAIT AW13/14
Designed by Thomas Tait
GRAPHICS: INGLORIOUS FRUITS & VEGETABLES
Designed by Marcel for Intermarché
PRODUCT: HUMAN ORGANS-ON-CHIPS
Designed by Donald Ingber and Dan Dongeun Huh
TRANSPORT: GOOGLE SELF-DRIVING-CAR
Designed by YooJung Ahn, Jared Gross and Philipp Haban
These winners now compete for the the overall Design of the Year 2015 award, which will be announced in June. The winners and finalists in all of the categories are on display until March 2016 in the Designs of the Year 2015 exhibition at the Design Museum.