The 2023 edition of Design Educates Awards is open for entries, aiming to propose designs for an educational impact. 

Deadline for submissions is February 2, 2023 (UTC time zone).

The DEAwards recognize, showcase, and promote the best projects of architecture and design that provide an informative and educational layer that guides us through the increasing complexity of our environment. Such a layer can highlight specific possibilities and challenges, explain sociocultural factors and influences, or even outline new scenarios for future development. 

Each year, the esteemed panel of judges selects outstanding ideas and implementations in architectural design, product design, universal design, and responsive design. 

Toyo Ito, Anna Heringer, Achim Menges, Lucy McRae are among the confirmed judges for this year's edition, the full jury panel for the 2023 edition will be announced later.

World Architecture Community is official Media Partner for the 2023 Design Educates Awards and will share the results of the competition when the competition is over. 

Theme

Visual arts and, even more obviously, language have long been accepted as forms of expression with social and even political impacts. But design and architecture, although generally quieter disciplines, can also communicate and speak to us. 

The theme of the awards is inspired by the research titled “Educating Buildings” (“Bildende Bauten”) by Dr. Peter Kuczia.

Prizes & benefits

The elite group of laureates: The DEAwards are about building a community of professionals who make their surroundings more functional, more beautiful, safer, healthier, and more sustainable.

Inclusion in the book: The awards laureates are presented in the annually issued book, along with the members of the Jury and introductions by the curators and directors. As a laureate, you will receive your book free of charge during the awards ceremony!

Exhibition in Germany: During the Architecture in Foyer Conference, your design will be printed and presented in an annual exhibition at Solarlux Campus in Germany. It is a great way to network with other professionals and possible clients while showing your work.

Certificates and winning labels: You will receive the digital version of your certificate via e-mail and the printed version during the awards ceremony. The certificate proves your outstanding success, which you can easily use during your professional endeavors.

Presentation during Ceremony: During the awards ceremony, you will be able to present yourself and your design while receiving your certificate onstage!

A gift certificate from v2com for the winners: You will receive a gift certificate to distribute one press kit on v2com newswire, the world’s largest specialized media network publishing the most prestigious architecture and design publications. 

Lifetime Winner title with press packages: All the benefits that the DEAwards offer are for life, and this will never change. Once you join the prestigious group of laureates, you will always be able to use all related titles, labels, and certificates!

Promotion within the group of media sponsors and media supporters: Thanks to our collaboration with the global network of media partners and sponsors, your design and success will be promoted globally via their promotional channels.

Ceremony

The awards ceremony will take place during the Architecture in Foyer 2023 conference at the Solarlux Campus in Germany (Melle, Lower Saxony, Germany) from September 22–23, 2023. 

The conference will be hosted by Solarlux GmbH, the strategic partner of the awards. Previous key-note speakers of the conference were, among others, Jette Hopp (Snøhetta), Sven Thorissen (MVRDV), Prof. Jan Krause, Prof. Tobias Walliser (LAVA), Amandus Samsoe Sattler (Allmann Sattler Wappner Architekten), Prof. Barbara Holzer (Holzer Kobler Architekturen),Theo Jansen (Strandbeest). 

Jury 2023

The Jury of the 2023 edition has been joined by:

Prof. Toyo Itō (Architect, Toyo Ito & Associates, Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize);

Prof. Anna Heringer (Architect, Hon. Prof. of UNESCO Chair Earthen Architecture);

Prof. Achim Menges (Architect, professor at the University of Stuttgart, founding director of the Institute for Computational Design and Construction);

Lucy McRae (Science Fiction Artist, Body Architect, Lucy McRae);

Prof. Joyce Hwang (Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies of Architecture at the University at Buffalo NY, Founder of Ants of the Prairie);

Adrian Welch (Architect, Writer & Website Editor, Director of e-architect.com);

Julie Payette (Publicist, Founding Partner of v2com newswire);

David Basulto (Founder, CEO, and Editor-in-Chief of ArchDaily);

Dr. Peter Kuczia (Architect, Designer, Initiator of the Design Educates Awards);

The full jury panel for the 2023 edition will be unveiled soon.

Schedule

Registration opens in June 2022

Project submission deadline: February 2, 2023

Jury deliberation: February 2023

Announcement of winners: March 2023

Awards ceremony: Autumn of 2023

UTC time zone for all dates. 

Please follow the DEAwards' official website for possible schedule changes.

Criteria of evaluation

The winners, laureates of prizes, honorable mentions, and nominations will be selected in each category: (1) architectural design, (2) product design, (3) universal design, and (4) responsive design. Participants may submit multiple projects. There is no limit on the number of participants per team. Individual entries are allowed. Entries will be evaluated based on the following criteria: overall idea and implementation, the potential for educational influence, effectiveness and quality of the informative layer, aesthetics, quality of presentation, visionary approach, originality, and feasibility. 

Categories

(1) Product Design 

Products of all scales and types are welcome: e.g., industrial products, household goods, and tools. Exemplary projects submitted to this category in the previous editions include a deployable emergency shelter (Henry Glogau Studio) that can save lives during changing weather conditions in Alaska and a bicycle wheel (Kristen Tapping) that filters outdoor air pollution.

(2) Architectural Design

Buildings, landscaping, and small forms that bring change to their surroundings. Examples from the previous editions are a waste-to-energy plant in Copenhagen (BIG), which is an urban recreation center with a nature park, ski slope, hiking trail, and climbing wall, as well as an environmental education hub, and a timber bridge (LUO Studio) which both pays tribute to tradition and complements the rural revitalization.

(3) Responsive Design

A building, object, or product that is capable of reacting to conditions in a given environment, recognizing a problem, and finding a solution by interacting with its surroundings and users. Examples from the previous editions include a skylight that produces potable water from salt water in the Atacama Desert (Henry Glogau Studio) and an arts center (Diller Scofidio + Renfro) that can double its surface to provide spatial flexibility for different events. 

(4) Universal Design 

Designs that may not be strictly in architecture or product design or are interdisciplinary or difficult to categorize into other categories. Examples from the previous editions include house building prefabs (Urban Beta UG) and backyard facilities elements, which foster the democratization of construction through an open-source approach to building, and a set of emoticons written in Braille (Walda Verbaenen) to build a bridge for visually impaired and blind people to a visual language.

In addition to the general evaluation, the student project with the highest score will be awarded the label of Emerging Designers. Parallel to the Jury’s evaluation, representatives of Solarlux will select the laureates of Solarlux Choice.

Join

The DEAwards are open to everyone. To join the awards, please proceed to the User Panel (https://profile.designeducates.com/login), where you can register for the awards, prepare drafts of your submissions, make registration payments, and see the list of your submissions.  

Participation Fees

The registration fees (specified on the website) support the statutory activity of the Laka Foundation. At the Design Educates Awards, the organization stated that it will never charge you any hidden costs. 

The only fee is the registration fee visible during the registration at the User Panel. If you decide to submit more entries, discounts are applicable (you will see the discount amount during the registration). Follow our social channels for seasonal discounts and note that the price depends on the date you pay for your registration - the earlier, the lower the participation fee.

Organizer And Partners

The host of the DEAwards is Laka Foundation (nonprofit and non-governmental organization) established in 2017 to implement projects focused on the promotion and popularization of architecture and design.

You can contact the organizer at [email protected]. 

All images courtesy of Design Educates Awards. 

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