From the Pro Chair that makes schoolkids squirm to an all-black piano, plus Prada and Zaha Hadid, here are the seven category winners from the Designs of the Year

Rippling wonder? … Zaha Hadid's Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan. Photograph: Zaha Hadid

From folding safety helmets to sentient smoke alarms, the Design Museum's Designs of the Year exhibition showcases some of the most cunning innovations in transport and fashion, technology and industrial design. Here are the seven category winners announced today, which will compete for the overall crown of Design of the Year, to be announced at the end of June. 

ARCHITECTURE – Heydar Aliyev Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan

Like a table cloth caught in the wind, this vast cultural centre ripples across the skyline of Baku, standing as a billowing monument to the country's former president – who presided over a tyrannical regime of human rights abuses, vote fixing and police intimidation of political opposition. The kind of client, then, to which Zaha Hadid is no stranger.

DIGITAL – Peek (Portable Eye Examination Kit)

Eye scanner … The Peek app turns any camera phone into a portable eye examination kit. Photograph: Peek

If you thought the camera on your smartphone was invented for taking selfies and snapping sunsets, think again. In the hands of Dr Andrew Bastawrous, Stewart Jordan, Dr Mario Giardini and Dr Iain Livingstone, designers of the Peek app, any camera phone can be transformed into a portable eye examination kit, bringing eye care to the remotest of settings. In a strong year for the digital category, Peek stood out as a potentially revolutionary application, allowing health workers to do high quality retinal and cataract imaging in the field with minimal training.....Continue Reading

> via The Guardian