2017 Swarovski Designers Of The Future Award
Winners were selected for their ability to implement pioneering concepts and to dream, experiment and innovate
Swarovski and Design Miami/ are pleased to announce the three winners of the 2017 Swarovski Designers of the Future Award. Selected from across the globe for their innovative approach to design and pioneering use of new technologies, which include innovative surfaces, 3D crystal printing and solar cell technology.
The Swarovski Designers of the Future Award winners are Takt Project: a multidisciplinary studio based in Tokyo, with a focus on reinvention and socially driven endeavours. Jimenez Lai: a Los Angeles-based architect who blurs the boundaries between design, art, architecture, sociology and technology, imagining other worlds and design
through telling stories. And Marjan van Aubel: a Dutch designer based in London who works with materials and objects to blend scientific precision with sensory responsiveness, specializing in solar power. The award invites the winning designers to advance projects within their selected field using Swarovski’s diverse resources to develop a new prototype or design statement that is inspired or informed by crystal. This year’s recipients have been invited to create work that responds to a brief of ‘Shaping Societies’.
The 2017 Award introduces a new format, with designers selected based on their unique approach within one of three fields: architecture, technology and product design. For the first time, the winners will create designs that can coalesce into one complete environment, to be exhibited as a single installation during Design Miami/ Basel 2017. The finished installation will showcase an engaging mix of forms and technologies.
Each of the Swarovski Designers of the Future Award winners was selected for their ability to implement pioneering concepts and to dream, experiment and innovate within their work. Jimenez Lai will explore design through storytelling to develop captivating surfaces, and to create the overarching architectural space for the installation. Takt Project will work with cutting-edge technology in collaboration with MICRON3DP Ltd to produce a series of tabletop objects in 3D printed Swarovski crystal – something that has never been attempted before. Marjan van Aubel will work with Swarovski’s in-house experts on solar technology to develop a series of living light objects.
The 2017 Swarovski Designers of the Future Award winners were selected by a jury of leading figures in the design world, including Nadja Swarovski, Member of the Swarovski Executive Board; Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, Curatorial Advisor of Design Miami/; Alexis Georgacopoulos, Director of ECAL; Yves Behar, entrepreneur and founder of fuseproject; Spencer Bailey, Editor in Chief of Surface Magazine; and Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum, London.