Report on the IAUD International Design Award 2021 Presentation and Awards Ceremony

The projected screen during the ceremony: the certificate of the Grand Award

The IAUD International Design Award 2021 Presentation and Awards Ceremony was successfully held on January 28, 2022 Friday. This year it was held online due to the spread of the COVID-19. It received appx.200 participants from 11 countries and as information accessibility, simultaneous interpretation (Japanese / English) and Japanese captioning service (automatic translation for other languages) were delivered.

The IAUD International Design Award was established in 2010 in order to promote and champion UD by recognizing and rewarding outstanding achievements and in particular products that ensure people of all ages and abilities can enjoy an active, independent and productive life. The number of the applications from various fields has been increasing every time and those applications are from various countries. The awards ceremony was held in Munich, Germany in 2017 and in Bangkok, Thailand in 2018 although it was held online last years.

There were 54 entries from 9 countries (Australia, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain and Thailand). Carrying out strictly neutral examinations, the IAUD International Design Award 2021 Selection Committee selected 2 winners of the “Grand Awards”, 9 winners of the “Gold Awards”, 18 winners of the “Silver Awards” and 10 winners of the “Bronze Awards”. In addition, from the new category “Student Design Challenge” was established this year, 1 winner of the “Award of Excellence for Student Design Challenge “and 7 winners of the “Awards for Student Design Challenge” were selected.

At the ceremony, all the winners were announced in order from the Grand Awards by Mr. Keiji Kawahara, the member of the Selection Committee / IAUD Executive Director/ Professor, Graduate School of Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences, Japan.
Mr. Satoshi Kose, Chairman, Board of Directors, IAUD / Professor Emeritus, Shizuoka University of Art and Culture, and Ms. Onny Eikhaug, the Chair of the Selection Committee / Executive Board, EIDD Design for All Europe, presented the award certificates to the award winners.

 

After that, Ms. Onny Eikhaug offered a critique: “This year has proved that the award matters more than ever, despite the challenges the global community continues to face, because, with its focus on real-world solutions, it offers hope for the future. This year we have seen new and inventive applications of universal design thinking and practice addressing issues such as gender and identity, the exclusion of marginalized groups and public-private-community collaboration. The world is more connected than ever, and by sharing and learning from each other through the IAUD International Design Award we can together build competence and knowledge across borders, leading towards a more inclusive and equitable global society”

Also Mr. Masuda, Co-chair of the Selection Committee, commented: “I strongly feel the expansion of the UD area every year. Especially this time, many entries are stepping into a new frontier of various social issues such as human rights and discrimination. Also, I'm happy that the number of applications from young people is increasing.”

Then, other members of the Selection Committee also commented and celebrated the winners. The jury members are as follows;

From left:
Mr. Thomas Bade (CEO, Institute for Universal Design, Germany)
Mr. Rama Gheerawo (Director, Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art, UK)
Mr. Francesc Aragall (President, Design for All Foundation: Spain)
Ms. Antika Sawadsri (Dean, School of Architecture, Art, and Design, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand)
Ms. Valerie Fletcher (Executive Director, Institute for Human-Centered Design: USA

After the citations, all the Grand Awards winners, Gold Awards winners and Award of Excellence for Student Design Challenge winner gave their presentations remotely. Their presentations were very informative and wonderful. We shared valuable time.

Please visit IAUD website for the details;
Announcement of Award Winners
Full Citations