Concrete Canvas Wins Saatchi & Saatchi Award
Two young British designers were announced as the winners of the fourth Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas in New York last night. The global award, formerly known as the Saatchi & Saatchi Award for Innovation in Communication, is an annual competition, and attracts an incredibly broad range of entries from all over the world. Concrete Canvas, the rapidly deployable hardened shelters for victims of natural or man-made disasters, however came away with the prize. The brainchild of Peter Brewin and Will Crawford from London’s prestigious Royal College of Art (IDE, 2005), Concrete Canvas was described as a “timely and poignant winner in the context of recent devastating earthquake in Pakistan and the tsunami a year ago”. The award is the latest in a series of accolades for the British team’s invention, Concrete Canvas having taken first prize in the 2005 New Business Challenge at Imperial College and the Deutche Bank Pyramid Award. Amongst other prizes, it was also awarded the Helen Hamlyn Award in the Design for our Future Selves competition.
Dubbed the "building in a bag" the concept originated when Brewin and Crawford met as MA students at the Royal College of Art. A sack of cement-impregnated fabric, it is erected by adding water and then inflating with air. Twelve hours later the shelter is dried out and ready for use.
Chosen as an RCA Selected Work, the invention has already received huge interest from the business community and was recently featured on the TV programme The Dragon’s Den.
The judging panel included Chris Anderson, Edward de Bono, Philip Glass, Baz Luhrmann, Lou Reed, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Oliviero Toscani, and the prize was announced at a high profile ceremony in New York on Thursday 26th January 2006 where concrete canvas was exhibited along with work and prototypes by the other ten finalists.
Sir Christopher Frayling, Rector of the Royal College of Art said “We’re delighted that Concrete Canvas has received this award. It is particularly fitting that two graduates from the Industrial Design Engineering course have achieved such great things, as this year marks the beginning of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the course. Peter and Will’s invention represents what the College does best – marry great ideas with great design.”
Saatchi & Saatchi established the Award to recognize, celebrate and promote ideas that have the potential to change the world by making possible, improving or revolutionizing communication. The US $100,000 prize is made up of US$50,000 cash and the equivalent of US$50,000 in Saatchi & Saatchi marketing consultancy.
For more information on Concrete Canvas visit http://www.concretecanvas.org.uk/
Submitted: 27 Jan 2006
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